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My homestate of Michigan is about to get very very cold! In America, we measure in Farenheit, so -20 Fis -28.8889 C.

My friends report that it has been snowing for a few days, but no one has sent me an interesting photo yet.

Snow Removal efforts will be dangerous
This means you should not go outside to shovel away all of the snow that has covered your driveway and cars. We have large snow plows that appear in the morning to clear away snow on the roads and they might not show up.

Children in America hardly ever walk to school, but they do wait outside for the school bus if they don't have a ride. My mother used to let me sit in the warm car at the bus stop in the morning so I wouldn't freeze.

In the digital age now, a lot of principals and administrators have been making funny videos to announce their snow days. You can see lots of them on youtube. Snow days are happening all over Michigan this week, but the real reason kids will be home is the extreme cold.


  

I know it has been "very cold" here in Takamatsu this week. It's probably the coldest week so far this winter. But compared to where?

I was born in Michigan and raised my family for 20 years in Colorado. Growing up in Michigan, it often would snow in November and you didn't see the grass again until Spring! The grass would be so flat from the weight of the snow that you would have to use a rake to make the grass stand up again! The ground was frozen so deep it stayed wet, thawing, until May! The huge "Great Lakes" that surround the state of Michigan would freeze so deep you could drive your cars out on the frozen lake and the city would have winter festivals out on the frozen ice. One day this week in Michigan, the high temperature of the day was only -21 degrees Celsius!! The sun sometimes would never come out for the entire month! Colorado isn't much better, especially at night as the altitude around Colorado Springs, the city I lived, is over a kilometer high in altitude. The weather in the mountains is even worse and more like Michigan. If I ever missed my home state of Michigan, I would drive up into the mountains where there were feet of snow, and remember how I really didn't miss Michigan all that much!!

Right now I am looking out the window at blue sky and my phone says it is 9 degrees Celsius. I have flowers growing on my balcony and look across the parking lot at green citrus trees with huge oranges and grapefruit and green vegetables growing in neat clean rows.
I know that back in Michigan, you can't see my mother's garden right now as the snow is so deep! The air is so cold my mother can't even breathe it as her lungs couldn't handle the coldness of the air at her age of 86!

Yes, I have to wear a jacket, especially when I bike down to the pier. But guess what? I can bike! There is no ice or snow on the roads! And yes, I will take this "cold Takamatsu weather" any day, and call it "WARM"!!!
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I know it has been "very cold" here in Takamatsu this week. It's probably the coldest week so far this winter. But compared to where?

I was born in Michigan and raised my family for 20 years in Colorado. Growing up in Michigan, it often would snow in November and you didn't see the grass again until Spring! The grass would be so flat from the weight of the snow that you would have to use a rake to make the grass stand up again! The ground was frozen so deep it stayed wet, thawing, until May! The huge "Great Lakes" that surround the state of Michigan would freeze so deep you could drive your cars out on the frozen lake and the city would have winter festivals out on the frozen ice. One day this week in Michigan, the high temperature of the day was only -21 degrees Celsius!! The sun sometimes would never come out for the entire month! Colorado isn't much better, especially at night as the altitude around Colorado Springs, the city I lived, is over a kilometer high in altitude. The weather in the mountains is even worse and more like Michigan. If I ever missed my home state of Michigan, I would drive up into the mountains where there were feet of snow, and remember how I really didn't miss Michigan all that much!!

Right now I am looking out the window at blue sky and my phone says it is 9 degrees Celsius. I have flowers growing on my balcony and look across the parking lot at green citrus trees with huge oranges and grapefruit and green vegetables growing in neat clean rows.
I know that back in Michigan, you can't see my mother's garden right now as the snow is so deep! The air is so cold my mother can't even breathe it as her lungs couldn't handle the coldness of the air at her age of 86!

Yes, I have to wear a jacket, especially when I bike down to the pier. But guess what? I can bike! There is no ice or snow on the roads! And yes, I will take this "cold Takamatsu weather" any day, and call it "WARM"!!!
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I used to love baking back in the U.S. but since arriving in Japan I haven't been able to really bake. I've tried a couple times, but I don't understand how to use the range and it never seems to cook well. I'm also used to baking at a higher altitude, so it's hard for me to know what is because of altitude change and what is because of my range incompetence.

The other kinds of desserts I like to make require electric beaters but I can't seem to find them here. If anyone knows where I can buy some, please let me know. I'd really like to get back into baking and dessert making. Also, if you have any advice for how to use the range, that would be greatly appreciated!
  

