Postcard from...Milan

Ciao Jim & NHK students, I'm enjoying a trip of Italy.

Milano is one of the trendiest cities in the world and all the people I can see are like fashion  models. I was taken my breath away in front of the "Duomo".



Unbelievable and magnificent!!

Chisato

Yuta reads (very well!)

Yuta's study buddy was absent today, so we showcased this young man's reading skills.
I think he did very well, don't you?!

Trainspotting

MosBurger's waiting room!

Platform three at Matsumoto station, just before eleven o'clock in the morning is the place to be!

We bundled up very warmly, and toddled off across the road to stand at the bus stop - just as the freezing rain started to come down. Brrr. The kids piled into MosBurger's heated entrance while Jim kept his eye up the road to Asama onsen.

We jumped onto the back seats and enjoyed the warm ride into the city centre, passing a number of our familiar landmarks along the way - mobile phone shop, hardware store, supermarket, cranes & diggers.

Back seat gang

We took the escalators up to the concourse, and the lift down to the platforms. We found Super Azusa & Shinano trains arriving from Shinjuku & Nagoya, as well as local trains on other platforms; we waved at them as they left, then welcomed the trains going the other way as well. The driver waved to us from his perch on a Super Azusa; so did the guard as the last carriage shot past on the way to Tokyo. Brilliant!

E351 series Super Azusa - platform 2

We saw one train going through a giant trainwash, and saw lots of others (we counted twelve) waiting or being shunted around. Sota knew all the trains' names, as well as all the Thomas ones. Eleanor and Hina were keen to stay behind the yellow line! Eleanor got a stunner off the ticket barrier - walloped shut in her face because Jim had the wrong ticket. Oops - not funny for Eleanor, as it sent her flying & was a real surprise...her nose is still red like Rudolph's :(

Chilling on platform 3!

Snack time in the warmth of the bus station (we saw a spotty bus on the way back from the station - Kevin says it had chicken pox?!) where there were lots of old ladies! We had time to kill so we popped up to the seventh floor in the lift and jumped on the escalators all the way down - no window shopping! Back seat gang again back to Luna - Sota fell asleep it was so nice & cosy.

Spotty bus spotted!

A great morning's trainspotting - beats learning the alphabet :)

We toast Yuki & Tana a fond farewell

A massive thank you to Yukari for organising a very good party for Yuki & Tana's farewell, and to Tomoko for her help on the night. We had a really good turn out of students, former students, mums and brothers & sisters - the younger ones enjoying the crawl space under the tables to have their own little party!

The waitresses were not the fastest, so by the end of the evening we had a backlog of drinks on the tables that we were forced to abandon. Criminal!

There was a steady stream of good food, which found a hungry audience - the kids devouring all the spring rolls as soon as they arrived. The layout was less than useful for speeches, which was a relief, instead messages flew around by paper and on a voice recorder - I'll be cleaning up the background noise if I can. Presents also landed on Yuki's lap and Tana's, which were very gratefully received.

It was all over in a blink - unlike both girls' time with the school. Some of us carried on to a second party, babes in arms headed home. Thank you everyone for coming, as well as for all the messages from those who couldn't make it, far and wide. We gave them a good send of, but it won't be quite the same as having them around all the time!

Meantime...anyone got any good photos? Please email them to Jim!

Lower Main Suite exams - Nagoya

I had an early start on Saturday morning, driving down to Nagoya at dawn. It was a beautiful crisp morning, and not too much traffic. Unfortunately, because of an unannounced room change I could not find the exams - not a promising start.

My mission today was to monitor the performance of the oral examiners - despite the large number of candidates I still had to scurry from room to room so I could catch all of our OEs in action. I'm glad I filled in as much as I could on the checklists before I left - was very hectic! Lunch didn't exist, as the supervisors were not too clever with their packing drill - an annoying situation as there was plenty of potential for a mistake/lost scripts.

The afternoon session was more of the same; I was hoping to check on invigilating as well, but the speaking tests took a bit longer than planned, and the written papers were all done by the time we were done with the speaking tests. I am glad I managed to see all of our OEs in action - some more than others - as it is very important that quality is maintained and that examiners are kept up to par. It is very easy to let bad habits slip into our performance; it is just as important that examiners who are doing a good job are told as much.

