Our Amazing Picnics - after reading project from young learners

Reading is a crucial part for any language learners' path to vocabulary acquisition/activation, familiarity & flexibility with grammatical structures, coping with long texts, exploring new as well as familiar topics...and letting imaginations run away (a bit like the robot character does in this yarn when it gets supercharged by 'fantastic' lightning!).

This after reading project page, in an Oxford Read & Imagine level 2 graded reader (The Big Storm),  was all about personalising the background story to the adventure > going for a picnic. Sub-topics here recycle vocabulary sets of food (likes & dislikes), friends (physical descriptions), weather, places to go around town...we all love recycling language! (This is approx CEFR A1; 450 Headwords at this level, 689 words in this title)

As with all young learners, some love drawing & in Japan, have ninja-like skills - others (like me) have a complete phobia about blank drawing spaces and will produce the bare minimum as quickly as possible (and only after considerable cajoling!). NB This was not an arts/crafts lesson - rather, get us some content to work off, with the writing aspect my targetted outcome. (As with any open-ended task like this in my classroom in Japan, I try hard to minimise the use of erasers...a quick correction or fine tune is fine; rubbing out/erasing 20 minutes-worth of work & starting over is not!).

Regardless of artistic skills, we all needed encouragement to look back through the book to get 'more' ideas...and the same applied to finding the words we subsequently 'needed' to produce the written output. Importantly, don't cramp the artwork with this 'news' in advance (otherwise you'll end with carefully chosen/limited drawings!)...so then to find the words/structures we need to describe our work. From the story already (quizlet set of the glossary here by the way!)

 

Eleanor's favourite song - Inochi no namae"

 To begin with, my favorite song's name is "Inochi no namae" (The Name of Life), which is the song used in Ghibli's movie "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" (Spirited Away). This song was written in 2001 by Hiroshi Joe, Kimura Yumi and Kaku Wakako.

 Following this, the message of this song is words that express simple feelings we feel every day I think. This song's lyrics and melody makes me relaxed and cheerful. The songs lyrics is not exactly thing, but this abstract words gives us inspiration, and I feel like I understand it somehow. What's your opinion?

The song has got the "Orikon" 43rd in 2001 and 136th in 2002. Also, the song has got gold medal in 43rd Japan Record Award. This is amazing thing, don't you think so too? 

I recommend you watch Ghibli, "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" at first, and I want you to listen carefully of BGM. You can hear this song too.

Posted for Eleanor

Hinata's favorite song - Cause and Effect

 My favorite song is C.A.E. "Cause and Effect" is full name of this songs. Misekai was released this song in May 2023. I lke this song lyrics which were written by Amarashi who was inspired by Neg's illustraion and he made sound.

This song got 1,000 Repost and 18,000 likes on twitter, and 340,000 view on youtube.

Amarashi said about this song "Salvation is not the only beautiful ending". I think this song give us coriage.

I like this song, and I'll continue to listen to this song.

Posted for Hinata

Yona's favourite song - "Strong"

I would like to explain about the song "Strong" from Cinderella. At fist I chose this song because I
watched the movie when I was a little child. After I watched it, I came to like it and I found this song on the internet.

Sonna Rele

I like Disney aniimation and movies so I watched movies other Disney movies. I longed to be a princess, just like little girls do. This song has not only ephemeral but also about courage. The lyrics express the power of endurance in the face of difficulty. I felt Cinderella's own strength and her kindness.

This song was written by Sonna Rele in 2015. Sonna Rele is a singer songwriter from UK. Before it was released she was an ordinary person while she found by Ne-Yo and after that she debuted. "Strong" was a very big hit so she became more and more famous and she recorded other music, for ecample "Kaise Juda Rahein", Just like kiss me", "Time" and "Something's Gotta Give". However, the most famous song is "Strong".

Cinderella had animation and live-action. "Strong" was released especially when the movie was produced into a movie. All six songs played in the movie, but this music became very famous and popular with popular with other people who watched Cinderella. Many people were interested in the songs Finally, this song is very famous right now.

I was attracted to the bright tune, positive lyrics and the powerful singing voice. It is synchronixed with Cinerella's life and when I liste to this song, I am reminded of the world view of the movie.Of course, there is a difference between the world of fairy tales and the real world, but I like this song because it gives me a push at times like that. I will continue to listen to this song and nowadays I wish lots of people will listen to this song.

Posted for Yona

This is what I know - Kolkata

 Kolkata is located in West Bengal, India.

The population is 14.85 million.

During the colonial period, Kolkata was the capital of the empire.

St.Paul's Cathedral, Howrah Bridge and Mother Theresa's house are the famous buildings.

Posted for Nanaha

Yurina's favorite song - High Hopes

The most favorite song ever I have heard is "High Hopes" by "Panic! at the Disco" in 2018. It has wonderful lyrics and it shows us the solution of life. This song was written by 4 people in 2015. 

First no one wanted this song, but the vocalist of "Panic! at the Disco", Brendon Boyed Urie, liked it and started recording. Previously, the main part of this song was rap, but it was changed to uptempo chorus. Interestingly, a moving studio was used for recording.

After it was released, a man who climbed up the outside of the building in MV be the big reason for a hit. Countless people around the world covered it as a sign of how famous it is worldwide. In fact, it ranked in a lot of music award and saw MV in Youtube 700,000,000 times. 

