ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

This year I was able to attend the festival in Niihama. I didn't participate, because I didn't know any teams, and I could only attend the last day (Sunday) because I worked in different cities the other two days. I'm glad I was able to make it the last day, though. I saw something amazing that I had only heard of before. I was able to watch two teams "battle" it out, right in front of Ikku Shrine! Well, I saw some of it, and not very clearly. There were a lot of people gathered to watch the "fight", so it was very crowded. It was very difficult to get a clear view, but I got to see enough!
The two teams who were fighting were Ooe (大江) and Nakasuka (中須賀？). I've heard the Ooe are really into fighting, haha. The two teams were going for a while; I heard they fought for two hours! It caused a problem for the other teams, as they had to wait to get through to the shrine. At some point they were able to get through, which was good because the next awesome thing I saw were different teams lifting the taikodai up from the ground! To get through the gate to the shrine, each taikodai had to be dragged through without being on their wheels. Then, once through, they had to be lifted up from such a low position. It was amazing!
I have to say, just watching everything got me really excited to join in for next year. And even though it is really, really, REALLY dangerous, I want to have a go at fighting it out on the taikodai, even if it is only for a little bit. Guess I should start looking for my team for next year!  

  

Hello!

I got some very dissappointing news the the other day, in the form of an error message on my laptop! It said to me that there was a critical and permanent error, and that the hard drive was going to crash any minute! Now, I don't know a lot about computers of any kind, but I know that without the hard drive, they just don't work. So, this month, I'll need to be on the look out for a new computer! Unfortunately, if I buy one here in Japan, it will be a Japanese computer, so I'll be looking for one in Canada or the US and have it shipped here (hopefully for not much!)

Why it's so sad is that it comes at a pretty critical time for me. I had plans to attend a large convention in Kobe in November, but now I will not be able to afford to do both that and purchase a new laptop! And, because having a laptop is pretty important to living in a foreign country, I'll need to cancel my trip, and use that to put towards a new computer.

It's sad, but not as sad as not having a laptop for many months, and trying to survive without it!  

Lately I've picked up the hobby of running, which means I'm always looking for good running music now! I love finding just the right song to run to, so I've been experimenting a lot lately. My favorite genre of music is Japanese pop, and my favorite band is Morning Musume I especially like older Morning Musume songs from a few years ago. It's a little difficult to run to j-pop sometimes though, so I've been looking up remixes to use while I run.
So far, my favorite running re-mixes are re-mixes of Love Live songs (I think Love Live music is so cute and catchy, it makes great running re-mixes!). I also have some fun re-mixes of the Sailor Moon opening theme song in English and Japanese. I'm still looking for great running music, things that get me really pumped up to run!

So what are you listening to lately?  

Yesterday I did some shopping. It has been a long time since I bought anything other than udon, discounted sushi, books, and notebooks, so when I finally went out for some Halloween shopping I naturally found myself inside of a beauty shop. It was such an amazing journey! I never knew that taking care of one’s skin could be so methodical and laborious, so perplexing and complicated, so interesting. I had my friend explain to me her face beauty procedure. First she applies warm water to open the pores and the lather her face with some sort of cleaning agent, then she applies a mask of some sort, and then she washes her face with cool water to close the pores again before applying a moisturizer to condition the skin. Add to all that the occasional exfoliator and whatever astringents deemed necessary. She even said that she learned from Pinterest some recipes for making her own beauty oils and creams. For my own inflamed skin she recommended resting tomatoes around my mouth to help subdue the redness in that area. Even looking at the array of soaps in that shop became a learning experience. There was a selection from some brand named something like “World Soaps,” and each of their offerings resembled a block of wood! The thought of artisanal crafts has never really interested me because most of the artisanal crafts that I’ve come across tend to be in the form of jewelry or New Age-y art, but the art of crafting creams and other skin or food products is much more interesting to me. I suppose I would rather take care of my skin than my outerwear? But what does the skin and clothes have in common in the first place? What an interesting world of cosmetics I discovered!


  

  

  

Hello, all!

As Taylor wrote in her blog entry, last Sunday a bunch of people went to the soon-to-open AEON Town in Utazu to celebrate the opening and plant some trees!

We're very excited about the new location, and we had a ton of fun working in the dirt! Our group leader, Watanabe-san, was super friendly and helped us all enjoy the event.

Here he is working together with me, even though I apparently turn into a hideous hunchbacked gnome when I try to pour water.

Courie, Jillian, Sarah, Satomi, and Taylor were all there, so you're sure to see all of them blogging about how much fun they had. Jillian even got to use her artistic talent to create our group sign

I look so interested because drawing is like magic to me: I can't do it and I don't understand it, but it's fun to watch.

and we all felt proud that we were bringing some new life to the new school location!

