Bon Bon 2017 - slideshow

Where were we this time last week?

Well, why not watch the slideshow & find out ;)



Don't miss out on all the fun - get your fabulous t-shirt for 2018 now (while stocks last!)

Saturday Night Live! Luna goes to town (again) - Bon Bon slideshow

And now we bring you a super-funky slideshow from Bon Bon!

Like it? Download it for yourself & show your friends right here - or just subscribe to Jim George on Youtube and keep up with all our audio-visual delights!

Keep up with us on Facebook too - right here

We painted the town red - Bon Bon in full Luna colour!

The Grande Depart

 Aching limbs, hoarse voices and stuck on smiles? Sure signs you've been dancing around the town again!

We circled our wagons as the traffic stopped on Eki Mae dori, just after 5pm on Saturday evening, and waited for our red wave to arrive. Busy process then getting name tags secured around children's wrists - we nearly lost a little girl a few years ago & I can't tell you how scary that was. Distributing fans which our students delighted in creating last week, and a bandana to top off the costume.

A Luna Dervish

Important to get dads, especially, in the mood with amber throat charming juice, and network a bit - one of Yamaga's star players came over to say hello, as did a couple of the Yamaga die-hards - good on you guys!

The music started bang on time and we were away, looking fresh and keen...away from the main festival that is, up the main drag into matsuri hinterland. Once again, no crowds, stalls, or mood. Who cares - over 70 of us this year so we entertained ourselves royally, and had a good practice so by the time we did turn in towards the main action, we were on a roll. As you can see from the slideshow here, everyone had a superb time - and almost everyone kept going from start to finish. Awesome stamina.



Proud of all our dancers; the festival is all about you, and you made this year very special. Of course thank yous to all parents and grandparents who looked after us along the way & especially Yukari for dealing with all the unglamorous preparations.

We totally conquered Matsumoto - again!

Find all the photos from Matsumoto Bon Bon 2015 right here

October variety slideshow from Luna's classsrooms

I thought October was suddenly overwhelming with demands for Hallowe'en stuff, but I'm glad I was wrong and we could get on with some significant learning & laughter too!



As you can see, lots of phonics and reading, singing and physical interpretation too - every way to learn! We planted bags of bulbs too, along the edge of the car park...and forgot to label them, so spring should be a nice colourful surprise!

Slideshow from September

Remember back when shorts and t-shirts were the way to go? Long evenings lingered a bit past 6pm and the weather was nice?

Just in case you can't, here's a lovely compilation of photos from around the school as we made ourselves at home in our new surroundings. We finally got the car park sorted out, which has been a very welcome addition (thank you Yukari); Takeshi produced an awesome new sign for us; and all the children helped us make a new garden with lots of lovely little plants, herbs, flowers etc in it.

Enjoy the slideshow - you can also find it on our Luna Facebook page or Jim's Youtube channel



Stay tuned for October's installment...

Photo slideshow for June/July inside lovely new Luna

All of us are very happy to have finally moved premises. Although we lost quite a lot of space and had to rationalise materials (throw away a lot of junk, basically!) it is an absolute pleasure to be able to relax - and not have a miserable git of a landlord sneering constantly.

We have been gearing up to turn Bon Bon red, white & blue this Saturday evening, as you can see...but so much more too! Check out all the happy faces and busy bodies from our classrooms in June/July.



More photos shared at https://www.flickr.com/photos/saint_george/sets/72157645650054759/

Spacing out!

Just because we are packing everything up into boxes before the big move doesn't mean we can't still have loads of fun!

We actually found loads of things we haven't seen or used for a couple of years - sure, they needed some dusting...but all new stuff for most of our little learners. We also needed to 'do something different' because the things we really want to use have been packed "high priority" ready to use as soon as we have moved into the new place. Will we be able to find them though?!



Hope you enjoyed the last flickers of fun from our large classrooms...we can assure you little Luna next to Big Boy will be a Tardis, just like Dr. Who's...much bigger on the inside and full of exciting adventures!

April - a month in pictures at Luna

Thank you Damian for reminding me to make April's slideshow...it was such a great month. The sun came out to play, at long last, and with it the Cherry Blossom (good) & hay fever (awful). Goodbye wellingtons & shovels, hello short sleeves and sunglasses! Social highlight of the spring was our annual barbecue on the Susuki riverside; thank you everyone who came, cooked, ate & drank :)

Loads of fun in classes too, as you will see, with arts projects showing off some really creative ideas...readers getting stuck into their books, and learners learning how to use their indexes properly. Table-top games, dice games, iPad games, board games and any other kind of games you can think of too!



