ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

This week the world got the opportunity to see a fairly rare cosmic event! A Super moon that entered a total Lunar Eclipse turned a deep blood red, sadly it happened on the opposite side of the world so we couldn't see it here in Japan but many, many people got pictures of it! The phases of the moon have quite a history through legend and lore. The full moon in particular has quite an interesting lore. You may know the word Lunatic, it is derived from the word Lunaticus which means 'of the moon' or 'moonstruck.' The word was used to reference people who seemed to change their persona or who became uncontrollable during the full moon. Today we use the word in reference someone who is crazy in general. Somewhere along the way the moon got a reputation for all creatures that go bump in the night as well, vampires and werewolves and the like. All in all I think the effects of the moon on the world are so vast and impressive that we may never know how much it truly affects us.  

Hello!

Whew! It's been an exciting couple of weeks here! We had some visitors come from Canada to spend time with us, we've been to Tokyo and back, and there have been more “end-of-summer” barbecues and get-togethers than I have time for in a day! It's been a great experience to be able to see more of this gorgeous country, and I hope I get to experience more of it before Winter comes and takes hold of Japan. I should say though, that winter in Japan, from what I've heard, is more like Spring in Canada! This is something I'm very much looking forward to. It's going to be a great fall and winter I think, and I'm excited to be a part of it!

Alex!  

Halloween is my favorite holiday! I love the smell of Fall, and the colors of the leaves. I also love dressing up in costumes. I really liked to go trick or treating. In America, we have an event called the "Zombie Crawl". People dress up as Zombies and meet in the center of town and then parade around dressed as Zombies. It is so much fun. I am really good at groaning and walking like a zombie. They are my favorite monster!

  

On the way home from my trip to hiroshima, my car started to run rough, so I limped it down to Kan-onji to visit my friend's car shop.



I really like visiting his shop, because there are always cool cars there. The nissan skyline and Toyota crown were never sold in America, so being able to park next to two of them will always be cool to me. The Stagea also wasn't sold in America, so even now after a few months of ownership, I occasionally have one of those "this is so freakin' cool!" moments. Especially when I was on the expressway coming back from Hiroshima. I felt like I was in an old Wangan Midnight comic.



While I was at the shop, I also spotted this devilishly cool S15. What a awesome car! This was another one that was never sold in America.

This is what makes me glad I came to Japan. :)  

For my birthday I went to Tokyo for the weekend, actually for Saturday night, Sunday, and Monday afternoon. It was a lot of fun. I went mainly for two things: 1) to meet some friends from California and 2) to pick up some English books from Jimbocho. The two friends that I went out to visit I have never met before, except for through an online chatroom I am in with my other old friends from California, so this was going to be the first time to meet them both. They were a lot of fun. We ended up just walking around town almost the entire time and talking to strangers. I never did that before! Even if I seem loud and energetic in person, I am also a very shy and self-conscious person! As for the books…well I couldn’t find any English books surprisingly there, even though last time I was in Jimbocho there was quite a selection in one of the middle-sized used bookstores. I guess because the Fall semester recently started that all of the English books were bought up by the local Waseda students. I didn’t leave empty handed however! I wound up bringing home onto the plane with me a bunch of notebooks and small books of Tanizaki Junichiro for my later studies (once I can read Japanese!). Going around town there has made me reconsider my talents, especially when I browsed through a local art shop. For one thing, I really regret not having bought a fancy book cover for my small books!  

I just returned from another really wonderful weekend trip with my parents. This time we went to Osaka. I was especially excited for this trip because I love Osaka! Last time I went I had so much fun, and this time I had just as much! I was so happy to be able to share the places I love to visit with my parents while they were here. We spent most of our time on the Shinsaibashi, my parents were amazed by how big it was and we bought so much stuff. We visited lost of sports stores, because my parents love golf and I'm going to start running this month.
We also spent some time in Dotonburi! Dotonburi is one of my favorite places in the world to visit. There are so many cool things to see and so many yummy things to eat. It's paradise! We ate some really yummy food, and of course we tried takoyaki and okonomiyaki. We took a lot of pictures, we tried to take one in front of the Glico man but you can't see him.



