Grace Darling

Image by Steve & Jemma Copley via Flickr

This story is the true story, but I don't think so. Because Darling and his daughter had a very strong responsibility and unbelievable energy for rescue.

You can find a lot of article about "Grace Darling" in the internet. There are over seventy thousand article at the internet! I think she was a famous heroine at England.

This is a image of the Longstone Lighthouse.

After Reading 2

Find and answers to this crossword in the story.

Across

1. Grace watched the ship through a telescope.

4. The ship was going xxxxx, from Hull to Dundee.

6. The name of ship. Forfarshire

9. You row a boat with two of these. oars

12. Daniel Donovan's job. engineer

13. Land which is not an island. mainland

14. To move a boat with oars. row

15. The ship was wrecked in 1838.

Down

2. The Darling family lived in this. lighthouse

3. Grace put in the big lantern. oil

5. Grace Darling was a famous heroine

7. Daniel Donovan called Grace Darling an 'Angel'.

8. A man who works on a ship. sailor

10. The floor on a ship. deck

11. Longstone Island was one of the Farne Islands.

Desert, Mountain, Sea

In this book, there are three stories about adventure, Desert, Mountain and Sea. In each story, there are dangerous and someone or something died, especially the adventure of Mountain, Annapurna is most serious disaster. I like the story of sea. In Naomi’s story, she traveled to sail single-handed across the world’s most dangerous seas. During her dangerous sailing, she kept asking herself the question: ‘Why am I doing this?’ I understood her feeling a little bit. Sometimes I want to travel somewhere else without no reason. When I was a student, I travelled Huhhot, Nei Mongol in China. I just wanted to ride on horse and race around. But when I arrived at Huhhot in March, there is no grass so I couldn’t ride on horse. Then I thought why I was doing there?

7. Do you agree or disagree with these ideas? Why, or why not?
7.4. Expeditions like these are very expensive, and it would be better to spend the money on something else.

I disagree with the idea. I think that these kinds of adventures would be sometimes important even if it costs a lot. I think it depends on what these travelers can give to people. If they give us bravery and impression, it would be considered of value. I think it would be important for adventurers to try something difficult. On the other hand, if they do it only for themselves and there is no difficulty, I think it would be not important like my travel in Huhhot.
Here is an example. Have you ever heard of the name, Nobukazu Kuriki, who is a young alpinist. He is now trying to climb Mt. Everest alone without oxygen. There is no alpinist who could succeed to climb Mt. Everest alone without oxygen in Japan. He used to be Hikikomori, but now he is one of the most famous alpinists in Japan. His purpose climbing mountain is that his adventures give people bravery and impression. He needed a lot of money to climb Mt. Everest. I hope he will succeed to climb Mt. Everest and give impression all of people in the world.

Image via Wikipedia

Desert, Mountain, Sea

Masao Kuroda

We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea

I like this kind of reading, adventure, survival and happy ending. Even so, it was a bit predictable ending. If you want to know the plot summary of this book, please click here.

Jim’s question: Please relate this story to the current 'no fly' situation in the UK.
The four Walker children, John, Susan, Titty and Roger at last reached Flushing in the Nether Lands from Harwich in the UK crossing the cold stormy North Sea by small yacht, Goblin. They have no petrol, no IT equipments like GPS, just compass and some food.
Nowadays we can cross the North Sea easily by plane which is the safest transportation in the world. But even the safest transportation by advancement in IT would be often unable to function in a vast natural. For example,
- Volcanic ash incidents involving airliners
- Air crash’s high impact on Polish politics

I think we should realize that we can’t go against the nature even so we have leading knowledge and technology.

By the way, my colleague is visiting Germany on business at this moment. I hope he’ll be able to return to Japan until Golden Week.

Koa

Voodoo Island

After reading: 1) Kee is a poor man who comes from Haiti. He is a houngan, and he knows all about spirits. He doesn't understand business, and he understands about people. Kee is a kind man, and he always listens to other people.

Conway is a rich man who comes from America. He is a businessman, and he know all about money. He doesn't understand voodoo, and he doesn't understand about people. Conway is not a kind man, and he never listens to other people.

Comments: At first, I thought that Conway would be cheated by Kee with voodoo in the story. In fact Conway was a good houngan. I don't know whether voodoo exists even now in Haiti or not. If it exists, I would like to experience boodoo.