Goodbye, goodbye, it's time to say Goodbye

The day finally arrived when we asked Yuki & Tana to give us back the keys to the school. They will always have the keys to our hearts and cherished memories of their endless cheerfulness will linger long after we've lost the keys.

Thank you Tana for being super every single day you've been here, last day as bubbly as the first. Everyone will agree she has been a wonderful advert for English teachers in Japan, a (nice & quiet) ambassador for South Africa, a friend & confidant to our adult students and a warm-hearted buddy for all our younger learners. Tana has been great to work with and has never (really) complained or stopped smiling. YOu have seen aspects of her work here on the blog, and rather than me waffling on, I encourage her students to add their voice to my thanks here.

Likewise, I invite you all to 'big up' Yuki. She has been the rock upon which the school was founded. I do not have the words to express my admiration, affection, and faith in Yuki. She has forever been the voice of reason over stupid gaijin boss, of organised calm against stupid chaotic owner, of planning ahead versus where is it Jim. She learnt everything about the school from the ground up - everything necessary about using the computer, immigration law, accountancy, internet connections, banking, gaijin cards, driving licences, studless tyres, children's books, Cambridge ESOL exams, the English language, parenthood, Bon Bon dance, first aid, flu epidemics, tax, bizarre foreigners & their weird girlfriends/habits/food/hair/hygiene, landlords, contracts, train timetables...Yuki is Wikipedia in Japanese. She is a one off, and we will never be able to replace her - and we don't want to. She is staying nearby, and can now concentrate on really being our friend and not having to do everything Jim asks her to. Thank you, Yuki, you have added "Yuki" to a lot of peoples' dictionaries around the world.

Jim, Yukari, Tomoko, Kevin & Naomi all wish you both the very best for your futures. Thank you both for giving so much of yourselves to the students, our community, my school, and to me. Miss you enormously.

Tana Benzon  2007-2010
Yuki Momose 1999 -2010

I say to you Mr. Gorbachev - paint this wall, kids!

Such a beautiful day - would have been criminal to stay indoors! It was chilly though, and still a frost in the shade when I walked up to school first thing. Hats & woollies order of the day.

Our primary mission this morning was to find some paint brushes - to the hardware store then. We found all sorts of things before that though. Bicycles of all shapes & sizes - we even tried a couple out for size. Soft & smooth carpets as well as rough ones. Colour pencils of the rainbow. And finally brushes.

Yesterday the chippy put a partition wall up, blocking us out of our old large room (and now I realise the light switch for our corridor too!). Apparently they'll remove the freight lift as well, which has never been used & must weigh a ton or more). It's an ugly grey, plasterboard thing. Mmm. If they are going to rip our precious school to bits, we may as well enjoy ourselves - sound like a plan? Yeah, thought so too!

We are lucky Naomi-sensei is an artist. She is Michael Angelo to Jim's whim - "scenic rabbits & stuff". Jim did 'sky', while she created an idyllic landscape which the children quickly started colouring - crayon so we could paint over with bigger colours later. And did we colour? Fish, rabbits, goats, owls, fruit, mountains, trees, squirrels.

I think they fleshed out my inspiring 'thought' brilliantly, don't you? It's a tremendous bit of graffiti (can we take it with us??? Somehow think there's be a pick axe coming through it in January. Never mind - can we create? Yes, we can!

The remainder of our pre-school day was marked with green/blue hands, and a large amount of time under the table in Tana's room. It is very cluttered with 'stuff', so it was a nice hidey-hole where we could read a couple of books & lace buttons.

Highlight really was our masterpiece though - we autographed it with palm prints, just in case it is worth a few quid!

The penny drops

Well folks, the moment is finally upon us as we are no longer able to use our lovely large room. This morning I moved the last few bits & pieces out & cleaned up the balcony, before helping the builders rip up the carpet tiles. It looked very bleak - and sad - and empty, just as it did four years ago when Yuki and I decided we'd move in. The world turns and we have to get on with things!