In conclusion, I love "High Hopes" because of its lyrics, tempo & MV. This song makes me indominable.

Posted for Yurina

Singer died tragically young: Amy Winehouse

I’m going to introduce about Amy Jade Winehouse. Although she became one of the most famous singers at a young age, she ended her short life, just 27 years.

I think she was always in an environment that she was exposed to music. She was born in England in 1983. Her father was a jazz singer and mother was a pharmacist. She formed a rap group at 10, and she was given a guitar from parents at 13. Although she entered to a drama school, she dropped out of the school because of her pierces and tattoos. After that, she sent a demo tape to a record company. It was highly regarded, and her first album was released at 20. She won five Grammys by hitting the second album, “Back to Black”.

Although she got married, both husband and wife became addicted to drugs, alcohol. She began a European tour. However, the audiences booed at a concert as she arrived late, and she was not in condition to sing by drunk. These scandals by paparazzi have cornered her. She was found dead in her home, and the cause of the death was determined to be alcohol intoxication.

This is what I know: Timbuktu, Mali

Timbuktu Mosque

Timbuktu is an ancient city in Mali. It is the capital of the Timbuktu Region. The population is 54,453. The area is 40 square kilometers. Timbuktu's official language is French.

The weather in Timbuktu is hot all year around. Timbuktu is world heritage. So I think Timbuktu has grown.

Timbuktu is famous of spices. It has twelve, for example cinnamon and black pepper.

Reasearched and written by Hana, after unit task from Oxford Discover

This is what I know: Oslo, Norway

 Avoiding the repeated task of writing about our hometown, our young learners were instead tasked to find out about another city. Here is what Nicole discovered for Norway's capital city. After her mini-talk, we raided Google Maps to have a look around!

Oslo was founded as a city at the end of the Viking Age in 1040, under the name Anslo, and established as a trading place in 1048 by Harald Hardrada. The city was elevated to a bishopric in 1070 and a capital under Haakon V of Norway around the year 1300

Yo Hitoto - my musical role model

Yo Hitoto

Yo Hitoto is a singer-songwriter who is from Tokyo in Japan.

Her friend became paralyzed from the waist down due to a sudden accident. Yo Hitoto  went to a local city with her to assist her wheelchair life. They faced difficult 'barea' (barriers) ...Yo Hitoto felt  (that) people who face hindrances find life difficult. Therefore she wanted to do something to help.

At first, in 1999, she worked for a wheelchair users magazine company "Chairwork Wawawa". Later, she made a band with wheelchair users internet staff. They started performing at social welfare facilities, old people's homes and hospitals. A famous comedian was impressed with their performance on stage, so they made a demo tape.

Finally, she debuted as a singer-songwriter in 2002. She did more charity events because her mother, who had hidden her illness, died when she was a high school student. She was sad because she couldn't take care of her mother. As a result, she is continuing to perform even now. She said that everyone who listened to her songs & felt happy, so she felt music was miraculous. She thought about happy children, who have obstacles which thay can't explain conversationally, but were hugged & cried in reaction to her songs. Yo Hitoto has done over thirty charity concerts, not only domestically but also abroad, for example  in Cambodia, Myanmar and Kenya.

She has spent twenty years as a singer songwriter now. She made a gigi project in order to spend good times and meet people. She thinks life is happy when people want to listen to her tunes. I wish her creativity will continue to be listened to for 100 years.

Posted for... a keen HS fan

This is what I know: Georgetown, Malaysia

Asked to find out about a certain place around the world, as a follow up to a study unit in Oxford Discover text books (instead of everybody writing the same tired description of Matsumoto, which I know they are repeatedly made to do through their school careers here!). 

Souichiro researched about this city in Penang.

Georgetown in Malaysia is a World Heritage Special Zone. They have many kinds of people & many culture. And their population is two hundred thousand. Attraction is Penang Museum, Skywalk, and Kek Lok Si temple. There are British buildings, too.

Musical role models - K-Pop group BTS

 

The amazing Taylor Swift - most admired musician

Taylor Swift is a really famous singer, al over the world. Amazingly, she has already won 12 Grammy Awards. However, she hasn't only performed music. She has shown us heart-warming contributions to society.

Taylor is a 34 year-old singer songwriter, who is from the USA. Her hit songs, which she composed, have been enjoyed by countless people. I think there is no one who has never heard her music on the Earth. She is a really successful celebrity!

While Taylor has been developing her music and adored by her fans, she has made a lot of contributions to society. She has donated millions of dollars to people in difficulty. Maybe most famously  was donating millions of dollars after a tornado in Tennessee, where she is from. She didn't only donate, but also launched "Speak Now...Help Now" fund. This funding institution has helped victims of tornadoes and floods. 

Following this, she has met a lot of children in difficulty, like those who are in hospital. The most heart-warming episode is that she made a song "Ronan" for a young kids Ronan, who died of cancer aged three. How kind a person is she?

In conclusion, Taylor Swift is making a big difference to people all around her. She was selected as a celebrity who contributed to sociaty by dosomething.org, an American charity group in 2014. She is a real role model for us all!!!