April 23rd - apt day for Dragon Slaying!

Yes folks, of course it is Saint George's Day - England's patron saint and my namesake.

Find out more and have a hack at the themed crossword? Have a great evening pulling the wings off big green beasties!

We recycled paper!

Haruka welcomed Anna to class - Anna is a volcanic refugee! This is what we did in class today :)

First we made a mess in the kitchen - the blender started smoking too!

After we cleaned up & put our socks back on (serious splashing & dripping to avoid) we made this movie together. It's so easy.

As you can see, we made friends really quickly; Anna's flight changed to Sunday. so only a week and a bit getting back home. Thanks for helping us out today xxx

GEOS goes bust - it's personal

Thirty-six hours after being told on the phone not to go to work by GEOS corporate division, I still have not heard a word. I am not surprised. Emails have been unanswered, answer machine picks up the phone. Mobile numbers of staff are 'dead'.

The company I teach at has sensibly decided for themselves that all bets are off until they get some information too. I think GEOS is more likely to respond to them than little old me. After all,they have paid for classes which are not now being taught. They can afford a lawyer or twelve. Teachers like me are unlikely to ever be paid for work done in April. Silly Jimmy!

From what I have pieced together from the chatter online, teachers will be expected to sign new contracts tomorrow (Friday 23rd) with the self-same people who have lied repeatedly about the health of GEOS & their ability to honour wage payments.That sounds like an enticing prospect, doesn't it? What would you do?

What about my students? I have invested five years of my life into teaching some of them; suddenly not being there really angers me. Yes, it is a job & I used to get paid for it, but there is a mutual commitment, connection, collaboration with time & trust that is sacrosanct. We have just mapped out the next six months of study, set deadlines for assignments & agreed a code of behaviour (not being there unannounced is one of the bigger no-nos...I think in five years I have failed to make three classes unreasonably late. Today I missed four.)

My problem with GEOS going out of business (apart from significant monies owed) is that I am personally going to be tarnished by association. On a larger scale, my school is going to be tarnished, again, by Eikaiwa-bashing such as we saw in the fall out from NOVA's demise. This is utterly unfair (but inevitable) as Luna International  is an entirely professional outfit. If GEOS & NOVA were the MacDonald's of the EFL industry, we are the great little local restaurant people keep coming back to. Outbreak of E-Coli scares everyone away. On an industry scale, very good people running very good schools up & down the country are going to be similarly looking at a blizzard of abuse in the media feeding frenzy coming. This is like blaming Iceland for having a septic volcano.

I am no expert in the legalities of bankruptcy, companies merely being 'in administration' etc. If a company resurrects itself tomorrow in all but name, minus the obligations to pay debts etc, then that company & its officers are morally bankrupt. In Monopoly terms, "Go back to go"?  No: "Go to jail - do not go past Go & do not collect £200".

And miss three turns - no "Get out of Jail Free" cards please.

A Morbid Taste for Bones

My first impression of this book was a little boring. The scene was an abbey and I thought the life of abbey was very boredom. On the other hand, the back cover says the murder was occurred.

What do you mean?

I was a little confused bit I started reading. After reading, I couldn’t understand all of the story but I understood overview of the story. I’m not so exciting even though I like the detective story.

Question: What kind of person makes a good detective?

I think a good listener and the person who is likable and friendly is a good detective, because the most important thing of detective is gathering many truths. If he can’t gather any information or can gather only unfair information, it causes him to wrong conclusion.

That makes all of people unhappy. Thus I think the detective has to have an ability to get much information.

Words in the news: bankrupt

Some interesting developments overnight regarding a large chain of English schools in Japan, involving the

word:

bankrupt.

On Yahoo in Japanese
In the Asahi newspaper, also in Japanese
And in English, this guy has been on the money for at least a year.

 If you have been affected by this latest calamity in EFL, our condolences of course. A lot of people are going to be out of pocket and worse, out of work.

Students who no longer have a school to go to may redeem the classes they are owed at Luna International, 2 for 1, with no obligation to join the school until the end of May. Contact Yuki Nagano now by calling 0263-34-4481

Who the hell is it?

Which former Luna teacher is this?
Where is he/she?
How jealous are you?
What happened next?
Should we invite this teacher back?
Would you like to read the story of this awesome adventure?

