ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

Hello!

I often get asked about what the biggest differences between Japan and Canada are, and without a doubt, the biggest difference is the weather. Canada is considered a very temperate climate, which means that it has big swings in its weather patterns. In the summer it's warm and sunny, and in the winter, it's dark, cold, and windy.

Here in Japan, however, the weather is much more consistent, at least where we are here on Shikoku. Here, it's warm and sunny all year long, but in the summer, we start getting into the humid season. Being humid in this case means that not only is the weather hot, but also wet. There is a large amount of moisture in the air, so it feels like walking through a shower. Where I am from in Canada, this weather is almost impossible to have, so having it for months and months here in Japan is difficult for me! What it means is I have to buy lots of new shorts for this summer, and find new ways to try and beat the heat!  

“Every hundred feet the world changes” - Roberto Bolano

Pictured above is a shot of me in the old Imperial Castle, also known as 京都御所, or Gosho. For Golden Week I spent five days in Kyoto. I had drafted an ambitious itinerary, most of which I did not actually follow. What was most important for me to see there was some of the recommendations my friends made to me. For example, I wanted to visit two restaurants my friend suggested, though neither of them, I think, hold any national fame. Those two places were Hiragana Kan and Teure, a soba restaurant. Both are located around Kyoto University. They were both really really delicious, especially Hiragana Kana, a super casual place with a strange early 1900s aesthetic (there was even a poster of Egon Schiele hanging on one wall). I highly recommend that restaurant, in fact, here is a link to it: https://tabelog.com/en/kyoto/A2601/A260302/26004532/. Additional to these places around Kyoto University, I also had to check out the Shinshindo there, due to its Taisho-era decor and it being a holdover from the student-resistance days. Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing. One of my Japanese friends said that it’s coffee is so-so, its bread good, but you only go there for the atmosphere. I did appreciate that aspect, however, making it easy to imagine how many students must have once enjoyed endless stimulating conversations into the twilight. But two of my favorite places were Shimogamo Shrine and the Imperial Castle!

“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,
To gain all while you give,
To roam the roads of lands remote,
To travel is to live.”
- Hans Christian Andersen  

I saw an interesting sign in a store. It said "The Real McCoy's". The phrase that it came from is "The Real McCoy". What that phrase means is 'The Real Thing', it's not a fake or substitution. While the origin of the phrase "The Real McCoy" is not know certainly, it's believed that it came from Elijah McCoy's oil-drip cup invention and that to avoid copycat products you needed to request " The Real McCoy".

  

Hi everyone!

It's Baker, blogging all the way from America! For those who don't remember, I was a teacher at Gem School way back in 2014 and 2015. After leaving Japan I missed it so much Miyuki let me continue to help Gem School however I could from America. I miss Japan a lot but I have been having a great time here too and want to share some of the cool things happening in America.

For me, the most exciting thing that has happened is I got a new dog! He isn't so new anymore, he is about a year and a half old, but he still looks like a puppy to me! His name is Reggie and he is a Yorkshire Terrier or Yorkie for short. He weighs 7 pounds or about 2.5 kg. His favorite game is keep-away. He brings you a toy, or in the picture a bone, and wants you to chase him with it!


  

Over Golden Week I didn’t travel like I usually do. Instead, I stayed home and painted every day as well as read books. My husband and I cooked delicious food too! Maybe it sounds boring but I really enjoyed the relaxing down time. I also created a small art studio space in our spare room. I think my husband is happy that my art supplies aren’t scattered all over the place anymore.  

Last weekend, I had a picnic on top of a mountain with a special friend of mine. The view was beautiful and the weather was breezy and crisp. We spent hours atop the mountain, munching on our sushi and drinking coffee. We walked around the mountain and explored its inner body. Being out in nature always brings me back down to Earth. It revitalizes me and reminds me to take it easy, take in deep breaths, and appreciate what’s in front.



  

For Golden week I took my dad around Japan! We spent the first few days in Kanonji, because I had classes to teach. I showed my dad a few things (mostly food!). It turns out that my dad LOVES melon-pan! He was very skeptical about trying it, but after the first bite he was hooked! The first day in Kanonji I took my dad to eat Sanuki udon! I ordered us plain udon and curry udon, so that my dad could try a few different flavors. We also got a few side dishes to try. He really liked it, as it was a bit funny to see my dad trying to use chopsticks. The next day I took him to Hamazushi, because we don't have any conveyor belt sushi restaurants in my area of Canada. He thought that was super cool.

My dad can only speak a few words of Japanese, so I wrote him a small list of useful phrases and questions, like "this one please", "where is the train station?", and "Thank you!". I found it a bit funny hearing my dad trying to speak Japanese. He tried really hard but the sounds he used didn't sound right to me and I can only imagine what I sounded like when I first arrived! I can't wait to tell you all more about our trip next week!


  

What a wonderful and clean topic! A very heavy topic in terms of reality. I find nothingness to be one of the finest parts of life as it is everywhere and at the same time not. A rather nice way of thinking if one were to think in such a manner.

You might be wondering why I wrote that passage up above, well it's partially due to the fact that I've gotten back to reading/writing about the Kyoto School philosophers, Nishida Kitaro, Keiji Nishitani, Masao Abe, etc. The concept of "nothingness" is a central topic in this field of philosophy. For people not familiar with the Kyoto School, think continental philosophy mixed with zen/eastern thought.