May will see our final month in our current premises; we love the space we enjoy but little else. We hope there will be as little disruption as possible to the regular class schedule, and we expect to be up & running next to Big Boy from June 10th. If anybody would like to help us with the big shift, please let us know - all hands on deck June 6, 8-9.

May will also see some of our students taking their Cambridge PET exams, and others getting ready for their FCE at the beginning of June. Important steps in several language learning careers.

BTW, the song is by Bob Geldof, a man I have a lot of respect for. Very sadly his daughter passed away in April.

A look back at classroom smiles through March 2014

What a wild month March was! Snow that we thought would never end and our carpets still wet after the thaw. Business as usual nevertheless in the learning zone, with some big paint jobs taking place in Damian's classroom. We planted a mystery garden (now showing signs of life in all but one planter) and said goodbye to long-term students - going to miss you guys!

Success rewarded as well, with certificates arriving for YLE, KET & CAE passes - well done you!

April is going to be a busy month, and apologies in advance for the state we might be in at the end of the month. Join us, meantime, April 13th from noon onwards for our Cherry Blossom Party (details oin our Facebook page). Have a superb April - we will!

February slideshow review

I noticed we were so busy digging snow outside or putting buckets under drips inside in the last couple of weeks that we didn't take any pictures. I'm sure you can all remember what snow looks like though...

Here's a peek of some of the fun we got up to during February - hope you like the slideshow!



If you want a copy please email me; you can also find it to share on our YouTube channel

February review - in pictures

January slideshow of all the best smiles!

Press play!

What do you want for Christmas?!

Can you remember what we did this Christmas?

Let this audioslideshow jog you memory!



Please follow this link & download or go to Luna's Youtube page...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAvevkcMAJ0&feature=share&list=UUfKHk9pHVIpNqvHhu-q5ufA

Don't burn that turkey - and have a wonderful Christmas xxx

When a hospital turns into a music & dance venue!

A very nice way to jolly up a hospital is to have a carnival in the main entrance! The Nagano Prefectural Children's Hospital pulled out all the stops and had African dancers, Hula girls, an apparently famous lady in a stripey PJ suit, the local school band, a folk band, a parade of mascots, and a Q & A session with two players from our local Matsumoto Yamaga football team - no surprise they were very popular and accounted for all the green football shirts being sported!

You can download the slideshow here (free) http://studio.stupeflix.com/v/QGPXI1KqeZ/

From Yamagata - examiner training weekend

Our great northern venues in Yamagata & Fukushima have been co-operating with each other since adopting Cambridge exams, and last weekend the fine tradition continued. MY English Schools in Yamagata are very keen on Cambridge Young Learners, and it was a pleasure to deliver examiner training to their staff on Saturday.

The following day, we had a whole day of Professional Development, which included opportunities to practice & hone our interlocution skills with volunteer candidates. This puts examiners under 'real' exam pressures and is invaluable experience - helps me identify possible areas that need fine-tuning or showcase good habits. The volunteer candidates can enjoy two or three 'practice' goes for free, to help get them in the mood for the actual exams which will be taking place in November (details below). I'd like to thank Ryan's school & staff for their help in organising the weekend, and for all their hard work.



I actually enjoyed the long drive, as the nights' on the expressway coincided with live commentary on the cricket between England & Australia in London...meaningless for most people I know, but blissfully enjoyable for me, and made the 1,100km slip by relatively quickly - just like the Aussie innings!

YLE in Yamagata city: November 10th

Apply to MY English School rhagglund@myeigo.com or via Luna at luna.JP004@gmail.com

YLE in Aizuwakamatsu city: November 17th

Apply to Windmill English Centre windmill@akina.ne.jp or via Luna at luna.JP004@gmail.com

A Conference from a different perspective - photographer

The weekend of May 18-9 I was asked to be the official photographer for JALT PANSIG Conference 2013, held at Nanzan University in Nagoya.