Hope you'll visit soon!

—Matthew  

Halloween is almost here! I was surprised that Japan celebrates Halloween. I lived in South Korea and Australia before coming to Japan and neither country celebrated Halloween I loved Halloween when I was younger because I went Trick-or-Treating with my friends and family. Trick-or-Treating is where you knock on people's doors and say "Trick-or-Treat!' and they give you candy. It's so much fun! I remember having so much candy one year. So much, that we had to go home to get another bag because my first bag was full. I think that year I dressed up as a Pumpkin Princess. What costume will you be wearing this Halloween? I already know what I'm going to be :)

-Leslie   

This week has been full of local matsuri that I've been lucky enough to attend! This week I'll talk about the first matsuri that I was able to participate in: Tezui matsuri.




Tezui is a Ttaikodai festival held in the west area of Saijo. It's largely a farming community, and is very rural. The taikodai are also smaller than normal, and are called "child taikodai". I spent the mornign taking picture and video, then the afternoon helping the team lift and pull the taikodai between various shrines. It was a long day! We started at 5:30 in the morning and went until about 7:00 PM. I was very tired.




Still, it was beautiful. I had a great time.   

On Sunday October 11th, I joined a few of the other GEM Teachers and the wonderful Ino at the new Utazu AEON Mall for a tree planting ceremony!
GEM School is moving from its current location into the new mall very soon, and GEM School was invited to take part in the tree planting! In Canada and America if there is a tree planting for a new building being opened, it is usually only one or maybe even two trees being planted, so we were all very surprised that we were asked to plant six or seven trees each!
It was a lot of fun, and we had a very good team of people helping us! Jillian decorated the sign that is in our section of trees, and we all had a great time!
I think we really entertained our team leader with our goofy antics, and our confusion as to how to tie down the hay, (So I tried to eat it, but the other teachers told me that it's yucky!).
It was a wonderful time, and a great learning experience for everyone involved!   

I went to Portugal last week and I had a good time. I got to see a lot of history as well as some attractions like an aquarium and and the Algarve, which is a tropical beach line that sits on the Mediterranean Sea. Here are some pictures of my trip.



This is from the top of the hill that overlooks Lisbon which has a ruined castle on top of it. I was able to take a picture of Lisbon below.



Here is the Tower of Belem. It actually has water around it and only a bridge to connect it from the mainland.



I went to a museum on the marine history of Portugal and this was one of the replica ships called a "Caravel"

More pictures to come!

- James Barbosa


  

I love Summer, but I also love Fall. In America when Summer turned to Fall we would celebrate with lots of bonfires, and we'd tell ghost stories. We also like to carve pumpkins, and drink apple cider. Another very special thing would happen in the Fall. Mideval fairs would come to town. Last year my friend Gitta and I went to the mideval fair together. It was so much fun.


  

This week I took part in the Tezui Matsuri, which involved taikodai, and Saijo Matsuri, which were danjiri. It was my second time at Tezui Matsuri, with my friends. It was such a blast! Last year I only made it to about 1 pm before I had to stop (which isn't bad, considering we started at 5 am). But this year, I managed to stay the whole time, and it was glorious! I felt so great (only a little sore afterwards) and my voice was still intact! So many people remembered me from last year, I was a bit surprised. I guess I left quite an impression on them, hahaha. I definitely look forward to doing it again!
This was my first time joining Saijo Matsuri, as I had to work during the week last year. Working with the danjiri was quite different from the taikodai. There were actual songs to sing along to (I was a bit upset that I didn't know the words to sing the song), and we actually lift the danjiri and walk with it for a (short) distance. That part was rough, though I think other people had it worse because they are taller than me.I think I might prefer the taikodai, because I felt a bit more involved in it. But then, that was probably just because This was my first time with the danjiri, and I was already too tired to do anything because I took part in the Tezui Matsuri earlier in the week.
I am looking forward to watching the festival in Niihama, and taking part in the one in Iyo-Mishima next week!   

Thanks to one of the Gem School staff ladies, I got myself lots of Halloween socks! I have been in need of some new socks anyways so it didn't feel bad to buy so many. I love to wear Halloween all year long so I'll have these socks for a long while.

Clothes have been taking up a big chunk of my month. I have been putting together a costume for my Halloween concert on Sunday (YAYYYY HYDE!) and I had my Mom send over a costume to wear during my classes. A dress that I ordered a while ago finally arrived, and I've been glamming it up for the big event that will be happening on Halloween day. I spent all Monday sewing by hand and I'm really proud of it!