Tana's cosy classroom

Squeezing all of our stuff into 50% of the space has proved to be a challenge, and I am afraid the next week or two we will have rather cluttered classrooms. I assure you this is temporary - we are moving through this month as our new premises get cleaned get & a lick of paint. Please bear with us?!

Jim's very full classroom

Our students and mums arrived and looked disorientated this afternoon; which proves that the letters we gave out didn't find their readers again. We are going to make a big effort in 2011 to get our message out to everyone electronically. Tana's room was even fuller than it looks today, as Kevin joined in with her classes - let's hope the students don't scare him away?! Jim's students needed a shoe-horn to get comfortable, but at least it was easy to keep warm.

In Jim's first class, Yusuke & Sho had a good giggle singing the "Are you Happy" song from English Time 1; check out the podcast - they were really good!

What of tomorrow? Well, it's our very very last day to have the Unique Yuki & Tremendous Tana on the team...going to be a bleary-eyed one I think.

Shrine etiquette

Before you go to the main place of the shrine you should wash your hands and rinse your mouth. Once you reach the main building, to pray you ring the bell, throw the coin, two claps one bow, and pray your hope, then one clap and bow again.
Posted by Kevin for Chit Chat.

Putting Man. Utd to shame!

Last week I posted a cool commercial featuring Manchester United. This team from Iceland (Stjarnan) have been much more inventive. If I were playing for the other team though, I think I'd be likely to get very annoyed with them! What do you think, pundits? What's the best celebration?

We are moving - Panic ye not: business as usual!

By LunaJim | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Luna will be relocating over the Christmas/New Year holiday. We are only moving about 150 metres! The new location is lovely, and I am sure you will like it (I know, we love MK Building too!). We will be telling you about parking places, directions etc soon. Please excuse any inconvenience through December as we prepare to move all our things. We look forward to welcoming you to Luna #3 in 2011. Lots of exciting new ideas to share with you! 


Jim

Mutsumi' delicious Apple Cake recipe

One of the benefits of being a teacher is that every now and then a student likes to show off their cooking skills by bringing something delicious to class for us all to share. Mutsumi made an Apple Cake, which was delicious as well as low in calories (very important for us women who are watching our figures), and was kind enough to furbish us with the recipe so we can try it ourselves at home.
Here is the recipe:

ingredients:

apples(Kougyoku) 3, soft flour 1 cup, eggs 3, sugar 1 cup, salad oil 1/4 cup, some baking powder, some cinnamon, some salt

Method:

1 Cut apples

2 Whisk the flour,baking powder,sugar,cinnamon,salt,egg,salad oil and apple in a medium bowl.

3 Plase baking sheet into mold, pour in.

4 Bake for 60 minutes at 170 degrees C.

From Mutsumi Maruyama

Bathing etiquette and advice for foreigners

With the arrival of Kevin next week, there has been a lot of opportunity to exploit the "foreigners in Japan" topic. Besides the obvious questions we might like to ask him about his country and his experiences (look out for the pod-casts later on), it is also a good time to extend a hand of friendship, anticipate any problems he might have in his first few months here and offer some valuable advice regarding cultural taboos, and customs.

To this end my adult class this morning devised a list of pertinent points regarding a visit to the onsen (hot spring public baths). It goes something like this:

* Before entering the hot bath you should wash your private parts and armpits.
* Don't wear a swimsuit in the bath.
* Don't put your towel in the bath (but on your head is ok!)
* Don't wash your underwear in the bath! (taken from a real sign)
* Don't swim, splash or dive in the bath.
* If you suffer from high blood pressure, you should not enter the bathtub for a long time.
* You should dry your body with a towel before going into the changing area so you don't wet the floor.
* Sweep the area after using the hair-dryer.

Football Focus - name the Man. Utd players in this ad.

And who is the gentleman reading?

Mr.T directs "Bye Bye Cowbow" - a modern story!

Meet Yousuke

Image via WikipediaHi Jim,

My name's Yousuke. I live in Matsumoto, a big city in the Nagano Prf. I live with my parents and my two brothers. I am 26years old. I work for Itec.

I'm going to tell you about myself. I have black short hair and brown eyes. I wear glasses, but I wear contact lenses on holiday.

