A chocoholic on pralines!

Dear Neuhaus,

As an English learning student, I am reading English books, mainly

Oxford Bookworms Collection.

When I read a book 'Chocolate', I was so delighted to find the story of Neuhaus's invention of a new chocolate 'pralines' in 1912. That was the same story that I had learned through the booklet inside your lovely chocolate box that I bought at Neuhaus in Brussels. That shop was very elegant and beautiful and shop clarks were nice and friendly. There were so many different kinds of pralines and other chocolate. They looked so delicious and I wished to have them all!

Your first invented pralines are really tasty and I can easily understand why they are still popular. Their triangular shape is unique and outstanding and they make the texture and taste more sensible and irresistible.

You also support sustainable cocoa farming, which is important nowadays. I feel no guilty buying a lot of your beautiful chocolate because that helps some cocoa farmers as well.

Thank you for your great invention of pralines. I know you keep fascinating us with your magical chocolate.

Best wishes

Sayuri

Postcard from Moomin: Finland

Hi Jim,

I went to Finland the other day, and found this thing...it reminded me of you & Luna!

I hope you are all doing well :)

Best,

Sari xx

P.S. Helsinki is a very peaceful place, so I highly recommend you go there! (Prices are so high though...)

Chocolate - after reading confession

I read "Chocolate" and I did after reading#1 (crosswo

I love chocolate and I eat almost every day. But I've never think about the history of chocolate. I am surprised that Maya people used chocolate 1500 years ago.

Posted for Miyuki

Chocolate - after reading

I've read "Chocolate" and I chose after reading #4.

Do you agree or disagree with these sentences? Why?
1. People in western contries eat too much chocolate now.
    ->I don't think so. I think chocolate is more popular in around the world now, of course Japan also.
2. It is fine for children to eat chocolate sometimes.
    ->It is not good for children to eat a lot of chocolate because they will get fat, but I think that they eat it a few pieces are OK.
3. Chocolate needs to be a lot more expensive. Then the workers on the plantations can get more money.
    ->I disagree this comments because if the chocolate will be more expecsive, it is difficult for people who  are not rich to buy it easily and it will become to reduce cacao demands. Finally the workers will lost their workplace.
4. People must stop selling chocolate that is not Fairtrade chocolate.
    -> I agree. We should know the workers in plantation are faced some problems. I think if people can understand what is the fairtrade (especially developed countries people) the world would be more peaceful.

During I'm reading I wanna eat chocolate!! I was surprised that chocolate has been eaten or drinked since three thousand years ago. I'd like to try their chocolate drink. I think that is quite different taste between current chocolate. The ancient people and present people love chocolate. The chocolate has a power to attract people and some people become be addicted to chocolate! Oh, I found chocolate in my hands!!!!!
Next month, the girl have to buy or make a chocolate to present boys in order to show their love. I disagree this culture since I cannot make sweets. Anyway enjoy eat chocolate :)

Posted for Miyuki

Homemade Valentine's cards

 Thank you for all the Valentine's chocolate! Once again, my dentist will be happy...

In class we made homemade Valentine's cards to give to Daddy (I know, the wrong way round - but not many dads come to class). As you can see, we did a first rate job colouring, cutting, sticking :)

Lucky daddies I think!

How many Valentine's cards did you get? Do you know who they were from?

Chocolate beer - what would Homer Simpson think?

And why not? There's chilli beer, after all, and all those poncy fruit beers from the Low Countries! Up until now, my favourite was an English grapefruit beer.

Chocolate beer, indeed. Now I can almost stop eating altogether! I have no idea what the calorie count is, but let's assume my doctor would be hanging his head in dismay!

I found this hiding on the shelf in Jusco, and very literally did a double take, thinking "No, can't be right." I took it home, curious, and poured it out into a nice glass. Instant 'chocolatey' smell, but not sweet or overpowering. It tastes...well, like beer with bitter chocolate in it. Rich but bitter, with that nice refreshing beer 'hit'. I don't know if I could drink the stuff all night, but certainly something I'll be trying again before it gets sold out.

Surely a Valentine's gimmick, but not a bad one. In a land of 'giri choco' (girls 'obliged' to give chocs to the boys in Japan, especially to teachers/bosses/colleagues) this is one gift I wouldn't feel too unhappy about opening - and certainly more likely to be enjoyed by me rather than my dentist!

It's official - we're chocolate!

The grand prize giving is upon us for the person who correctly guessed the new colour of our school.

As you know, about six weeks ago we were wrapped in blue scaffolding. At the weekend we emerged like a beautiful new butterfly from a cocoon! You can see from the picture that our MK Building is now milk chocolate colour - a massive improvement on the old, dreary & decayed-looking grey we were before.

You will also clearly see that our windows are CLEAN at last! Where I come from, being told you have dirty windows is a major insult...and it has been bothering us for ages that our windows were filthy. Jim dared the scaffolding and gave them a jolly good scrubbing - Tana & Yuki are charged with doing the safer inside job.

Our satellite antenna went up today, but some little rotter has broken the power switch on our decoder box. The electrician said he'd fix it and sort it out tomorrow. with a bit of luck, we'll be able to start showing our regular channels again - BBC News, Discovery Channel and maybe the Cartoon Network if asked nicely enough!

We have rearranged the office while we were being redecorated outside. We've done our best to become wireless; we also now offer students free access to the internet with a computer in the main room. Please take advantage of this to access your favourite websites, check stuff out on Google or Youtube, post on the blog etc.

Lastly, we've put a crib in the main room, as a number of our students have very little younger brothers and sisters (this is Kaede's little sister). Hijiri is already starting to toddle & no longer needs it. Please be gentle with both (Hijiri and the crib!)

Oh! I nearly forgot. The winner of our competition - big fanfare - with two tickets to see Manchester United et al play in the Toyota Cup in Tokyo on Dec. 21st is - more fanfare - NOBODY. Unfortunately, absolutely nobody suggested "chocolate, "cafe au lait", or anything else brownish to win. Too bad! Better luck with the next competition!