I had to leave them in Osaka yesterday evening, and they'll fly home at around 4:30 today. I'm so sad their trip is over and they have to go home, but I'm so happy they could come!   

  

I just love to explore new things! Do you like to explore too? My friend Jillian (a Gem school teacher) and I explored Takamatsu last Tuesday. We went to the garden near Takamatsu Chikko. It was so much fun! We took so many pictures :) It was so beautiful. We even went inside the castle. A tour guide took us around the castle and tried to explain the history to us...but his English was limited and our Japanese ability is horrible haha But he was so kind.

Afterwards, we went shopping. We had lunch and afterwards we stumbled upon a super cute donut shop! They had adorable animal donuts. We just had to buy some. They were so yummy!

We had such a wonderful day, but we were so tired afterwards. My legs were so sore!

Love,

Leslie Teacher
  

I was in Kanonji a week ago and I got to try chuka soba for the first time.



A friend of mine brought me to this local restaurant. He aid it was famous for chuka soba, so I had to order it. It came with fried rice.

The soba was delicious! The broth is a little different from ramen broth and the toppings were a little different too. There was no thick sliced pork, instead the pork was very thin and not sauced at all. The broth was a little sour which went really well ith the saltiness of the toppings and the fried rice.

I loved it!  

So I'll be heading to Lisbon, Portugal in a week to visit my grandmother and I'm really excited! I haven't seen her in 12 years and she's 90 Years old, too. Lisbon is usually not a major destination for people traversing the European Union. But those who do always come to me and tell me that it was a great place to visit. I look forward to going and coming back with renewed vigor!

...And a full stomach. Have I told you how good the food is? I'm sure I have.

Stay tuned.

- James Barbosa

  

My favorite part of the new school year has always been shopping for school supplies. I love picking out cool and cute pencils and markers, notebooks and pencil cases. It's even better here in Japan! The pencils and pens are much cuter, and are available in so many different designs and colours! I have more pencils than I will ever use, and I can't help but buy more!
  

There are so many foods that make me think of autumn. But I think my favorite one is Chili! Chili is made with beans, meat, chili powder and onions in my family. There are many recipies. There are also many toppings like cheese, sour cream or onions. On a cold night nothing warms you up quite like a nice bowl of chili!

What foods make you think of autumn? Let me know!

Thank you for reading,

Kristen  

Hello!
So over the weekend I was able to check out the Shotengai in Takamatsu! It was so much fun and I had no idea it would be so big. In America the only thing we have similar to a Shotengai would something called a Flea Market. Those are outdoor shopping centers, but they are usually just booths rather than actual stores. I much prefer the all the shops and restuarants of the Shotengai than America's flea markets. I was able to buy some new clothes and get some supplies for my apartment. My favorite store by far was this store that sold Studio Ghibli products! I love Studio Ghibli, especially Kiki's Delivery Service! I love Gigi!! So when I stepped into the store I sort of went insane and bought a ton of things for my apartment. All Gigi styled! I plan to style my kitchen after Kiki's Delivery Service, so I plan on visiting that store a lot in the future!



  

Hey all!


Here is a few pics of me playing Futsal last week. It's a lot of fun to play and I play on a really good team. I didn't score any goals this time but I set up a lot of the other goals and chances that we had. I'm definitely a pass first kind of player.




It's also a great exercise to do other than my usual routine of cycling and gym. Playing a sport that requires a lot of continuous endurance is really tiring. But despite the exhaustion, it's really fun.

- James Barbosa  

Right now in America, the season of Fall will be ushering in a slew of pumpkin flavored things. Within the last 10 years, we have become crazy for pumpkin!