Posted for - a Japanese HS teen fan :)

The musician I admire most - Motoki Omori

Motoki Omori is the vocalist of Mrs. Green Apple. The band was formed in 2013. "Mrs. Green Apple", the band name, means "we want to keep going like a green apple - never ripen". "We want to project a soft, androgynous image as a band".

Motoki Omori

He has been active for a long time. When he was a high school student, he established the band with his friends. He was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1996, and loved music from when he was young. Omori, who was influenced by "Mongol 800", bought an Epiphone bass guitar when he was in sixth grade at elementary school. Then he formed the band "1733" (one seven double three) with his classmates and a teacher, motivated by the desire to stand out at the graduation party. With his band, they performed their first original songs and Mongol 800 cover songs.

When he was in the first year of junior high school, he started DTM. At the time, Omori said "I didn't understand the concept of programming, so I was just groping around and trying things out" He didn't know how to recors guitar, so he played drum sounds on an electric paion and recorded the rhytm by putting a microphone close to the speaker.

Later, wanting to learn chords, he started playing the guitar. He had a toy guitar at home, so he took it to a music store and learned how to change the strings - and bought a Les Paul type guitar from an unknown manufacturer. He was self-taught in songwriting at the time, but he used his experience, starting out with the bass, to create his songs from chord progressions. In addition to creating original songs, he copied 'Radwimps' and 'One OK Rock'. 

Now he is very popular, and he is widely loved by fans of all ages, not just young people. Songs which his band wrote are positive and make people cheerful. His positive and interesting character makes us curious about him. He and his band have never forgotten their original intentions, that made them more and more popular. Nowadays, they are famous not only in Japan, but in foreign countries too. Do you think that they could be more famous or popular? I think they will be!

Posted for ...a high school student

Rei the reader!

I want to read!

Adopting Oxford Phonics World as our 'go to' phonics resource/series at Luna International was a no brainer, especially with covid-induced needs for online resources/presentation tools. We love the clarity of the materials, the logical presentation & progression. I am not a fan of the North American drawl that undermines accurate pronunciation in the audio of some units...but, I am very picky.

Unfortunately, we now have little brothers & sisters not even needing to come to Luna because they've grabbed a sibling's classbook and submerged themselves into the learning!

Screen time smasher!

Big brother Yoshi I have known since kindy...and he's been learning with us at Luna as well for a quite while now. He used to hide behind his classmates & not say 'boo' to a goose, but no more - a confident reader, neat writer & speller, and almost glib with answering too easy questions! Loosing games no longer a 'problem' either :)

I've been told his five-year old brother Rei is #OPW fan number one! As you can see, he's an independent learner...and has had to have a home screen time limit for the OPW app imposed to 15 minutes (maximum!) daily. Oh my word - if only we had that 'problem' with our students :)

I blame his parents..

Not fair?

As you can see in the pic above & videos below, Rei is an independent learner already. So, dad will be out of a job soon (as well as me!). 

Just imagine if every five year old in Japan had this kind of leg-up from mum & dad before they even get to elementary school? Game changer! Goodbye 'romaji' crap & katakana cribbing. Well done mum & dad...and thank you dad for choosing Luna International again for your family...like your parents asked me to teach you & your buddies when you were at elementary school.

Turbo-charged learning like this could/should be a game-changer for Japanese children. Tragically, I doubt very many decision makers within MEXT or BoE have the first clue about how vital a grasp of phonics is...especially with the ongoing race to the bottom which is 'providing' language teaching to children in kindergarten & elementary schools (and JHS/HS) from the lowest bidder/freshest face on zoom or YouTube/flashiest app on some administrator's TikTok feed. 

Hinata's musical postcard

 

Dear Jim,

I went to a big music festival in this weekend. First day, I enjoyed my favorite artist live. I like this artist more.

Today I went to the world Natural Heritage in this city. That's place is one of Japan's most beautiful and unspoiled national parks. I enjoyed the view and take many picture.

I will do my homework tomorrow. Because I have a lot of homework but I didn't do my homework in today and yesterday. I want do that tomorrow.

Thank you

Mark Zuckerberg's short biography

Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in New York is well-known for founding Facebook, Inc. (Now, Meta Platforms, Inc). He showed an interest in computers and programming. He began coding at a young age and created several software programs while he was in high school.

In 2003, Zuckerberg and his classmate launched a software “Synapse Media Player” for playing music while he was in high school. After entering Harvard University, Zuckerberg launched “Coursematch” and "Facemash.com" networking site initially for Harvard students. And then, he launched “Facebook” and wanted to connect people and to cultivate communities via social network.

In 2006, the function named “News Feed” was added. It could know what your friends were doing on Facebook and was a convenient function among friends. However, it had a risk to be used for cyberstalking. In 2010, the movie “Social Network” was launched, and it described the battle named “ConnectU” between Zuckerberg and his classmates.

Through the various troubles, Facebook became famous and attracted attention, and it was grown drastically as one of the most influential companies in the world. Through Facebook, he transformed how people interact online and created digital communication in ways which could not image before.

Yurina's musical postcard

Dear Jim,

Today I went to a live house in Italy. A man, whose hair is curling, was playing drums and other instruments were played. I really enjoyed the music.

I'll go to eat pizza tomorrow. Eating pizza in Italy was my hope for long years, so I can't wait!!

See you next time.

Yurina

Moeka's musical postcard

Dear Jim,

I'm travelling in the United States. I'm in New York now.

