ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

Ah, VR. It stands for 'virtual reality' and it has been the stuff of science fiction for decades. However now we are coming face to face with a new era of entertainment. VR is here, folks, and it's awesome. Several companies have already invested a lot in the VR technology and games have been in the making for VR.

The picture above is one such game called "Project Arena". Like I said this is stuff of science fiction! It's awesome! What do you all think? Would you buy a VR headset? They are expensive right now but that won't last long. Soon enough they will be at affordable prices and everyone will have one, I think.


- James Barbosa  

My favorite animal is the octopus. Its plural is octopode, which is pretty unusual. Everything about them is unusual, which is why I love them so much. Some scientists even think they might be aliens, they're so strange. Octopode can do lots of things other animals can't do. Some of it is weird and creepy, but sometimes, weird and creepy is kind of cool. I've been thinking of making short comics about octopode, but for now, I've just been doodling them.   

While living in America Sadie and I would enjoy eating sushi every Sunday. In Japan we often visit Hama Sushi though it is not quite the same. This past Sunday a coworker took us to a local sushi restaurant. The quality of the fish was great and the set up of the restaurant had a very homey feel to it. We were very satisfied with the sushi and will probably be regulars at the restaurant.




The sushi dinner was just what we needed, but the night could not end without having one of my favorite drinks, Bailey's Irish Cream. I had been craving Bailey's for some time but was very unfortunate whenever I went looking for it. Eventually I found it at a big Liquor store in a mall.

What dishes and drinks do you enjoy? What food would you miss the most if you were living abroad?  

Coming back from my trip has made me really tired! I have been going to bed incredibly early (for me) and waking up too early! I'm sure this is still from my Jetlag. At least I don't have insomnia!

I got pretty busy making crafts this week. I was leaving one of my special classes because of a new schedule, so I spent a long time making the kids these keychains!


Aren't they cute?? I'm really happy with them!

On the way to my class, one of them fell out of my bicycle! I was so freaked out. On my lunch break I jumped back onto my bike and retraced my path. Luckily I was able to find it and my kids never found out. Whew!

I also really like to collect POP! dolls and make kimono for them. Here is one that I think looks like me.

I have a long line of dolls on top of my TV right now. I will get a nice group photo of it next time.

  

Recently my girlfriend picked up a relatively new game for the PS4. It is called Ikenie to Yuki no Setsuna (いけにえと雪のセツナ), which if i had to translate it would be "The sacrifice and a moment of snow". Not a great translation, but it isn't stateside yet (not even sure if it will go there).
Anyway, we have been playing this game, and though we haven't really gotten anywhere yet, we have been having a lot of fun with it. I think it is because we are playing it together, and practicing English and Japanese together. I would read the Japanese in the game (with help for any Kanji I didn't know or couldn't guess), and she would translate it as best she could, and then I would help her to say it in a better/more appropriate sentence. It has been quite entertaining so far, and we only just reached the first village.
It's going to take a while to get through the game, what with our busy schedules, but it is something I looked forward to, and have a lot of fun with!  

Hello again! This past weekend I made something with my best friend! We made a garland using all of the shells and things we have collected! It came out so well! We even put our favorite colors I there by using beads! We also went to a beautiful garden this past weekend in Awaji. It has a greenhouse and large outdoor gardens too! Lots of roses and other flowers covered everything, it was so amazing! On Saturday night, we also had a barbecue dinner on the beach! It was so fun!


  

Hello!

I'm writing this from Canada, so hopefully the time on that I post it, and the time that it should be posted are the same thing!

We arrived just the other day, into the city of Toronto. We flew about 12 hours from Tokyo, and it was a pretty exhausting journey! It's strange to think that being cramped and unmoving might be tiring, but when combined with all the time zone differences and the general lack of sleep we've had the last couple of days, it makes more sense.

In any case! We're back here in Manitoba now, and it's been great so far! My sleep schedule is all out of sync, so I'm up very very early, and feeling ready for bed around 4 pm! I know I'll adjust soon, but I'll be happy when it does!


See you soon!
A  

  

Hello, All!

One of the things I most often need to explain to my adult students is the difference between a suntan and a sunburn. If you've seen me, you know that I am very pale. (In English, "fair" sounds good, but "pale" sounds bad. "Pale" makes us think of someone who stays inside, never exercises, and might be sick.) This means that I am very prone to sunburn. If I complain to my students that I have a sunburn, they think I mean only that I don't like having darker skin. But that's not true at all!

Today I am going to explain this once and for all.

To understand the problem, here's a picture of a suntan:

Two arms, one tanned, one not tanned.
A suntan happens when your skin is damaged by the sun. The skin responds by producing more melanin, and turning darker. Some tans are only a reaction to the damage; others are your body's attempt to prevent more damage. Suntans aren't good for you, but they don't hurt, either. They only change your appearance.

Here is a sunburn:

AAAAAAAAUUGHHHH ow ow ow ow oh ow
A sunburn is a burn. Your skin has been destroyed. It turns red and hurts for a few days, then itches very badly, then the damaged skin peels off in big white sheets.

The peeling doesn't hurt. In fact, it feels good, because it stops the itching.
Very bad sunburns, like the one in the first picture, also blister. You can see two blisters in the picture—they're the big yellow bubbles. They're full of a nasty liquid, and after about a week, they pop. It's very, very gross.

My worst sunburn happened when I was a teenager, visiting my grandparents in Florida. Even though I wore sunscreen, my shoulders burned so badly I couldn't go outside for two days. I had blisters on each shoulder the size of a loaf of bread—they hung off each side of my shoulder like giant leeches, and my shirts wouldn't even fit over them! The two sunburns in those pictures are actually much more mild than that burn. I've gotten several other burns nearly as bad.