Mai Osawa PhD (Linguistics)

I got an email tonight from one of our 'old' students who used to study with us in the Nagano days (now Noah Academy with Theron Muller). Owen Davies deserves a lot of credit for this success story - at least the early part.

Dr. Osawa used to be Mai-chan, when she came to Luna after school. Yes, she hated her school uniform, & generally loathed everything in life (especially boys)... except English (and Welsh). She did her homework, always spoke up and made very effort just to join in. Yes, JHS shy. Yes, JHS bad habits (katakana-go). Yes, wanted to escape home (how many English teachers do you know live 'at home'?!)

Last month Mai received her PhD from Tsukuba University in Linguistics. I stopped being able to answer her requests for help about three years ago - her questions were simply too hard for me. As far as I know, Mai is the first student from Luna to 'Go the Full Monty'. I am in awe of such an achievement, and am extremely proud; though I taught her only a few times she was 'one of the special ones' which teachers do tend to invest in.

Now Mai-chan finds herself on the other side of the desk, teaching this term. I hope that is an easy transition.

The 'kids' who made the previous "movie" are Mai's age when I first met her in Nagano...I wish we had the tools then that we can call into action very easily now. Here's hoping Mai-chan's success can inspire a generation of Luna Linguists!

We made a movie

White Cherry Blossom?!

My daughter woke me up asking me if we could make a snowman; I thought I must be still dreaming!  It was trying to snow last night, but I didn't expect to see a two inch carpet of the stuff Saturday morning! To Ohanami, or not to ohanami?

With my expert weather eye, I figured the sun would come out & give us a proper afternoon of blue skies if not warmth. No need for a cooler - put the beers in the snow! I later heard this was the latest we've had snow here for 41 years.

Fortunately, with everyone umming and arring about the weather, the charcoal was glowing nicely before called into action. Tana & I had time to enjoy a quiet drink & get organised. The blanket of snow at 11am had disappeared by 12.30, and quickly melted on the hillsides as well.

Eventually friends and students, children and oldies found us (our usual spot was a bit boggy) and in no time at all there were kids large & small running around, climbing walls & sliding down embankments, and throwing snowballs into the river. Badminton rackets found new uses as snow scoops!

It was nice to have a very 'family' kind of party today; not too crowded on the riverbank and not too hot. In fact, just right. Thanks all for a great afternoon - sunburnt & full of great barbecued lamb, chicken, pineapple, garlic, mushrooms etc. And lashings of ale? In good measure, yes, of course :)

Cherry Blossom today

We are not cancelling!

Snow? Not enough! Volcano - maybe!

See everyone by the pink stuff for a memorable afternoon. Just wrap up well!

Jim

My first movie

In my late bid to become a Hollywood Mogul, I have just produced my first film.

It was made in twenty minutes flat and cost me absolutely nothing; the intention was to boil a classroom discourse retelling a story about a neighbourly conflict down to the bare bones, but to include as much target language as possible. This is a resource we will definitely be making a lot more use of in future, as I think our teens will enjoy making toons!

Check out this one for now - hoping my first group of directorial acolytes will share their story precis here too (going to team review in Edmodo first, as a safety net)...holding your breath?!

http://www.dvolver.com/live/movies-392316

The boys talk about illnesses

My perennially 'noisy' boys are always up for something different; today we had a go at creating a VoiceThread project, talking about illnesses (unit 10 of our textbook English Time 2 - I hope Setsuko & OUP can cope with the image used?)

They had fun trying to take each others' pictures, then trying to put each other off when it was their turn/asking the harder questions (involving pronouncing 'stomachache'). First effort with this technology which looks very easy to use & obviously a lot of applications for our various classrooms, collaborating on projects & sharing comments. Check it out; comments welcome!

http://voicethread.com/share/1065401/

Training Day in a Wordle

Congratulations Mizuki

Having a very good day today with happy news.

My long-term ex-student Mizuki-chan gave birth to her second son a few days ago. We hope he (Motoharu) & mum recover quickly and are home to play with Shingen & daddy soon.

Congrats to the happy family from all of us at Luna.


From the chalkface

Congratulations Anna!

Happy news also reaches us from Australia, that our former colleague & good friend Anna has become engaged to her Swedish beau.

We are thrilled for her and wish her every happiness. Looking forward to some wonderful wedding photos.


