My favourite place - Kamikochi

Matsumoto is a city in Nagano prefecture, Japan. Because this city is surrounded by mountains, in winter it doesn't snow much like Nigata and in summer it isn't so hot.

The most popular place for tourism is Matsumoto Castle. The castle was built in the 16th century, and a samurai called Ogasawara was governing the whole country of Shinano (The old name of Nagano). It is a famous castle which never had a fight. And also it is called "karasu jyo". It means crow castle and this is because it is black. In Hyogo, there's a another castle called white heron castle and it is because it's white.

There are many other places to visit. Kaichi elementary school is a place where you can see combinations of the Japanese and the Western styles. Japan used to do national isolation for 200 years during the Edo period. When a man called Perry from the U.S. came to Japan, it ended. And many Western things came into Japan. This building is one of an example.

Taisho lake

My favorite place is Kamikochi. it's a scenic spot and it's being popular and popular. These days many people from cities comes to escape the summer. In Kamikochi, you can see lots of beautiful mountains of the Japanese Alps. If you climb to an altitude of about 1500 meters, you'll see a beautiful lake called Taisho lake.

Posted for Remi

Health questionnaire - the results

Mmm, pie

I asked some questions about health to people through the Internet. People from under 20 to 80, 13 people answered it.

The most interesting question for me was: Question 4. In Japan, it is believed that blood types determine your characteristics. I agree with this. But 70% of the people disagreed with this. And I was surprised to hear so.

I was impressed that 77% eat breakfast everyday. I think in Japan, people who eat breakfast are decreasing which is not so good. In my opinion eating breakfast is the first thing to do after you wake up and it is one of the most important thing in your daily life.

I was curious why many people love meat than fish and vegetables. From this response I found out 54% love meat. And most of the people don't eat more than five kinds of vegetables a day. I think people who answered these questions should try to eat more vegetables and fruits.

Remi's health questionnaire

As part of Remi's project she has written a short health questionnaire. We are looking to collect some date so that we can present the results to all of you. It would be hugely appreciated if you could take a couple of minutes out of your day by clicking this link and completing it.

Posted for Remi

Remi's diary - First day in Paris

February 22nd

Arc de Triumph

It was the first day in Paris. I woke up at 7. For breakfast we had a simple meal like croissant, blueberry muffin and boiled egg.

After we finished eating, we joined a Japanese tour to Versailles and market. We didn't have much time but we enjoyed them.

After we finished the tour, we had lunch and went to Opera Garnier. This building is used as theatre and famous for the painting of Chagall.

Then we went to triumphal arch (Arc de Triumph) by metro. we climbed about 300 stairs and went to the top. The scenery from this triumphal arch was very beautiful, and we could see the whole city of Paris. Because it was windy, it was so cold!

I have an Eiffel Tower in my pants

Then we walked to the Champs Élysées. This street is known as the most beautiful street in the world. It is so long that we couldn't walk all, but we enjoyed walking.

After that, we went to see tower Eiffel nearer. We had to walk a little from the metro station. But it was fun walking by the Seine. We wanted to climb the tower Eiffel but we didn't have enough time so we had to give up.

Then we went to a restraunt called La Fontaire de Mars. In the U.S., this restraunt is known as the restraunt which Barack Obama and Johnny Depp came for lunch. We had escargot chicken and mille-feuille. I really liked the atmosphere of this restraunt.

After dinner we joined a night tour. The scenery in night was very different and I especially liked the light up of Notre Dame and Musee de Louvre.

Posted for Remi

About my school - an informative poster

Remi has been covering the topic of school and education, learning a lot about different education systems in place all around the world. I asked Remi what she enjoys about the high school she attends, probably an unfathomable concept for many students, and why she would encourage other high schoolers to study there. To get the word out, or at the very least attempt to convince me, about how awesome Remi’s school is, we set about making an informative poster through Glogster.

I gave Remi all the necessary tools for her project to make her poster as informative, appealing and fun as she saw fit. She even added photos of some of her school events, which was a nice touch. I must confess though that I would have liked to have seen a much more eye catching poster with a bit of snazzy editing. Also including her school’s name may have been useful.

Please tell us what you think as Remi would love to hear your feedback. Would you think about attending or sending your kids there? I think the 8 exams a year would throw me off!