I saw the Statue of Liberty yesterday. I was surprised that is was bigger than I imagined.

Today I see a circus. Animals like lions and monkeys were performing. It was very pretty and exciting.

I'm going to listen to jazz. That will be cool!

I will talk a lot when I get back.

Your student, Moeka
 

Triggering creative writing in teens

Album artwork (unseen)

This activity is an oldie (like me), but still a worldie!

My high school class on Thursday evenings has been focussing on music recently - what we listen to, when, how it makes us feel etc. Obviously, as the fuddy-duddy in the room, I have no clue about the J-pop & k-pop sounds they are into...and they have no comprehension of what a CD collection is!

With a (scary) blank piece of paper, they were tasked to draw any image that came into their heads from some music I'd chosen (an EP, for vinyl fans = more time to be creative!)...and to then pass their picture on to the left & keep drawing, in the vein they were inspired to be feeling/imagining, and so on until they got their original picture back, with everyone else's contributions 'on top'.

Once the imaginative juices had been fired up, the follow up task was to keep the music in mind & use the artwork created to 'see' an imaginary holiday experience, and to write a postcard thus inspired. You will see unique takes on Bob Marley's Iron Zion Lion reggae track here in the next few days - I hope you'll enjoy!

Artists at work!

I'm never critical about 'drawing' or art skills - I'm rubbish! I was hoping that my students would show their imagination & reactions to the team pictures & the vibe from the music, and explain their holiday so far, current activity, and plans for the next day or two > subliminal aim = demonstrate control of a variety of tenses. How did they do? Any other tips on getting cool music into high school students' doamin?!

My best friend

 Mariko has been my friend since we were two years old. We often played together after elementary school and I remember that we were delighted to be classmates at junior high school. I have a lot of special and fond memories of junior high school and these memories were created with Mariko.

Our families lived within walking distance.  Unfortunately, Mariko’s mother died when she was nice years old. My mother sometimes cared about Mariko as she might have had something on her mind which was hard for her to say to her father. This is why I feel Mariko is my best friend and is a part of my real family.

I am very happy that she lives with a very kind husband and a cute son.

Surf & Snow in Naeba vol. 44

When did we come here to the Naeba ski resort last time?  In 2006 probably?  The Naeba Prince Hotel was totally different from my faint old memory.  The hotel was a whole Yuming world: the entrance was full of flowers celebrating Yuming, the ski hill viewing restaurant offered a special lunch with five different cocktails inspired from her songs.  And full of happy people who didn’t look like skiing at all, just like us.It is always extremely difficult to get tickets for this special annual winter concert and we were on the waiting list.  The agent let us know this was uploaded just about 20 days ago.  We also got lucky with a special five course dinner: each plate was related to her songs and the chef came over to our table to explain the meaning of every dish.

It was a very warm day, and snow was not so good for skiing, but lots of people were enjoying themselves on the slopes and the lightning was beautiful at night.

Yumi Matsutoya, Yuming, started this special annual winter concert, YUMING SURF & SNOW in Naeba in 1981 at this hotel’s restaurant, and in 1992 the hotel built a concert hall for her which she named “Blizzadium” after one of her popular winter songs “Blizzard”

The concert from 9pm, lasted for over three hours, and the hall capacity is about 1,300, so the audience is very close to the stage, just like a live house, but the stage set is always spectacularly gorgeous.  This year it started with her danceable song plus sixteen drones flying around.  We stood up, clapping hands, jumping!  The miraculous time had begun!

There is always request time, when she points to the audience to raise their hands, with the lucky one invited onto the stage, have a little chat and take a photo with her, get some presents before Yuming sings the requested song.  I knew she would never point at me but I only regret that I didn’t even try.  It was a very rare opportunity and it might have been our last chance to get tickets.  So I made up my mind that I will make the most of it for every opportunity as life is too short and seize the day!!

We went to the last day and there was the quadruple encore “Sotsugyo Shashin” and the whole audience sang along with her, which provided a very emotional moment.

I just really hope we can come again next year as well!!!!!

About my home town - HIgashi-ohmi city

I lived in Higashi-Ohmi city, which is in Kansai area in central Japan. It has a population of over 110,000 people, and it has the largest lake (Biwa-ko) in Japan.

Higashi-Ohmi is in the countryside. It has no famous buildings, museums, universities or statues, but it has a lot of rice farms and nature, so there are good camping areas along the riversides.

The weather in Higashi-Ohmi is hot and humid, so it is not cold with little snow. It snows about twice a year. June to July are very rainy. There are a few typhoons every autumn.

Higashi-Ohmi has a few famous temples "Egenji" and "Hyakusaiji", which have beautiful autumn leaves.

It is so convenient for Kyoto, about 40 minutes by train, and an hour to Osaka. It's a clean & quiet place.

Posted for Makiko

Temple I want to visit many times

I recommend visiting Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto. As you may know, it is the one of famous temples in Japan. Since my university was in Kansai, I visited many tourist sites of Kyoto meanwhile, and I can call those memories back, others not. However, I have strong memories of Kiyomizu temple.