From the chalkface

Congratulations Penny!

Word reaches us from Nagano that our friend & former teacher Penny has become the proud mother of a bouncing baby boy!

Congratulations Penny & Atsushi & we look forward to meeting the addition soon.


From the chalkface

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.

CPE on Sunday

Some people you know are always going to transform your day from run of the mill to a moment you can dine out on for years to come. Anthony in Singapore is one, Owen another. Grant Trew was a late addition to the training team this weekend but I was chuckling quietly to myself at the news. Something GT said during training for KET & PET last year in Kobe had me paralysed for half an hour; so this morning with a crack the German coast guard which cracked me up & made it pretty near impossible to keep a straight face for the next ten minutes!

Come to mention it, Paul Delaney has his moments too. Almost exactly my age, from my neck of the woods and extremely droll. No stand up gags but pithy one liners with excellent timing - no hesitation and plenty of relevance!

Our session today was intended to cover CPE - Certificate of Proficiency in English. To pass this Cambridge ESOL level (CEFR C2), candidates really do have to be exceptionally strong in all aspects of English, so much so that most of us agreed that your average native-speaker off the street would struggle to be successful in this test. I'll leave it for another day as to why there are not a lot of CPE candidates in this country...it took a whole day today to make sure we have a dozen OEs properly competent at this level. Time well spent? Absolutely. Hard work for everyone - oh yes. Chances like this come along every day of the week? Nope.

Thank you Oana, Grant, Paul, Tom, Malcolm, Tana, Joan, Andrew, Oliver, Eamonn for your perseverance & hard work.

Luna link = big up Tana, please. The first person to work for the school who will achieve OE status for all levels of exams that we offer apart from Jim. No mean feat at all, and something she (and we) need to be very proud of indeed.

Churrasco & Ciapirinhia in Kyoto

Oana had been promising a slap-up Brazilian meal for us this evening for months, and I for one was not going to let the opportunity of some very good local knowledge slip. Not disappointed! What a blow-out! Tabihodai (eat as much as you like) barbecue & 'Viking' ie salad & dessert smorgasbord. My first experience of Brazilian barbecue style, so let me explain; waiter brings along the world's longest skewer and slices off chunks of deliciously juicy meat (beef, pork, chicken, sausages) during your meal, topping up your plate. Slightly similar to middle-eastern kebab style I guess, but we a talking lumps of tender meat rather than delicate slices!

Washed down with a beer or two? Of course, but it was the Ciapirinhia that proved the ideal accompaniment. New tipple for me, and no disastrous side/after-effects so will be researching this one for our Ohanami next weekend! (You'll have to come along to find out more!)

I just have time to mention pudin. I realised that Brazilians must actually be from Yorkshire (and so much suddenly makes sense - the football, the beach volleyball, the same bon viveur outlook on life). "Pudin" loosely translated from Yorkshire/Brazilian = dessert. The chocolate mousse thing was divine!

In Kyoto - check out Estrela, in Sanjo (east side of Pontocho)

Kyoto - Examiner Training

A dozen of the nation's finest EFL teachers gathered in Kyoto today to participate in Cambridge ESOL Oral Examiner (OE) training.

Today's attendees had already been tasked with a certain amount of pre-training which meant we were able to get cracking at a decent pace. I have found that providing recruits with as much info as possible beforehand saves a lot of aggro on the day, as examiners have a lot to process/manage/do, and digesting a 50+ page booklet at the same time has proved to be too much in the past. I love Dropbox!

We gathered from Okayama, Osaka, Nagoya, Matsumoto (our Tana) as well as locals based in Kyoto & Shiga.In all  would say there was over 150 years of English teaching experience in the room; quite a lot of experienced examiners (other levels) too. Great to see motivated and capable teachers pushing themselves professionally and being open to guidance/a bit of tweaking even with all that experience. It is rare that we teachers are challenged to justify our opinions and have a common framework with which to discuss student/candidate performances.Very few teachers (in Japan) are experienced enough/qualified to deliver & assess these levels (CEFR B2/C1).

Personally it was great to see OEs I have previously trained at other levels (YLE, KET, PET) in three different cities (Okayama, Kobe, Nagoya) get down to business very much "on the same page". I was even happier to hear myself quoted as OEs collaborated during the day on rubric delivery (interlocuting) & assessment. I find it very rewarding personally to see & hear teachers/trainers I respect 're-tweeting' my suggestions/sharing their experiences moulded in consistent "Cambridge-speak".