I was very excited to have been asked, and thank David Kluge for the leap of faith. I should also thank all the presenters etc who tried to ignore me scuttling in & out of rooms. I tried my hardest to be unobtrusive & uninvasive. I sincerely hope I managed that, and that the shots I did achieve captured the lovely feel of the Conference - very friendly, co-operative and calmly professional. My regret is that I did not spend any time in any presentations for long enough, but I did get a taste of a lot more than usual, and got to meet a lot of inspiring educators.

A lot of people worked very hard to put the Conference together, and a testament to their hard work was that you couldn't see any obvious signs of panic!

This slideshow highlights the people I portraited during the first day:



After a long day for presenters and audience alike, there was a short walk to a local Italian restaurant, which tried valiantly to refresh an hungry & thirsty crowd. It was a very confined space with everyone diving for the plates & topping off each others' drinks. Like everyone else, I was starving and keen to talk to friends - such as Theron Muller - and less worried about the actual photography.



This slideshow features some of the people I could catch on the second day:



Every Conference needs a volunteer team on the day to do all the running around, finding cables, carrying umbrellas & telling presenters when to stop...the "Green shirts" at PANSIG were very cheerful as well as efficiently organised. One of the perks of my job this weekend was to take their 'official' photos.



I have the feeling I took far too many pictures, but my encouragement to anyone doing this kind of assignment is keep looking & keep shooting. A theme will emerge although you probably will not realise until you get home and start looking through your raw shots. While shooting you have to keep checking thumbnails & adjusting your settings - try not to be too ambtious with zoom indoors (so be nosy & get closer - "ignore me" works wonders!). I prefer to avoid using my flash in intimate groups, so think about natural light from windows (awfully hard if presenters draw curtains & turn the lights off to show a slideshow...come back later near the end if you can). Lean on stuff as much as possible to get steady (I should have taken my monopod). Clutches of people in conversations in corridors are as much the conference experience as listening to presentations, and often the speaker will be more relaxed chatting with interested audience members when they have finished presenting & not in the flustered setting up stage. Don't be shy about asking co-presenters to pose for you as a team, and get Plenaries & other VIPs to give you a few seconds for a banker (try stepping outside for some greenery background & warmer lighting). Most importantly, keep track of where you have been! Your metadata will give you times shots taken, but you will not remember which rooms you were in/which presentation was which - certainly not after 2 days in 3 floors of rooms with 26 different Special Interest Groups! My solution was to scribble a timeline on my conference schedule & circle any speakers in it as I went. Another solution would be to snapshoot the door number before you go in. And talk to people; they will have no idea who you are or why you are aiming a camera at them all the time - especially outside the presentation rooms - so say hello & chat early. They will relax & ignore you (photographically!) as the event progresses allowing you to 'pry' and get better candids.

I loved this opportunity to get my tired 10D out of its bag. You can find the whole weekend of PANSIG right here http://www.flickr.com/photos/saint_george/sets/72157633731993876/  If anyone wants a picture without the copyright notice, please drop me a quick email with the jpeg number & I will happily oblige. Likewise, if you are in a photo and would rather not be, let me know & I will take it down.

Important last note - make sure the organisers have included a 'photo release' clause in the registration process.

What did we do in January?

Mostly tried to keep warm - lots of singing & dancing, and quizzes to make Jim think hard!



And already February - is spring coming already (we hope so - we hate the paraffin heaters!)

And now, that Christmas party with some blues!

I have been buzzing since our end of year Christmas party on Sunday; the room was bulging with children - many of them them very young and dangling off mummy or older sisters! Two or three were so little they managed to sleep through the entire afternoon - the innocence of youth (but absolutely wonderful to see Miki-chan, Anna-chan, Fumi-chan as mummies again!). Not everything went to plan - hope you didn't notice! Main thing was that everyone was involved and everyone seemed to win something!

For the first time we "dressed" the tree - a new idea I came across through twitter last week as an alternative to musical chairs (we don't have enough!) and pass the parcel. We had an enormous alphabet soup which took a while to figure out, and then tackled Naomi's wonderful Christmas picture montage. Yukari & Mayumi delivered a delicious Christmas lunch, before a surprise guest in a red suit arrived to give everyone a present.

Enjoy the show, as we enjoyed the day!



You can find all the photos on flickr right here

A slideshow of super Luna smiles

We are delighted to share a whole host of happy faces from our classrooms this summer! Which class did you really want to join?!

Check out April & May!

There's plenty more on our Classroom Flickr set and on our Facebook pages (Luna International)