Adventures in Australia - the lost diaries of Remi

Recently one of our students, Remi, had the opportunity to have a 2 week homestay at Jim's brother's house in Australia. How exciting! Before departing on her grand adventure we asked her to keep a diary of her experiences as well as sending us a postcard, which read "Australia was fun". Thankfully her diary is much more interesting to read, even though it did take her 3 weeks to finish after returning from her trip! So here is the long awaited diary log of Remi's experiences in Australia!

3/21

It was my first time to go to foreign country alone. So I was very nervous but also excited. And I was very happy because one of my favorite singers, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu was on my plane!! I was soooo happy!!!!

3/22

Next morning I got to Sydney at 7:30AM.(In Japan it was 5:30AM) I had to get up so early. So I was a bit tired. After I met Mike (Jim's brother), Charlie and Louis, Mike took me to a place where we can see Opera House. Opera House was really white and beautiful than I expected.

3/23

I got up early and went to see football practice of Louis and Joe. In Japan, football is not so popular so, I didn't know the rule at all. But it looked so exciting and fun !! In the afternoon, I went to a walk with Mike, Liz (Mike's wife), Fred, Louis and Joe. And we walked along the beach. The beach was beautiful than Japan. Japanese ocean is not always clean and algae is always floating so I hate swimming in the Japanese ocean. But that beach had white sand and clear water. Next time when I goto Wollongong, I'd like to swim!! 

For dinner, we had fish and chips.Usually, I don't eat oily food a lot. But it was incredibly delicious that I ate all!!!

3/24

I went to Coles (a supermarket in Wollongong ) with Liz. When we got out from the supermarket, it was raining cats and dogs. Liz told me in Austrailia, it doesn't rain so often and last time it rained that much was before Christmas! I was really unlucky.

3/25

I met to Misaki. She used to study at Luna. And she lives in Sydney now. She took me to Rocks, Manly and Mosman. We took lunch at Rocks and had pancakes. It was my first time to eat pancakes for lunch. This day was short because, Misaki took me to lots of nice places and I had so much fun. And I thought I wanted to meet her again.

3/28

Went to Sydney with Liz, Fred, Louis and Joe by double decker train.It took a lot to go to Sydney so, at last everyone got bored. After we got to Central station, we walked through QVB(Queen Victoria Building). Queen Vitoria Building is a very huge shopping mall. And in the corner of the building, there is a big statue of

queen Victoria. So, it is called QVB. After that, we went to Aquarium. The aquarium was very big and there were lots of animals like Dugongs, Platypus and Sharks etc...

After going to the aquarium, Liz was planning to go on a ferry from aquarium to Circular Quay. But the ferry had already gone. So we had to walk all the way to Circular Quay station. I got really tired tired but, it was so fun to walk with the boys.

3/29

I went to Sydney again!!

This time, I went with everybody by car. Liz told me it is really difficult to go out with everyone. Because
everyone has each football practice and soccer practice almost everyday.

First we walked around Darling Harbour. Mike told me there is the biggest cinema in the Southern Hemisphere. After walking around, we went on the ferry and played a little bit in Luna Park. Luna Park is a amusement park in Sydney. There are lots of rides like roller coaster, ferris wheel etc.... 

And walked across Harbour Bridge. The view from the bridge was very beautiful and we could see Opera House from the bridge. I saw people doing bridge climbing. It looked really scary. I think I can't do bridge climbing because of the height. 

For dinner we had Chinese food at China town. 

After that we went to the Olympic stadium (now it's ANZ stadium ) to watch Australian Football. The rule was complicated but I had so much fun. 

Send us a postcard - or double homework!

We are very excited to hear about all of our students' travel stories in the next week or two, during the end of year break...

If you send us a postcard we will feature you HERE on the blog and you escape all homework assignments :)

Jim's new car...

Or you can keep a diary & take some pics and escape that way!

Of course, bringing back a souvenir is cool, but they are heavy & expensive and we don't like macadamia nuts (sorry!).

We would love to hear about your trips - so please share?! Top of the list is Remi's visit to Jim's nephews' house of sport in Australia, all alone!

We'd love to hear all of your stories of course - little or large - so don't be shy :)

Harry Potter voicethread project

by Yuhi & Remi :)


http://voicethread.com/share/1285615/

Pics of the parade - Luna's Bon Bon

Table Tennis

We chose to write about table tennis.