I think I'm a shy person. I don't talk when I meet a person for the first time. However, the second time I'm talkative.

In my free time I read books or play the guitar. My favorite writer is Hiroshi Ogiwara. His books are interesting.

Please write soon and tell me about you and your life.

Best wishes,

Yousuke

What's the time Mr. Wolf? Time for some fresh air!

An Iraqi refugee shares her story

This afternoon I went to hear a talk about Iraq from Dr Alkzayer, who is one of 4m Iraqi refugees; not many in Japan. Was 4th yr med student Mosul at start of Desert Storm 1991. Nearly 2m in surrounding nations, 2m more internally displaced (of a total population estimated at about 30m). 5% of the pop. is Christian.


Worked as doctor 1993-2000 on $3/month. Set up 1st pediactric oncology practice in Mosul on graduating as pediatric oncologist.

US Army occupied her hospital in 2004, forcing her to move the unit for sake of her cancer patients, having to recruit new staff who could not relocate due to the danger.
Experienced 3 bombings and was shot at in her house 3 times, and as a Christian doctor received 4 death threats on her mobile. Was at the top of a hit list of doctors the terrorists intended to murder.

Her brothers, also Christian, had death threats; one a refugee in Syria now. Her driver shot & his son killed.
7/10/2008 Christians warned on loudspeakers to leave Mosul or be killed. 2,000 families left that night; she came to Japan.

The attack on a church 31/10/2010 killed 50, injured 76. One of the two priests who died was her relative. Gruesome pictures; distant background TV news for me comes a lot more poignant. In 2009 she came to Japan with her brother after chance meeting with person from JICA.

Horrific images of cancer cases from her wards at Ibn Al Athir hospital, with huge jump in cases over her 8 years there: depleted uranium suggested as a very obvious candidate for the cause. Majority of victims appear to have been children. Sourced a lot of her specialist drugs from Japan thru NGOs JIM-NET (Japan-Iraq Medical Network) & JCF (Japan Chernobyl Foundation). Claims 80% recovery rate in patients there. JICA supporting her research now on Genetics of Cancer in Children & very grateful of Japanese support. She is extremely grateful to the Japanese for their support of her medical endeavours in Mosul & for providing her & her relatives safe haven now.

Q/A she says one day they woke up with no government & that American attack in Hussein was not planned; I think the war was well-planned but nothing to deal with the consequences. She says the Americans did so much more for religious conflict & instability than ever Saddam managed - all pretty harmonious until he was removed. In attacking Iraq & creating the current climate, US has piled a lot of wood on a bonfire for Al Qaeda to light. Christians & non-Muslims throughout Middle-East now in danger of attack for their beliefs/lack of Muslim faith.

Image via Wikipedia

Does not see how she can return to Iraq, though she really would like to, because of the recent & increasing sectarian violence. However, she will go back to Iraq &die after her PhD is complete in two years time.

Ex-Honda employee (Hiyoki?) spent 2 months in Iraq & 3.5 years in Saudi 34 years ago & comments on beauty of the place. Dr Alkzayer says that changed 1991, but with invasion 2003 of ground troops whole situation turned upside down.

Was Saddam good? For Shia he was not good news. His domestic policies apparently good, but his foreign policy was disastrous. Christians were safe under Saddam. For 5 years she lived in Baghdad cheek by jowl with Sunni & Shia Muslims very peacefully. Now being murdered even in their place of worship (as Shia are also targeted by predominantly Sunni Al Qaeda). Kurds obviously not safe under Saddam, nor are they safe from Al Qaeda despite being Sunni.

My fault for inaccuracies in this article; written during her slideshow & Japanese interpretation - bit hard to catch every detail. I would like to hear more from this very dedicated & brave woman.

Postcard from - Okinawa

Dear Tana and Yuki,

Hi!

I went to Okinawa on a school trip this week. This was the first time I go to Okinawa with my students as a HRT. We had a wonderful time! I really missed you when I heard you'll leave Luna. But I hope you'll be happy and take care of yourself.

Thank you! See you next week!

Yuki

A tool I found during the weekend and can even do on my iPhone (I think - haven't tried yet).

 What do you think of it so far? Worth $5 a month?

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Comments please!