The weather has been getting cooler, which has been a blessing. I had the hardest time sleeping at night during the summer. The cool weather pushed me to switch out some of my summer clothes for winter, and I've started carrying around a coat or a sweater. I love fall clothes with scarfs, vests, and sweaters. Sometimes we don't have a very long fall in Michigan so everyone gets quite dressy right away. Got to look stylish before we have to put on 3 more layers!

I'm on the lookout for any Halloween shirts so if you see one, please tell me! In America there would be at least 3 main department stores that would sell Halloween shirts. Usually they were T-shirts but some of them were super cool (to me, anyway).  

Look a lot like Christmas in my apartment! I have no idea why but my brain has kicked into Christmas gear! I have my Christmas trees up, yes I have two, My lights, some of my general decoration, and..... CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!! I love the feeling of the season! Halloween is fun, don't get me wrong, I love it as much as the next person but I absolutely LOVE the Christmas season! So much happiness and good will everywhere! Around the world there are so many different ways people celebrate Christmas. In my family we set our tree up in late November and we play a lot of Christmas music. One of our family favorites that we listen to every year is a very old song called Christmas in Kilarney, it's an amazingly fun song to bounce around to. In America there are a few classic movies that they stream on television for people to watch. They are It's a Wonderful Life, The Grinch that Stole Christmas, White Christmas, The Christmas Carol, and a few more. They are all amazing movies with great lessons in them! If you get the chance, try to watch them this year!  

I went to a cat cafe in Takamatsu with a Japanese friend, Arian Teacher, and JIllian Teacher. We had so much fun! There were so many cats! We even got to feed them their lunch.





There was a kitten who I fell in love with. He wanted to sit in my lap and cuddle, and he even fell asleep on me. He was so adorable. He didn't have a name so Jillian and I decided to name him 'Albert' :) There was also another cat that we all loved. We decided to call him 'Ghost Cat' because he was always looking around...as if there were ghosts hanging around the cafe.

Do you like cats too? I love them! I think they are so funny and sassy!

-Leslie   

As might have been stated before, I really love philosophy. Philosophy is not just argument for argument’s sake and it is not just navel gazing and it is not just armchair theorizing. These, I think, are common misconceptions. Pursuing philosophy is not just “learning how to think.” One way to think about philosophy is to consider reflexivity, or how something “counts” or has meaning. One branch of philosophy is ethics, basically defined as the study of how one should behave. Start from ethics and perhaps the interests of philosophy are all of ours. But yet, what about ontology, or the study of being, or mathematics? Why should we care about all of that, beside mathematical applications in physics and the “useful” sciences? How can we think of “just numbers” as ethical? How can we “live” and act numerically, or with numbers? We can start perhaps by thinking of teaching and the classroom. Teaching is clearly not a mere computation or “punching of numbers” or calculating. Our students and children are each unique. Naming someone is not to number someone. So how can we think numerically, or with numbers, in our lives when we all have names, when we are all unique, when we are all “not just a number”? Lately I have been trying to think about these kinds of questions, so recently I have begun the pictured book. It is very tough going and abstract at the moment, but once I "get some definitions down” (“get something down” = learn) I should be able to move through it a lot more comfortably. So despite its difficulties, it is also a very enjoyable venture, a bit like learning a new language. This book’s title’s reference to the “transcendent” is a reference to its studies of infinities and other number types that seek to make sense of each thing’s uniqueness.

  

  

Hello, all!

My Saturday Baby Club was a lot of fun. All the students and parents helped color the letter "E." Each "E" had a picture of a egg (E for egg!), and one of my students decided to color her egg green. She colored so carefully!

Of course I started laughing and said, "Green Eggs and Ham!" The parents were all baffled. No one knew what "Green Eggs and Ham" meant! Today, I will reveal the answer:

Green Eggs and Ham is the most famous book by Dr. Seuss, the most famous English-language children's writer. It's one of the best-selling children's books of all time. Every American child knows the story: a strange little creature named "Sam-I-Am"

wants his big friend to eat green eggs and ham! Unfortunately, the big guy doesn't want any green eggs and ham. On each page, he tells Sam-I-Am "no" in a different way:

I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-Am.
I do not like them here, or there,
I do not like them anywhere!

Finally, he tries the green eggs and ham. Surprise! He likes it!

I do so like green eggs and ham.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sam-I-Am!

The most interesting thing about this book is that it uses only 50 different words! Dr. Seuss made a bet with his publisher that he could write a book using only 50 words, and he won the bet. The 50 words (and your vocabulary list) are:

a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, & you.

When my sister and I were very young, my parents sometimes cooked us green eggs and ham! It's really simple. Just add green food coloring when beating some scrambled eggs. It looks like this:

Just like the book, it looks weird, but tastes delicious!

—Matthew