Over the weekend here in Kanonji in snowed! For about 30 minutes. It was very surprising but a very welcome as it reminded me of home. Seeing the white snow fall and blow into my face was a nice reminder of what home is like. Of course right now back home in Colorado they are experiencing a little more than a few minutes of snow. Denver, Colorado has reached 7 in of snow (nearly 18 cm!) over the weekend and are experiencing near freezing temperatures. Its a cold time in Colorado and it has me missing it. So seeing the little snowfall was a nice reminder of home.  

I love driving in Japan! The short drive from my apartment to work is always breathtaking. The mountains almost form a barrier around some parts of a city. Plus sometimes if I look carefully I can see a fog and bank of cloud form a sea of clouds on a mountain.

At a stop light or parked I take a quick snapshot of the view. The roads are easy to maneuver and traffic is usually light. It makes a once in a blue moon photo op at a stop light or while safely parked at work easier to do!

Also, while driving to GEM Shikokuchuo I get a quick glimpse of the sea. The waves move back and forth and add even more beauty to the drive. It's no wonder I love driving to work everyday! There is inspiration everywhere!
  

January 29, 2019

OK, so I had a very interesting occurrence last week with one of my adult classes.

We were discussing a section of the specific required book we were going over and reading, and one of the adults asked a specific question regarding one of the areas we were going over. I always welcome question from anyone and everyone in my classes.....

It was a fabulous question and was on exactly the topic as well as the discussion we were having. I looked at the rest of the class, waited for about 15 seconds, and I went ahead and answered their question with another question. Very effective tool.

What happened?
Well this is the amazing part.

Literally all the students jumped on the students question and then jumped on my question to their question, and for the remainder of the class..... about 15 minutes, had the most effective and positive discussion for the level of this class.
This was the most amazing thing to see as a teacher.

As the class was ending, they all looked at each other and said wow!!!!! What a fun discussion we had.

Isn't this why we teach??
To have the students see that they can do the type of work that they are asked to do, as well as having the light bulb go off during their discussion.

Wow!!

Tom Schuck   

For many years, Gem School has had the white midget car. It lives in Kanonji. From time to time, teachers would drive the midget to work or to an event. It has recently retired, but it still lives in Kanonji. The first time I saw the car I was so surprised at how small it is! It's kind of cute too, right? To me, it looks like a character from a cartoon. I couldn't imagine seeing this car in America. I also had never seen it on the road here in Kagawa, until yesterday! At the supermarket near me, there was a white and yellow midget! They still exist and are running, you just have to be patient to finally spot one.


  

I miss having food delivered to my house. Sitting on my couch and picking out my pizza toppings then having it magically appear 30 minutes later. This isn’t a service that exists where I live now. So, when I visited Tokyo a month ago, I took advantage of the food delivery! I had it at least 3 times! Maybe this isn’t a traditional Tokyo activity but I thoroughly enjoyed relaxing in my hotel room with hot food I didn’t have to fetch myself!  

My long-term goal is to be trilingual. I want to be fluent in (of course) English, Japanese, and Korean. I have been studying Japanese for 2 and a half years now and i will be taking the N3 proficiency exam in July of this year. Currently I have a private lesson every week to help prepare me for this exam.

Last year in November, I could tell my Japanese was getting a lot better so I wanted to start learning Korean as well. I asked my Japanese teacher if she knew of anyone and she put me in contact with a Japanese lady who was married to a Korean man. She was completely fluent in Korean and offered to take me as her student.

My Korean teacher doesn't speak any English and my textbook is entirely in Japanese. It doesn't even have the furigana over the kanji. This Korean class alone has helped my Japanese speaking and comprehension ability more than my private Japanese lesson! I am getting more of a feeling for the Japanese vocabulary and I am progressing very quickly in both languages now. For example, although I have only been studying Korean for a few months now, I was able to sing a Korean song at karaoke last weekend! It made me so happy to accomplish that small task.

If you are interested in learning a third language, then I highly recommend learning your third language in your second language. This has really helped me become more comfortable with my second language.  

My parents' farm is growing! I thought they would stop with the chickens. I was one hundred percent wrong! My mother and father have recently bought baby quails! What is a quail? A quail is a bird with a short tail that looks a lot like a partridge. Quails are said to lay the tiniest but most delicious eggs. My parents are looking forward to feasting on fresh organic eggs. Interestingly enough, the eggs weren't the only reason for starting a farm.