A narrow road goes through to the temples, and there are souvenir shops both side of the road over few hundred meters. Although it is a bustling road, if you get sidetracked, there are quiet paths where you can see traditional houses, typical for Kyoto. Since the temples are very famous, it is always crowed. However, there are also places you can be alone and spend a quiet hour as the temple has a large area. In addition, I went there when I had any troubles or felt gloomy. I don’t know reason, but the place made me feel good and calm down. Therefore, it is the wonder place that I want to visit not once or twice.

I think it is also fun to go into side streets as you can see traditional streetscapes or go on a food crawl, which it is hard to find from main streets.

The most idyllic island "Kohamajima"

Have you ever visited Kohamajima island in Okinawa prefecture?The Kohamajima is the most idyllic island I have ever visited.We can access there by a regular liner from Ishigakijima island, and it takes about 30 min.

Kohamajima island is small and has a small population, so the island is a quiet and peaceful place. It is best to go sightseeing spots by bicycle and we can go around the island in half a day. We rarely see cars and people and can stop where we want to see view. The ocean around Kohamajima is breathtaking clean and blue, and I loved to look into the clear ocean. The breathtaking scenery makes us forget the time. 

Accommodation in Kohamajima island is limited and a large part of tourists will leave there before sunset. However, if we want to relax completely, it will be one of the best choice to stay at a hotel “Resonare Kohamajma” operated by Hoshino resort. It is high on my list of things what I want to do.

Do you have an urge to visit the Kohamajima island?  I promise that you can refresh and relax in the Kohamajima island.

A famous musician who died tragically young: Linkin Park

I'm sure you've heard about Linkin Park’s song somewhere. A debut album was a worldwide commercial success, and this band is very famous around the world. 

One of my favorite bands is Linkin Park. Especially I like the vocalist’s voice. The lead vocalist was Chester Charles Bennington.

Bennington was born in 1976 in America. He was interested in music since he was child and dreamed to become a member of his famous band. He had experienced something hard in his childhood. An older male friend sexually abused him until he was thirteen. He couldn’t ask help for anyone because he didn’t want them to think he was gay or liar. When he was eleven, his parents were divorce. After the divorce, his farther had gained custody of him. He started to drink alcohol, using drug. Because of his lifestyle was changed, he was skinny and looked difference. To remake his life, he moved to his mother’s home. He worked at a hamburger’s shop until his musician career was started. 

He joined the predecessor band; Xero, the band’s s name was changed to Linkin Park after signed to a major label. They had phenomenal success in early 2000. Meanwhile, he was struggled health problems. 

On July 20, 2017, he killed by himself at the age of 41. He was found dead at his home.

Two months before he died, his best friend was suicided by hanging. Oddly, the day Bennington died was best friend’s birthday.

Social media and Elon Musk

Elon Musk was born in 1971 in South Africa. His father, Errol Musk, is an engineer, and his mother, Maye, is a model. He was interested in making something and likes reading books since he was a child. He studied programing by himself at age 10, and he got 500 USD by making and selling the self-made game software at 12.

Although he entered to Stanford Graduate School in USA, just after two days he left it. After that, he started online contents company and online payment company, and he got about 500 million USD by divesting the companies.

By getting a lot of money, he invested for space, car, and social media business. He acquired Twitter in 2022. Since he calls himself “free speech absolutist”, I think he hopes social medias become space for free expression. There was ethical AI team, which was internal watchdog group, to monitor Twitter for transparency of information, fairness, dignity, and human rights. However, many engineers were fired for cost reduction, and the team was disbanded when he acquired the company. I think Twitter is the space for free speech, but meanwhile, I’m afraid that it becomes the space lost ethical.

A World Wonder where I want everyone to visit

 The Atomic Bomb (Genbaku Dome) was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on 6 August 1945. It shows the estructive force created by humankind and it is a symbol to hope world peace and the ultimate elimination of all nuclear weapons.

I visited the Atomic Bomb and the Atomic Bomb museum two times and spent much time to see all exhibits. People who visit there might turn their eyes from the exhibits because the destructive damage was worse than they might think. I believe that most people who visit there may think that the use, for whatever seasons, of destructive force/weapons should be banned and we should reduce all nuclear weapons.

Recently, there are various wars/fights around the world. I really hope that all wars/fights are stopped immediately, but I sometimes stay on the sidelines because I do not want to see terrible situation in broadcast etc.I think that we should not get accustomed to the situation that various wars/fights are caused and should think that world peace is the most important.In order to express the hope for world peace, the Atomic Bomb (Genbaku Dome) and the Atomic Bomb museum are the most important World Wonders for me.

A miraculous day - a lifetime in the day of a superfan

 Avoiding the end of the year ceremony, having made a huge excuse, my husband and I got on the Shinano.  The train was packed like sardines with overseas tourists and Japanese families going to their hometowns for the New Year holiday, and our destination, Nagoya.  It was the 28th December, the last working day of the year.  Although we were rather uncomfortable on our journey, we were overjoyed with the prospect of being able to see the final show of our favorite singer,Yumi Matsutoya, Yuming, on her 54th concert of her tour, “The Journey “.

When we arrived at Nagoya, there was an announcement of cancellation for further service to Shinano because of some falling rocks.  We felt so lucky to have gotten on an earlier train, even though it had been a very painful two hours.