How is the sport good for your health?
It makes your muscles strong.

How much energy do you need?
It's anaerobic sport so we need lot of energy!!!!

What do you like about it?
It's exciting, fun and good for your circulation.

Where can you do it?
You can do it at the gym and my aunt's house.

Crazies on Golden Week

Crazy Daibutsu


Get a Voki now!



Crazy Pink DOG


Get a Voki now!



Crazy Green ALIEN MAN


Get a Voki now!

Moments of sheep

These bubblers are so much fun!! Here is one made by some of my students. They had to work together to navigate the program, choose appropriate pictures and decide on the script. Funny pictures seem to inspire the imagination and lend themselves to being used in this way.

Click on this link to see some funny comments made by sheep.

by Remi Yuhi and Yuya E.

story on a plate

These delightful drawings were done by some of my Friday students. They were asked to read a book from our student lending library for homework. The task in class was to condense the story enough so that it would fit easily onto a plate in picture form. This in turn helped us when it came time to write a summary of the story. This is what you can see below.





The idea was taken from some project work we did from one of our class readers, an Oxford Dominoes graded reader called "Mulan" and harks back to an ancient Chinese tradition.



Incidentally the readers that we use in class are a fantastic tool to get things going in the classroom. The stories are interesting and the students love reading them! When I set this type of reading for homework it always gets done. The students learn more rapidly and the teacher is happy. The only problem is keeping up with the reading pace...

Halloween Alien Story

Today is Halloween. At school today's topic was of course Halloween.
"Why don't we go to "trick or treat" together? I asked my friends.
"Can I go with you?" my next desk friend asked me.
"sure" I said .
"Yesterday I made a new friend. Can I go with him?"
"OK" I answered again.

School finished and everyone ran to there own house. When I got to my house I quickly did my homework. When the homework finished I tried to where my witch dress that my mom made it for me. It fitted me! I was very happy.

And when it be came 6o'clock I went to my friends houses. And now all of my members are here. "Then lets go!"I said.

On the way to trick or treat I asked my new friend "What's your name?"
"My name is ET"
"Can I see your face?"
"Later please"
I thought, "What is ET?" while we were speaking.

We got to my teacher's house. We knocked on the door and the teacher came out and said "Trick or treat?" Then our teacher gave some candies. "Thank you!" we said to our teacher.

"Now can I see your face?"
"OK" he said.
And I saw it. He was a alien! Then I asked ET "Are you a alien?"

Remi

Sayaka returns for the Summer

It was so lovely to see Sayaka again. She has grown in confidence so much and her English speaking ability has greatly improved since she left for Canada on an exchange programme a year ago.

Our returnee group had some questions for her. What a brilliant resource she was! We were so lucky to have her come in to the school to talk with us and share her experiences with us.

We had lots of fun making t he video. This is a clip from the feedback session we had. Lots of laughter as you can see!

I hope that our students will be inspired by her independence and her courage. She is a shining example of what can be done, if you only put your heart into it.

Sayaka has gone back for the new term and will be back here again next year having completed her studies abroad. we wish her all the best and know she will continue to learn and grow in the lovely way which is her.

Tana

Hybrid animals - from Luna's laboratory

As I was away last Friday - travelling to the Great Northern Island - Tana covered my imaginative returnee class (thank you!)

This is what they came up with, after thinking about Hybrid animals - which one is the best? Please vote by leaving a comment below.

The one top right looks a bit like a famous mouse; the one bottom left I am sure I have seen before in a kaiten sushi restaurant. Good job all round.

See ya Friday!

The new super car

This car is very eco- freindly and practical. This car has purple tires and
very cool black windows.

This car has a two rokets so it can fly like helicopter,but it can't fly to the moon.It has yellow wings too.It has blue air pipe so it can go in to the water.

In the car there is a computer.
that can speak to the other people.

Universal Studios - postcard from Remi

From Remi K,

Today I went to Universal Studio.
It was fun!

Air Mail.

My favourite day

My favourite day

1. My favourite day of the week is Sunday, because during the weekdays
I can't play with my family but on Sunday I can play with my family.

2. I watch T.V. And I eat breakfast, then I do the cram school's homework.

3.I eat lunch at home .And after lunch I practice the violin.

4. In the evening, I go shopping for dinner to supermarket with my mom.
see you tonight. Remi