So next time you wish you had lighter skin—don't! Pale-skinned people like me live in constant fear of the sun. If I drown myself in SPF 50+ sunscreen, I get only light burns or tans, but I still have to be careful. Count yourself lucky if you only tan!

—Matthew  

Last week I told you about my trip to Himeji Castle, and now I will tell you about my time in Wakayama! I was very excited to visit a little train sation about half an hour from Wakayama-shi, in a tiny town called Kishi.

I was excited because Kishi has a very famous Sation Master. The Sataion Master is the boss of the train station, and this Station Master is extra special. He is a calico cat named Nitama!

The whole station is decorated in a cat theme, with Tama and Nitama characters all around. There is a souviner shop and a little cafe. It's really cute!

There was even a cat themed train to take me to the Kishi train station!


  

I've been experimenting with watercolors this past week. Different techniques with how much water you use, the paints, and more.

One of my favorite movies is Up!, (a Pixar movie) so I decided to paint that this time. I will probably try to do trees or flowers on my next attempt.

Also, I will be making a travel watercolor kit for myself - once I get all of the supplies I need: a small metal tin, pans or small containers, small water brush, and a few others things. I will update you when I have finished it! :)

  

I have been in Japan for almost two years. During that time, I haven't went back to visit my family. My mom got tired of waiting for me to visit and hearing about all the wonderful things I have been finding in Japan. So she decided to come and visit during Golden Week!

We had so much fun together! I took her many places in Shikoku and we did a lot of shopping and talking. We tried Japanese foods, went to shrines and temples and met with many of my friends. In the coming weeks I will tell you all about the things we did.

What did you do during Golden Week? Let me know!

Thank you for reading,

Kristen  

Since being a teacher at GEM School I've met some really fantastic kids and I'd like to think I make a difference in their lives. This gets reinforced whenever I receive a thoughtful gift from them from time to time. Each and every thing I've received is put away in a special box of memories of my time here. Everything from a post card for the holidays to a thank you picture from a young student.

One of the most recent things I received was this star. It's a fantastic work of art, thank you Bianca.

- James Barbosa  

During Golden Week my friend and I took a trip to Osaka. We saw a lot of cool stuff there, including Osaka Castle. The weather was nice, so there were lots of people there. Some were from a High School English club that were polling English speakers at the Castle. It was really fun to participate in. The castle was absolutely beautiful, and it was really nice walking in the park on its grounds.   

On our day off Sadie and I went to get a nice full body massage. Prior to this experience we had never had a massage. We didn't know what to expect. We found a place that a coworker had suggested and thanks to a staff member we were able to get an appointment scheduled. Once there we had no idea how to communicate anything because our Japanese is minimal. We enjoyed a 30 minute food massage as well as an hour long body massage. The massage was deep, strong, and soothing. I almost fell asleep in the middle of the massage. Sadie and I were completely relaxed and rejuvenated at the end of our appointment. We found the massage to be so pleasant that we plan to go back once a month.

Do you enjoy a good massage? Where do you like to get a massage?  

One of the days that I was in Michigan, my father picked me up and took me out to lunch. At first he had said that we would go have Chinese food, which was fine with me. I really wanted to eat some crab ragoons, which are crab and cream cheese in a fried wonton.

Instead, he surprised me by taking me to a restaurant with Polish food!


It was really nice that he remembered what I said about missing Polish food. We used to have it for dinner pretty often. There were some big pierogies(polish dumpling with cheese or potato), a gwumpki (rice stuffed cabbage) and keilbasa (red sausage). My appetite was finicky so I was happy to just taste the food and take it home for later.

My father recently bought a small house on a lake. It reminds me of one of our old houses (we've had quite a few). The lake looks so nice!



We've already had to chase away geese though!


  

I know One Piece is a very popular manga and anime, the manga having started sometime back in the 90's (I think 1997?). It didn't go stateside until around 2003, but I didn't really learn about it until much later. When I did, I didn't have too much interest, partly because it looked weird. I never gave it a chance.
When I came to Japan, I saw that it was super popular, which somehow made me even less interested to try it out. But eventually I came around and started to read the manga. From the beginning. That's 80+ volumes of manga. Over 800 chapters to get through. I don''t remember exactly when, but I think I started back in February? It is now May, and I am nearly all caught up. It was very addictive, and after a while I stopped doing other things in order to read it.
It was actually a bit annoying, and now my goal is to finish catching up so I can go ahead and do other things, haha. Not to say that I dislike the series now. I will continue reading it, maybe even collect some merchandise. I do hope that it will have a conclusion someday, though. I dislike manga that never end, especially really long ones. What if you want to read through it again? There is no time for that nonsense, hahaha.  

Well, I was finally able to go to Konpira shrine! There were so many stairs but it was totally worth it! On the way up the mountain I got to go to several shops and look out points. There was also a giant pot of water that people were floating one yen coins on, it was a fun challenge! Everything was beautiful. The shrine itself was beautiful! Yet again I am impressed with the public places of Japan!  

Hello!

It was a great, week long holiday, but it's time to get back to work and back to the classroom! This year, instead of travelling out of the area like we did last year, we stayed close to home, and took the opportunity to get some much needed rest and relaxation. We were able to take in some of the sights and sounds of the city, and one of my favourite adventures came when we went to Ritsurin Gardens for the afternoon. I had never been before, and wow, it was truly beautiful! We walked around for a few hours, but I don't think we even got through half of the expanse of the park! There were flowers and rivers and word really don't capture the beauty that we saw. For those who haven't before, treat yourself this summer to spend a day at Ritsurin Gardens, it's a real treat for the senses!

Have a great week!
A