Our seat numbers of the show only came out at midday on the day of the concert on our phone, and we found out that our seats were on the 2nd lane in the arena, the best seats we’ve ever had in the seventeen previous shows we’ve been to!  We were absolutely thrilled to see that but the seat number was so tricky that we never knew if it was a real good seat or not until we were actually in the concert hall.

knick-knacks

With our huge expectations we arrived at Nihon Gaishi, and joined a long queue to purchase some concert souvenirs, such as a tin-badge unique to every venue, T-shirts, bags…. During this concert tour, concert staff had been introduced through Instagram and we felt as if they were our old acquaintances.  So when we saw the person in charge of the stalls, we greeted her, and she kindly responded with her beautiful smile, which gave us more familiarity.

After we had had a happy little chat with the sales lady, it was time for the lottery for the special pair of glasses, released as a commemoration set; we had been able to get the lottery ticket only when we bought her new CD.  Actually we bought four, even though we already had three copies : to tell you the truth, we had a little discussion about the necessity to buy this same CD just for the glasses, even though they were ‘special’.

There were lots of people in front of us and we had had no luck so far.  It was our turn.  We were at the lottery desk without any hope.  First my husband, Isamu tried and failed, of course, then me…  Goodness gracious!  I’ve made it!  Yeeeeeeees!  Hooray!  The lottery guy was so surprised that he dropped the big hand bell and there was a huge noise and he screamed ‘You got it!  Congratulations!’

I was extremely surprised and couldn’t believe it because I had never won any lottery before.  Of course I was very happy but at the same time I started being anxious about what would happen next, as we had been too lucky that day so far.

It was about 4 pm and the concert started at 6:30 pm, so we went back to our accommodation, only a ten minute walk from the hall to calm ourselves down.

At the hotel, we had a little snack, changed into the white tour T-shirt which we have always worn on this tour (our uniform) and got perfectly ready mentally and visually by 5:30 pm…and off we went back to the hall and found an excited audience of!

About 10,000 people were already there, and we lined up to find our seats, East 3 Block 2nd lane 11, 12, which were super good seats, we called ‘god’s seat’!  We were absolutely delighted and thrilled!!

We felt all the audience’s huge excitement and anticipation, the concert started with the familiar introduction, then our goddess, Yuming, was walking towards the stage in front of us!  That stage set up was centre-stage so if our seats were the opposite side of the 2nd lane, we couldn’t have seen her passing through.  So we were super lucky indeed!!

superfans 

The concert was the very best, Yuming and the other performers played so well and I felt as if I had made eye contact with Yuming a couple of times.  The absolute highlight was when she pointed at me in the middle of  ‘Mamotte Agetai’ … I almost fainted with joy.  

We were dancing, jumping, clapping our hands, waving at her frantically, screaming, singing along, enjoying ourselves every minute, I have never been happier!

At the end of the show, all the staff were on the stage and they hugged each other, which was a very emotional scene and made us cry as well: the show, the tour, The Journey really is finishing…

There was a triple encore that was very rare, and moreover Masataka Matsutoya, Yuming’s husband & producer and director of the show and a great musician himself, accompanied her on keyboards for her last song, ‘Sotsugyo Shashin’, one of her iconic tunes and the best song for the final.

Mr and Mrs Matsutoya came down from the stage and they walked past in front of us, under the thunderous applause from the crowd.

Finally the overwhelming show and our miraculous day was over. 

Postcard from...Taman Ayun, Bali, Indonesia

Hey all,

I'm sunburnt! Today I went snorkeling between Bali & Lombok - it was great :)

I've seen amazing temples & a palace; Balinese dance & gamalan; all kinds of animals including bintorung, and wonderful sunsets. Did I mention the food? It's so delicious!!!

Leaving tomorrow, and looking forward to hearing all your holiday stories xxx

Jim

 

Postcard from...Bangkok, Thailand

Dear Jim

Today is December 17th. I and my friend have to return to Japan tonight :(

We went to the railway market and the floting market today by tourist tour. Because the markets are difficult plave to go by ourselves, and we are a bit tired :)

The railway market is so narrow market. Space between train and shops are about 10cm

I was able to record the movie from the train, so I'm going to show it at next classroom, and a lot of pictures too.

I'm looking forward top see you next time!

Best wishes,

Makiko

 

Rina's African animal🦓

My favourite African animal is a zebra. 

My zebra runs in Africa. 

He goes to the jungle to find food, and he can find the grass. 

So he's happy!

Wanted poster

 Wanted Dead or Alive

Toothless Annie

Reward of 500 doubloons for the capture of the pirate "Toothless Annie"

Real name: Anne Bonny

Age: 23 years old

From: North Carolina

Appearance: a female, with red hair & green eyes

Crimes: Piracy (stealing ships)

Contact: Chief Nicole

Ruka's African animal☆

 One day a giraffe.The giraffe was very beautiful. 

She fell into a trap. 

She was sad, but tonight many
animals helped the giraffe. 

She was happy!

Arisa's African animal

One day, a zebra heard tales of a rare grass, deep within the forest.

So, she started to go to the forest. 

She met a lion, and she was scared so she run away, but at last she found the rare grass. 

She overcame her shyness.

Wanted: Dead or Alive...

 

Mary Read

Reward of 500doubloons for the capture of the pirate "Young Man" - real name MARY READ.

