The letter from five children to the Psammead

Dear Psammead,

It has been a long time, Psammead. How have you been doing? We are all doing fine.

We thought we could learn a lot of things from meeting you when we were children.

We are writing this letter to tell thanks for that.

In those days, we asked for a lot of wishes to you. The wishes were to be beautiful, have the wings, and be rich, etc.

You could fulfill any wishes we asked for. But any wishes had never given us the happy end.

We had been in trouble every time you fulfilled our wishes.

We could know the important thing in our life from your giving us wishes. That is ‘easy come, easy go’. We learnt we cannot get anything easily.

We could have ever grown up from this. We could get our wishes in each way now.

We really appreciate you.

We look forward to seeing you again someday.

Best regards,

Five children

City profile: Suzaka city, Japan

Geography and history:

Suzaka city is in the north-eastern parts of Nagano prefecture. Chikuma river flows in the western side of Suzaka city. The east-southern part have Minenohara highland, Yonago great falls and Gomiike-habu highland. And it is surrounded by the rich natural environment.

When to go:

Suzaka city has a typical inland climate. We can feel the feature of each season there. The most popular time to visit is spring, when the cherry blossoms have a lot of flowers. Garyu-park in spring is especially stunning.

What to see:

Suzaka city is infamous, but has a lot of nature spot and hot spring. You would be surprised to see them actually.

Hilights include:

 - Garyu-park: famous for cherry blossom view and chosen as one of the best 100 of the beauty spot in Japan.
- Yonago great falls: Chosen as the deep mountains and dark valleys in Japan. Famous TV program, Sanada-maru use the view as its opening movie.

What to eat:

Suzaka city has a lot of agricultural products, grape, apple and mushroom.

Strawberry picking and grape picking is famous. You could eat strawberry and grape just after picking from the field. It is very tasty.

Where to stay:

Suzaka has Suzaka-hot spring inn. The appearance of the building look boring, but you can feel relaxed and nostalgic there. Definitely, hot spring would also made you relaxed by itself.

So what does Jim do at the weekends when he isn't teaching?

BYOD solution to get SEs talking!

Last weekend I was looking after the Certification of speaking examiners for one of our fellow Cambridge Centres in Tokyo. This is a part of my job I really enjoy a lot, as I am working with professional teachers who are dedicated to the role they have chosen to pursue in their spare time - doing more teachery stuff! Speaking Examiners do not grow on trees; they need looking after, nurturing, and occasionally patting on the back! They need to know when they are doing a good job, and every year they need to freshen up their skills in delivering the speaking tests and to show that their assessment is in tune...matching Cambridge's worldwide benchmark.

We were fortunate last weekend to have half a dozen young CEFR B2 (FCE) level kids studying in the school, who were keen to have a couple of free practice 'goes'. One of the teachers was surprised one of the boys didn't start crying - so well done my team for not being scary & insensitive! Yes, it's a test, but you can still smile and be 'normal'. One thing I really do not want 'my' cadre to do is get all serious and high & mighty. Our job is to provide the candidates with the opportunity to display all that they can do....

This year I have been throwing my examiners into Quizlet Live games, competing with & against each other to tackle tricky topics like feedback commentaries. Rather than me stand there & bemoan this or that, the examiners themselves have to come to some sort of agreement as to how certain behaviour or outcomes should be considered. That in itself generates a lot of discussion - and consensus - and reinforces the message that regardless of location or circumstances, each & every candidate must have the same opportunity to be successful.

Ayako, Jim & Hiroshi - champions!

So I was delighted to be able to introduce the team later to Ayako & Hiroshi Nishizawa, both former Luna students now running a fabulous restaurant in Naka-Meguro ("Yakitori Champion"). Ayako took YLE while at Luna & has since home-stayed & studied in Warwick; Hiroshi was cool throughout our first 10-day farm-stay to Whangarei in New Zealand, 15 years ago. The food? Fabulous lamb, lots of lamb, and then more lamb. Excellent value, if a bit smoky!

For me, this was a 10 out of ten weekend. What do you think?

Hiroshi's 'Strange' Holiday - after reading...

This is a story in the summer two years ago. I went drinking with my friends when I went to my home town. The place we drunk was far from my house in my home town. So I left for there by train. We enjoyed our reunion after a long time while drinking. So I forgot the time the latest train leaves.

After drinking, I decided to go home by taxi in the end since the latest train had left. However, I did not use taxi till my house to save the cost of a taxi ride. I decided to walk after getting down from taxi on the way. I walked along the railway. There are not anyone in the way to my house since it was the midnight. It was very dark and silent.

It was the night even the only dog did not bark.

However, I suddenly could hear the strange noise. That was the sound like someone hit the rail way at many times. I looked around, but there are not anyone. The noise continued for a few second. I shouted from fear. Then the noise stopped. When I tried to start walking as relieved, I found something surprised. There were some bunch of flowers by my foots. Those were offered for the dead men by traffic accident there. I could not breath in surprised at the moment. I start running in rush.

Posted for Hiroshi

A volcanic experience in Japan

After reading "Rainbow Girl", Hiroshi writes:

When I was a university student, I had ever climbed Mt. Shirane, the volcano in Nagano prefecture. This mountain is located in the north-east of Nagano and crosses Gunma prefecture

Actually, I just drove my car rather than climbed. However, the road around the top of the mountain is filled with many crater and hot spring of the volcano. Those always emit the white smoke.
So the mountain looks like erupting right away. I was so scared while driving the road on the top of the mountain. But suddenly, the road started having fog like magic on the way. And I could not see any scene around me. So I was more and more scared. Driving slowly and carefully, I could see the road a little. But what I saw there was more surprised. A man was running on the road alone. He was training for trail running race. That scene was amazing.