Most notably is all of the version of pumpkin coffee. I will miss the white chocolate pumpkin spice mocha from Dunkin myself. But most people think of the pumpkin spice lattes that Starbucks sells. I think that the "pumpkin" flavour is probably nutmeg or a few other spices, but it does remind me of Fall. And most of them are deliscious! Some of them are a little strange though, making anything pumpkin flavoured a running joke. Pumpkin chapstick? Pumpkin jello? Pumpkin Pringles??

If I was back in Michigan, I would also be hunting for pumpkin cheesecake, sold at the Grand Traverse Pie Company. It's amazing and hard to find!

But I really enjoy pumpkin things in Japan too. The latte shown above was a nice surprise, but it was a carton of pumpkin soup that had me truly excited. I love to pour it straight into a bowl and heat it up for lunch. The Chinese food market near my station also sold me a pumpkin croquette, which was incredibly good. I look forward to trying more dishes with pumpkin in Japan. I might even try to cook something!  

So my friend's mansion is a five minute walk from Aeon mall, and in between is a little park/playground for children. When I say little, I mean there is a swing set, what looks like a slide, and a sand pit. I don't think children often play there. Anyway, that is where a bunch of us decided to have a barbecue! It is a pretty ideal spot, as we can easily walk over to Aeon to pick up more food or alcohol. Quite a few people showed up, maybe around thirteen or fourteen, so it became something of a little party. We all talked and joked, and someone even brought a ball and a few gloves to play catch. It might be the last BBQ of the year, so I'm glad we could do it. I looked forward to the end of winter, because that just means more barbecues to come!  

Hello!

I'd like to share a little bit of our adventure to Tokyo this past weekend during Silver Week! We flew from Takamatsu airport to the Narita Airport, and took a shuttle bus to the beautiful hotel we were staying at. After a quick adventure around the area, we had an incredible 6 course meal at the hotel restaurant that was simply delicious. The next night, we took a walk on the wild side, and took in a show at the Robot Restaurant, that is less a restaurant, and more of a Dinner Theatre, with a three act, completely live, and hilariously choreographed performance by both dancers and robots. It was so much fun, it made up for the mediocre bento box dinner they served. If anyone gets the chance to experience Tokyo, I would definitely suggest that as a truly unique experience.

It's the end of our vacation now, and back to work soon, but it was a fantastic trip, and one I'll never forget!  

SIlver week has been a blast! I did many different things this week, from climbing a mountain, to having a bbq, and even going on a boat in a lake!
This time, I will talk about what I did on Sunday. Together with friends I made at an izakaya in Niihama, I went to this lake in Shikokuchuo. It was called Kinshako, otherwise known as Golden Sands Lake. It was a very nice lake, with lots of trees around. It was also very good weather that day, so there were quite a few people out.


We had gone to this lake in order to do some wake boarding, which is just being dragged around by the boat in the water while riding what seems like a snowboard. Unfortunately, the boat we were riding in had engine troubles, so our little trip had to be cut short. It was okay, though. to make up for that, my friends brought me up the rest of the mountain, to look at the site where flowers would usually grow during a certain time of the year. Hopefully we will have time to try again this year. If not, well, there is always next year!  

To finish off a good and relaxing Silver week I am going to go to an art show! One of our teachers, Tom, is also an artist. A very talented artist. He will be painting two times today in Utazu and I can't wait! I am going to the evening showing and my brain can't stop wondering about what he will paint. What colors will he use? Will it be an aggressive painting, a relaxed one, a somber one? Who knows until it happens right! I am really excited and I hope to see you there!

  

I have made a lot of friends in Japan. The people here are very nice, and very welcoming. Still, sometimes I miss my best friend from America. His name is William. We have been friends for 8 years. He is very funny, but kind of shy. We like to go to fairs together, and play video games. We still talk on the computer a lot, at least once a week, and we send each other letters and presents. He likes to send me pictures and candy from America. He is 23 years old, so he is a little younger than me. His birthday was in August, after I came to Japan, so I sent him a Kappa hat as a present.