Born: 1690

From: London, England

Lives: in the Caribbean, on Jack Rackham's ship "The William"

Crimes: Get money from her grandmother, killing a sailor, and killing Captain Hudson

Appearance: a slim womon with long hair, and she usually wears men's clothes and a scarf

Contact: Governor Nanaha

Love always comes in a hurricane

My favorite story in this book is “Sherlock Holmes and the strange Mr. Angel”. After I read it, I knew that this story is generally called “A case of identity”. This is the third short story of “Sherlock Holmes” series, exhibited by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1891.

Honestly, I had a distorted image of “Sherlock Holmes” as the writings before I read this story. I had taken it into my head that Holmes deals entirely with cases of murder. However, nobody dies in this story. I think that the action and motive of Miss Sutherland’s mother and Mr. Windibank is very human, and in a way, I feel close to them.

Like Miss Sutherland, a woman’s longing for a man is stronger than you may think, and nobody can stop it. I feel Miss Sutherland’s mother and Mr. Windibank took it too lightly. I grasped the meaning of the line from “ONE PIECE”, a Japanese famous manga, that “Love always comes in a hurricane”.

This case doesn’t cause human casualties, but Holmes proves his ability, for example an amazing insightfulness and astute observation, and he succeeds in solving the mystery. Arthur Conan Doyle is considered that he was not thrilled with writing “Sherlock Holmes” series, but I would like to appreciate him continuing and developing it.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum

My Father’s Dragon

Sayuri meets her dragon!

 When I read this fabulous story for the first time, I was an elementary school student.  I fell in love with this lovely front cover picture at first sight, and as soon as I started reading it I was so much into it I had to read it all the way through, again and again for ages.  Over the year though, I forgot about until I saw an advertisement about an exhibition for the original illustrations of this book at PLAY! Museum in Tachikawa.  “I have to go there!”

Tachikawa is a well-planned, beautiful city with the Museum just a 10 minute walk from the railway station.  We arrived a little earlier than the opening time, but the smiley staff welcomed us and let us wait in the cool foyer.  At reception we got a sticker and lovely paper-craft pictures of dragons as souvenirs.  The receptionist told us we could re-enter the Museum anytime that day, using the sticker.  We were even allowed to take photos inside.

My first photo had to be with the beautiful Boris the Dragon at the entrance!  He was so lovely, just as I had imagined.  I was over the moon - I felt like my lifelong dream to see the Dragon had came true!!

As well as the original pictures, the exhibition room was full of black and white animals made me feel as though I was on ‘Wild Island’ with Elmer Elevator, the main character.  The original pictures were drawn into so much with pencils and their captions were put with which were shaped like twigs, lollipops, chewing gum, bird feathers, which were iconic items in the story.

There were also crocodiles lined-up like stepping stones which Elmer had used as a bridge in the story.  In the display the crocodiles groaned when we stepped on them, which was so much fun.

The Museum shop was really exciting too.  There were so many lovely items like T-shirts, postcards, books, posters, socks, lollipops, water-dorm, etc, etc…paradise!  I bought books, T-shirts and other trinkets! Shopping done, we went to the Museum cafe and enjoyed interesting dishes inspired by the exhibition.

‘My Father’s Dragon’ and the subsequent Ruth Stiles Garnett stories, ‘Elmer and the Dragon’ and ‘The Dragons of Blueland’ were written in 1944, being translated into Japanese and published in 1963.  I had only ever read them in Japanese before, but now I’ve got an original English version which I’m looking forward to reading and seeing the Dragon I love.

The most dislike story is "The Room in the Tower"

The most disliked story is “The Room in the Tower”. 

According to this story, the writer had a bad dream many times. In his dream, he met with a man who was from his old school, but he didn’t know him well. If I’m the writer, I won’t want to see a person who don’t know very well in my dream. Of course, I don’t want to meet a stranger in my real life. 

I imagine that he couldn’t only sleep very well due to the bad dream, but also, he couldn’t spend his life lively during he had a bad dream. It is important for us to sleep, so his situation was terrible. I don’t want to be annoyed by the bad dream. Because I cannot wake up easily when I had a bad dream. Also, I couldn’t refresh my body and brain. It’s hard for me to work a day. I believe there are some bad effects without enough sleeping time.

In the end, he was nearly killed by old lady. The lady was painted on a picture, but she appeared in front of him and put her hand his neck. It was really terrible.  

When I read this story, I felt weird from the beginning. I thought that this story was written like “Déjà vu” story, however, the end was such as ghost story!!! I cannot understand what happened after that. 

After finishing of reading, it left me a bad aftertaste. 

A little bit of Project Based Learning

How do you make pentagons?

Just because you didn't turn to the next page in the text book, does not mean your lesson went nowhere!

Learners need a change of gear, a change of task, a change of procedure...whilst they can recycle the language they've been exposed to & need another way to exploit (they don't know they want to do this, by the way...they do know they want to do something not English, maybe, involves some art and yes please, a game on top :)

The basic premise, nicely embedded in Everybody Up 2 is an arts & crafts detour to review learning in units 1 & 2. Themes/topics = jobs, the five senses, and places around town. Some drawing, review of spelling & flipping back & forth through our text books = priceless refreshment of learning. None of this explicitly teacher directed, but rather, learners realising what they need to do & help each other out & find 'short cuts' (aide de memoire?).

The hardest part = how do you divide a paper plate (left over from our BBQ!) into equal fifths?