Photo credit: Jim George

Thinking what happened on Mt. Ontake, I cannot say but it was so unlucky. Mt Shirane looks like erupting even now, but it has not done yet. Mt. Ontake must have not looked like so these days. It is so difficult to foresee the eruption. I think men cannot control all of the nature. I only pray their souls may rest in peace.

Posted for Hiroshi

After reading "What Rose Saw" - describe your dream photoshoot location

If I am able to be a photographer for a day, I would choose the nature as my subject. I have watched TV program not so long ago, which was made on the subject of a camerawoman. She was taking photos of a mountain, river, town and so on riding paraglider in TV program. The photos she took looked so great and fantastic. I felt as if I was looking down on a mountain and river flying in the air while I am looking at the photos. I have got quite inspired to take photos of the scenery riding paraglider since then. I would like to try this way to the various world heritage like Machupicchu, Angkor Wat in future. However, I will need the advice of riding skill of paraglider from the professional in order to take a photo on it.

The temple of Angkor Wat, Cambodia from the air (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If I am not allowed to become such a photographer, I would like to choose the creature in the sea as my subject instead. Needless to say, they are very beautiful. I would be pleased to take pictures of plenty of creatures in the sea. I would like the professional to advise me about the scuba skill for it.

Posted for Hiroshi

Jungle Book - similar stories? After reading...

The Jungle Book is about a boy raised by animals. Write about a similar story in your culture.

I have read the same story in Japanese comics once.

Japanese most famous comic artist, Tezuka Osamu drew the comic “Black Jack”. I have read the same one as one series in that comics.

I think Tezuka Osamu probably has drawn the story based on “Jangle book”. Or, I think he wanted to introduce this story to Japanese people.

“Black Jack” is the story of the doctor, Black Jack who does not have the official license for doctor, but has top caliber. He could succeed any difficult surgeries, but always charges his patients for very high operation fee instead. The boy raised by the wolves was took to the doctor to adapt the boy to the human world after the boy was abandoned by everyone. I think this was just the story in the case Mowgli returned to the human world afterward. However, the boy ended up to return to jungle in this story, too, although Black Jack tried the various scientific ways on the boy. Black Jack seldom fail his surgeries, but he could not do anything about the boy raised by the wolves. This story finished by advising us ineffectuality of human.


Posted for Hiroshi

After reading The Black Night...thieves in the night!

There is a very valuable painting on display in a local gallery. Describe your plan to steal it without getting caught.

First of all, I will case the scene very carefully. I will check how many security guard, how is the alert system, let alone how is the location and when the gallery opens and closes. And then I will enter into the gallery during daylight. And I will look for the place I can hide until the night. And I will wait there until the night.

Next, I will look for the gateway I can escape during night, for example the window or exhaust outlet. I will never bite off. If I cannot find the best gateway, I will go home from the front door without doing anything after I wait until the gallery opens. If I find the gateway, I will try to escape from the gateway without stealing the painting. I will repeat that again and again. I don’t know how long it takes. But, if I find the best gateway finally, I will perpetrate the theft plan. I will go to the gallery during the daylight as if nothing had happened. And I will hide the place and wait until the night as usually. I will steal the target painting and escape from the gateway I have already found.

This is my plan.

Posted for Hiroshi

After reading: New Yorkers & menial jobs

Write about your experience doing a menial job eg waiting or waitressing

I actually have a lot of experience as a waiter. The first experience was when I was a high school student. I worked at Japanese style bar. After I worked there three months, I started working at family restaurant. This job was very enjoyable and I ended up to work there for long time intermittently. Furthermore, I have made a lot of friends who is close even now there. When it comes to technical matter, I learnt how to have many dishes. As the result, I could have seven pieces of dishes finally. After I entered university, too, I worked as a waiter at another restaurant. However, I had a little different experience as a waiter when I was university student. That was a waiter at a place for the wedding. I was dispatched to the different place every time. However, the wedding is the very important event for bride and groom as we all know. Accordingly, I was not allowed to make any mistake at all, although I almost came to fall to the ground by stumbling on a spot light. This was very tough job.


Posted for Hiroshi

Dracula - after reading report

A lot of films have been made of this story! 

Write about your favourite version, explaining why; include details about the director, actors etc...

I know about the story of the Count Dracula and a lot of films have been made of this story, but I have not ever watched the film of this story itself actually. But I have watched a lot of similar films with Vampire theme. The most impressive film is “Interview with the Vampire”. As you may know, very famous actors and actresses like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Christian Slater appeared on the screen. Even only this made me very interested. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt ware known as handsome actors in those days. I was very interested in how they play the role of the villain like vampire. The result was successful. They played the difficult role excellently. Especially, Tom Cruise looked like a real vampire. Moreover, this film was not just a horror film. It showed the history of vampire family, how they became vampire and lived as a vampire. This point of view was very great. It is like an epic of vampire family. In case you have not watched this film, I will recommend you watching it absolutely.

Posted for Hiroshi

The Monkey's Paw - after reading

I have read "Monkey's Paw". That story was very painful but very thrilling. It was much more interesting to me than expected. 

 

２　Perhaps Tom Morris’s friend wrote a letter to Tom before he died.

Dear Tom,

I am going to die soon and I want you to read this letter after I am dead. I have no family, but you can have all my things. You can have the monkey’s paw too, and be very careful. Think before you make a wish. My life was very unhappy because I wished for the wrong things. It’s never good to want to change things so the wishes don’t bring happiness. The old Indian told me that, but I did not listen to him. So, please be careful, Tom.

Posted for Hiroshi