  

Japanese people are so incredibly nice. I have met some of the kindest people here, and I am so proud and delighted to call them my friends. They have given me stunning gifts, shared with me their culture, and have helped me when life has been difficult and confusing here. I can't thank them enough for their generosity!
  

I had planned to do more during Golden Week, but mostly I just relaxed...and cleaned. Not terribly exciting, I know, however cleaning is somewhat therapeutic. There are no tatami rooms to deal with, so no big deal, right? Wrong!

After hours of painstaking work, what do I find but the first room I cleaned was already noticeably dirty again. This has now become a battle of wills, pitting mildly obsessive man versus stubborn household decor! Where is Mister Clean when you need him? I wonder if there is a Japanese version of Mister Clean? Clean-sama, where are you!?

In next weeks blog: Man vs Bird or Why don't pigeons use their own balconies as toilets?...same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!  

For Golden Week I took a trip to South Korea. It was super cool. It started in Seoul, where I visited Seoul tower and climbed a mountain, and then I spent the last a day in Buscan. But do you know what the best part was?
The YAKI NIKU!!!!!  

One of the things that I was looking forward to on my trip, was seeing what my mother and my friend Kendall would find interesting. I never would have guessed, but Kendall got very attached to tanuki! I've never seen a tanuki in real life, and for a very long time, I actually thought that they didn't exist. Japan has a lot of mythical creatures and monsters, and I thought that a tanuki was one of them!

Kendall took photos of tanuki whenever she saw one, and pointed them out to me in photos and advertisements. I hadn't realized that tanuki are used a lot! After several days in Kyoto, Kendall made it her mission to find a statue that she could take home. Her very own tanuki.

We had good luck at Fushimi Inari, where a gotcha machine had small tanuki toys inside.



And a little while later, we found a shop that had official tanuki statues of many size! We were a little bit worried about trying to pack something like that in her luggage, but she told me that it traveled to America with her in one piece!


  

Recently I went to a game night with some friends. Mostly we just hung out, but we ended up trying a few new games someone picked up off the internet. It was a game about making puns.
What is a pun? Well, a pun is a joke that uses words that have other meanings, or words that sound the same. Here is an example:
"What do you call an alligator wearing a vest? An in-vest-igator."

Often times these jokes can be quite funny, but they can also be difficult to understand (even for native speakers of English, hahaha). Of course, since we are living in Japan, we thought about puns in Japanese, and even a mix of English and Japanese. For example, what do you call a rooster (a male chicken) that lays eggs? "Hen" desu ne (変ですね).

We had quite a bit of fun coming up with puns for this game (called Punderdome), though it was quite hard at times. I suggest you take a look at it, if you can!  

Within the next week or so, some new books from authors that I really enjoy are going to be released! In fact, A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas and The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan are both coming out on May 2. I’m really excited, but also a bit bummed because I’m going to be too busy during Golden Week to get to read much. On one hand—vacation! On the other hand—books! What’s a booklover to do? Oh well, at least I will have plenty to do when I get back.  

Hello!

It's again getting close to an exciting time here in Gem School! The flowers are blooming, the Sun in shining in the sky, and it's closing in on the time for our Gem School Barbecue! As always, the event will be held in beautiful Nio town in Mitoyo, and it's possibly my very favourite event that Gem School holds. It combines my love of cooking, being outdoors, and splashing children with water all in one place!

I'm looking forward to it, and I hope to see you there!  

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” - Marcel Proust

Pictured above are two friends of mine. The girl pictured is a professional pianist who teaches and performs in the Kyoto area. The man pictured here works in Nara at a museum while also performing as a baritone opera singer occasionally. I met the girl two years ago when I was in Kyoto the last time. A coworker and I had gotten ourselves a bit lost for a train back to our Air BnB place, and so one of us had to approach a stranger to ask for assistance. As I was the one who knew a bit more Japanese than the other, I took it upon myself to approach the nearest stranger. That person was the girl in this picture. She was kind enough to walk us from one station to another, and then the next morning to hang out with us for the morning and early afternoon. We took a leisurely stroll up and down Mt. Arashi and then lunched at an all-you-can-eat shabushabu restaurant. When I returned to Japan I came across a flier advertising the Takamatsu International Piano Contest, held every four years. I informed my friend (the female) of it and ever since we kept in touch. Even though we only met twice before (at the station and then the next morning two years ago), she was kind enough to let me stay with her family in Kyoto for Golden Week. The above photo was taken at Fushimi Inari. It was the first and only day that I got to meet and hang with the fellow pictured, a very rad dude who listens to avant-garde music while curating the museum he works at and performing with his musical group. I hope to catch up with these two again this year.

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson  

I had a picnic recently. It was a lot of fun. I went to Marugame, to the top of Aonoyama. I brought a blanket and sushi with me. The weather was wonderful, but it was still a bit cold. The birds were singing, and regrettably, the bugs were out too. I had to push away a few ants and there were a lot of gnats, but that's all part of the warmer months. I had a wonderful time.

  

I recently got to substitute teach at Shikokuchuo Gem School. Some of my old students from a couple years ago were there that day. It was a nice surprise. We learned all about telling time for American School. It was a little tricky because the younger ones had less experience with counting to higher numbers but by the end of class they could do it.   

Yesterday I visited Naoshima for the first time. It was a lovely day. I got to cycle around the island on electric mamachari, which was so much fun! I also went to Benesse Museum where I was able to see some artwork. Since I couldn’t travel very far during Golden Week, I was happy to be able to explore an area that is relatively close but completely new to me. I am sure I will visit Naoshima again soon!