End of the day, don't sweat the details (we do not have protractors...and bannish erasers from any task like this!); just get on with it - primary objective is the language output (next week, conveniently open/observation week at Luna). 

We're ready - bring in the parents :)

So, what we actually accomplished is a nice little ambush; students "have" all the language embedded  into their paper plate, subliminal cues & rehearsed structures etc.

All I have to do next week is arrange the extra chairs & maybe provide the odd prompt, notice if we've got something to fine tune (the week after open week, without parents critiquing) and give high 5s.

 

Teacher says - almost nothing? Let the kids play!

Teacher said 'rip it up'!

It's been a while since I've shared our classroom activities here. My students inspire me, and I love how the simple things work best - we are more or less back face to face & done with blended zoom lessons - where we couldn't use physical resources...

Any teacher of young learners will tell you that the physical interaction of learners with their own resources, and their physical interaction with each other is priceless - and we are more or less mask free too (not a policy, just the mood).

You can see we are continuing to use online resources - really cool presentation tools & 'distracting' audio/video components. And of course you can see our students all have their own text books = physical resources we at Luna think are irreplaceable. 

You can see flashcard chaos? 

Let's get organised!

I see students managing their own stuff, sorting and saving - and helping each other. Gentle corrections and lots of unsponsored vocabulary spoken...I mean, no teacher talk time, but students prompting, checking, repeating. Teacher's job = shut up & listen! Sure, a few subtle corrections & non-verbal encouragements, nudges & thumbs up, but hey, the students are doing all the heavy lifting! All the non-involved (but attentive) teacher needs to do is a little bit of fine tuning of pronunciation/word substitution & make sure we all have the same number of cards.

Pro tip? Before you take flashcards out of the books (eg Compass's Sounds Fun or Oxford Phonics World) ask students to 'tag' their own cards with their own unique colour - a pink dot in all the top left corners, for example. Why? Well, any card game you play = they will need to unsort quickly! And give then a zip lock bag to keep their precious cards, and elastic bands if you want to save even more time & bundle sets/units together - I don't...the "sorting hat" scramble is another opportunity for learners to queitly/quickly re-process vocabulary & categorise/sort it. Another little win, sensei!

I think I'd estimate teacher talk time in these lessons at about 2 minutes/hour. As a game player - setting the standard/modelling output & answering "Jim sensei, what's this?" questions, & joking along (H told me to 'Go away!' instead of  'Go Fish!') fully involved - but as a peer & actually trying to loose the game itself. 

I have a cunning plan!

How much Japanese did the teacher need to speak? Nope, none.

How much Japanese did the students come out with? Precious little, apart from 'social'or game play reactions.

How much explanation went into the games? None - we started, and guess what, the students figured the rules/goals out for themselves & stress-tested their ideas - and then refereed when Jim-sensei tried to blatantly cheat!

 

Saori writes from her study abroad in England

 

Bath - World Heritage Site

Dear Mr. & Mrs. George

Hi Jim & Yukari, greetings from London

Time flies, already three months have passed since I arrived in the U.K.!! I've just finished taking lesson in Bath. I had been staying with my host mother for six weeks. She was very generous ...so I was lucky.

I could make a lot of foreign friends. And I could know different culture. I've already had many good experiences.

Besides, I went on a trip. For example, Oxford, Cardiff, Cotswolds, Weymouth, Bristol and Cheddar Gorge. In October, I'm going to Venice to meet my friend again. She was my flatmate.

I think that living in England is a great experience to improve my English skill. I feel my English has improved more than before. I'm going to another language school in Winchester on 4th of September. I'll do my best!! I'd like to show my growth by next meeting. Next time (when I come back to Japan), let's talk about what's going on recently.

I'm looking forward to seeing you again.

Best regards,

Saori

The old wooden name tag

Recently I found an old wooden name tag with my name and class room on it, which reminded me of my first summer holiday from elementary school.  So let me tell you about my bitter-sweet memory, and the shadow of my mum that still effects me deeply.

Do you like swimming?  Actually I do now, but I certainly didn't use to as I was afraid of water.  I would hide in the toilets during swimming class, and go home with my never-used-dry-swimming suit, and secretly put it in the laundry.  In the summer holidays, students had to go swimming almost everyday, with their neighbourhood friends.  When you arrived at the school pool, you needed to put your name tag on the board to show who was there.  

The author, with THAT wooden peg 

One day, when I was hiding in the toilet as usual, my teacher showed up with my mum and found me there.  I was terrified and froze in shock, bursting into tears with the horror of punishment for my bad behavior and embarrassment.  However, my teacher was rather gentle and sweet, and asked me why I was there.  After I explained my aquaphobia, he took me to the pool-side and showed me how relax and be comfortable in the water, on a hot summer's day.  He led me through the cool shower gently and took me to the big pool step by step.  Almost everyday after that, my teacher came to the swimming pool and made sure I was there safe and sound.  Gradually, my fear of water disappeared and I could even swim a little by the end of the summer holiday.  My place was very close to the elementary school, and I spotted my mum spying on me from behind the wall around the pool, with her parasol in her hand, everyday without any doubt.  I thought I couldn't hide anything or anywhere from her.

Thankfully I'm not afraid of water anymore and I can swim for a long distance, but I still feel my mum's eyes watching me everyday, even after almost half a century...she's watching.