I tried a few new things before & during this session, which I hope added value. I have given up reading commentaries to the room; the 'mana from heaven' approach falls on barren ground too often :)  Today I asked trainees to assess performances alone & then discuss their scores together, before giving them commentaries without scores to fine tune their ideas against the analytical criteria. This stops everyone arguing with me! At the end of the day, here is Cambridge's mark. "Move your scoring to this benchmark!"

Tomorrow the Himalaya of EFL - CPE... The absolute pinnacle of a student's ambitions. Very rare air at this level.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (impressions)

There were several people in this story and were very interesting. Each people in this story had it's strong individuality. I'd like to tell you the scenes which gave me big impressions.

First, Tom's paintingthe fence scene. He made a lot of boys paint almostfences. And aunt Polly said "You are a good boy, Tom. You finished painting all the fences."
Tom likes no school, no work, but he is very clever and had good talent which I don't have.

Second, It was the grave scene at midnight. Tom and his friend saw a grave robbers and murder. The doctor wants a dead body. Because he cuts it up and wants to learn about. So his two men digged for him. They wanted a lot of money from him. Here I learned realities which the doctor want dead body. giving money to dig the grave up. I learned realities which the doctor wants dead body. This scene was very suspensive and the murder occurred suddenly.

The last, Tom enjoyed in his boys days very fleely, vividly and wildly by the Mississippi in a big nature through camping, fishing and swimming. His days were full of adventurous and even romanticism for our modern life.

written by Minemura

5 live Football Daily

Check out this podcast on iTunes:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=261291929

Very natural English. Stuart Hall is still as obtuse as ever. Wordy. Flowery. Prosaic.

Just listen to the people interviewed! 

Bill Shankly first...wow

Jim George 

via i.phone

The statue

The stature of Walter Weston in Horigane in Azumino city.

He was born in Derby in Britain in 1861.He came to Japan as a missionary. He introduced the Japan Alps to the world through his hobby of mountain climbing.

Yuya's sports bubblr

Thought we'd try this out since Jim's been having such fun with this!
Click here to have a look! "moments in sport" Enjoy!



Thanks Yuya

Kamisya - Onbashira in Chino

Image by ijiwaru jimbo via Flickr

An awesome day wandering around looking for logs, drunks, photo ops and sunshine (still a bit nippy in the shade).

People kept giving us booze! I'd forgotten to bring a cup, but it didn't take long before Tana & I had both been collared with offers of sake & ume shu (plum liquour). Throughout the rest of the day we were plied with sake from generous tree-pulling, happi-jacketed, red-faced gents (thank you!)

I vaguely remember seven years ago - I say vaguely because I ended up extremely drunk, skulling sake in the sun & being treated by Bridgestone friends. I recognised the hill, and found a way around the crowd to the top of the hill where the logs were descending (four of them, altogether) line astern, attended by their hundreds of pullers/steerers/cheerers/chanters etc all in their gaily coloured jackets. Everyone was having a good time - police officers being teased by drunk old goats in a way that simply couldn't happen in the UK, cartons of sake or bamboo tubes filled with grog being proffered to friends and strangers alike. By the end of the day our pockets were bulging with cup sake!

As we had arrived the first log (call it the red one) was tipped over the lip of the crest, edged a bit further then bang - one of the big fat anchor ropes snapped & the log et al rapidly disappeared from view heading off to the right of the course. Everyone OK? No idea, but a lot of concerned participants quickly raced up the edge to look over. bizarrely, the same thing happened to the next log an hour later, after Tana & I had wriggled our way to the front. Here it was possible to see the spaghetti of ropes and anchors carefully laid out to help prevent carnage (that's the plan, at least) with teams on either side also help steer & balance the thing - here in Chino the logs have antlers/horns/outrigger looking things (next week in Suwa they do not) with young men proving their verility not clinging on for dear life, more like bull-riders with arms aloft.

Once the hill-drop has been negotiated, the logs are dragged (this 1200 year old tradition would seem to pre-date the invention of wheels?) through the streets - houses lining the course are obliged to offer sustenance to passers-by (all 2 million expected this year?!), and indeed we were invited to in to 'Please get drunk with us'. Hard to decline such wonderfully hospitable offers but I was keen to photograph this septennial event as much as I could. The outriggers barely squeezed between the houses/under power lines; every care taken by the teams to pick up their litter (tree bark mostly), all the while chanting, imbibing, smiling & dragging!

The procession was playing follow the leader down to the shrine, where these logs are raised vertical in a later ceremony (June). Barring the way is a river, which is forded en masse; we were shivering in the stiff breeze...plunging into this Apline run off at this time of year only for the foolhardy! Here, as with the hill, action preceded by lots of shouting & precision lining up; band playing their team tune; old lady wailing in a high-pitched prayer carried afar on the wind. As with the hill, people can & do get killed here, so there were rescue divers in the water just in case. Didn't seem to be any untoward drama today, but pulling a tree into & then out of a river with 50 odd guys on it not the simplest thing to co-ordinate.

As we lurched homewards, more sake from the last team, and an invitation Tana was unable to refuse to climb a bamboo pole. Smiles literally everywhere as everyone intent on having a good time and having it on time. For such a big event, seemingly chaotic, this went like clockwork. everyone has a job, and in the thousands all chipping in (very Japanese) to the greater mission. Really annoyed I'm going to be in Kyoto next weekend - would love to see how things work in Suwa (Shimosya I think?)

Brilliant day out - make a date in your diaries for 2017! Check out the other 699 photos on Flickr

Avatar - film review

Image by AntSizedMan via Flickr

Where was it filmed?
It was filmed in a studio in Hollywood, California.
How do I get there?
You can fly to Los Angeles.  

Was it based on a book?

No it wasn't.

When is it set?
In the future on another planet called Pandora

Who directed it? Who was in the cast?

Avatar was directed by James Cameron.

Did it win any Oscars?

It won three or four Oscars.

Where & when did you see Avatar?

I saw Avatar in Tokyo during the school holidays.

You said this film was better than Tottoro. Why?

It was better than Tottoro because it was extremely exciting.

How many points out of ten would you give Avatar?

I would give Avatar ten out of ten.

What was the soundtrack like?

The soundtrack was very loud.When it was a sad scene it was quiet.I want to buy the CD

Is there a happy ending?

Yes there is.Where the Na'vi's fought humans.first they were losing but in the end they won the fight and saved the planet.

Which character did you like best?

I liked the main character Jake Sully because he was very cool.

What was it like watching a 3D movie?
It is better and more exciting than normal movies because things come out of the screen. 

Thank you Toshiya.

Star struck

You know, just once in a while, I find myself lost for words!

Yesterday evening was one of those occasions, when an all-time favourite ex-student stuck her head around the door of my classroom at NHK. We were in the middle of something, but the wheels fell of pretty quick with an impromptu interrogation!

• When did she get back? 
• What happened to the 'you beaut' job in Ginza? 
• Still with the boyfriend? 
• What are you doing now?

Takako could charm the birds out of the trees, and invariably does. She has been recruited to front up Matsumoto's city tourism office near the castle. Which genius did that? Needs saluting! Takako is an absolute gem, and having her represent this city is superb!

Ah. Sorry class - kind of lost my focus there for once.

Exploring guide to Azumino/Hotaka launched

Avid readers will remember I taught a few classes very early in the spring, up the road in Hotaka, for the Azumino City Tourist Association. I was not the only one! There were also classes given in Chinese & Korean - younger, prettier, better teachers they were too...

Wednesday evening was the wrap party, but actually a lot more importantly it marked the launch of the English, Chinese & Korean language Exploring Guide. While the teachers hogged the limelight, the very hard work of a few local people seemed to go largely unnoticed. Step forward Whitney Conti in particular, who I know has been burning the midnight oil getting maps properly annotated, photos properly proportioned, full stops in the right places (been there done that, with Matsumoto & Norikura already!). Check out the good work here

Now, no matter the hard work of well intentioned volunteers & neo-natives, if the locals don't get their act together & get the basics sorted? I mean, the super simple stuff like menus, credit cards, sign posts? After that, even a little bit of imagination would go a long way - you know the social media dimension...get a fan club on Facebook, or Twitterise themselves? Think about Google maps & Doublesquare...

Something better than nothing? Yes, for sure. Late entries? Absolutely. Shinshu's best kept little secret for discerning travellers? Could be.