My parents built a farm mainly for the companionship. They love the companionship that animals bring. My mom is retired and my dad is closing in on retirement. All their adult children have grown up and "left the nest." Also, there is currently zero grandchildren to spoil. Safe to say, their home was starting to feel a little empty.

Instead of just focusing on their loneliness they decided to start on their Goals List. One goal was to make a "mini farm" on their property. The idea makes sense considering that my dad's entire childhood was spent on his family's farm. He always had a special place in his heart for animals and the farm life.

Another goal was to make sure their animals are at their maximum health and happiness. Lastly if the animals could grow eggs then they would only take some and share the rest. If the animals couldn't lay eggs then they'd just blissfully roam around the property with their animal siblings.

I'm super impressed by how hard they've worked on their goals. My parents even took it upon themselves to build the coops! The chickens and quails have spacious homes to lay in. Their biggest hurdle appears to be... naming them all. My parents have already named one out of the six quails. What was their name of choice? Lupita, a play off the name Lupin. Anyone have any name ideas for the others? Contact me. I'd love to hear from you! :)


  

I started seeing lots of paper Oni masks around the store, but I didn't know what they were for. Clearly there were far too many to just be random decorations. So I asked... I'm not sure how I missed out on the national 'throw legumes at demons' day last year, but I did.

It is a very unique tradition. I'm still trying to figure out why you eat your age in beans after pelting the Oni. That seems like something added in to discourage adults from taking part.

Let's be real, I want to dress up like an Oni, but I don't have classes on the third. Maybe next year it will fall on a class day.  

The other day, I decided to make french toast. I had some leftover milk, and had bought a small pack of eggs. I hate buying eggs these days because I never eat them all. I hate wasting money and food!

My first problem was with the eggs. I opened the package to find that there were only 3! And a sauce...hm... I cracked one open and found them to be soft boiled eggs! We don't sell those in Michigan so it was a shock.

I called on my neighboring teachers in Kanonji to loan me two eggs. Gary-sensei to the rescue! I went back to my cooking.

I used 4 slices of bread with lots of vanilla to make them sweet. They smelled fine, and I didn't burn them, so I was happy. Then I took a bite and...EW! Had I put too much vanilla in them? They tasted...sour.

I took another bite, NOT GOOD! Had my milk gone bad? I went over to the check the carton. On the milk, in LARGE hiragana (that yes I can read) it said YOGURT MILK.

Yogurt milk!? I didn't even know that was something sold in Japan. My breakfast was inedible and I had to throw it away.

Next time I shop, I will check the labels more carefully!  

I really enjoy getting to see the different places in a city. Recently I went with some friends for dinner. We spent some time by the ocean in Marumage. It was fun seeing how simple things like parks were different there. The park we stopped at had a giant toy ship for the kids to play on and a covered observation area to see the ocean. Near the water they has steps along the road, that went down to the water, you could sit on. It was really beautiful!




  

Finally rested from a long holiday back in the States, I finally had the energy replenished inside of me and I felt the need to get out of my apartment and explore!! We hopped on our bikes and started heading to the Takamatsu Harbor!! Within a few blocks of the pier, the fresh salt water began to fill the air! We rode to the waters edge and the waves were high and choppy, but the view was amazing! A huge ferry was docked and another was headed in. We noticed the pier went out into the sea and at the end was a lighthouse! I love lighthouses- something historically romantic about the look and feel of a lighthouse. Yes, I got back on my bike and down the pier we went, all the way out to the lighthouse, which went way out into the harbor. Waves were crashing along either side of us as we rode along the large sidewalk pier. It felt amazing! The smell of the sea and the water all around us! When we got to the end of the pier and rode up to the lighthouse, we felt like we were out in the middle of the harbor! We watched a ferry drive by. If it weren't so cold, I could have sat there the whole day watching the waves and the ships go by!! Now I really have spring fever! The first warm day will find me out at the end of the pier, watching the ships go by and listening to the waves! This is a beautiful city we live in!!  

My brother recently started streaming him playing video games on Twitch. I watched him play live recently and it was so much fun to be able to talk to him through the chat. I was really impressed with how well he responded to people's comments while he was playing. It felt like I was just hanging out with him at home again, even though we are an ocean apart.

After watching him I thought about how this would be a great way to practice conversational skills in English. You type into the chat so you are able to take your time to think of what you want to say, but he responds to the comments by speaking into a microphone so you can practice your listening skills. His videos have a lot of swear words in them, and are not meant for children to watch, so you might be surprised by some of words that you learn.

If you are interested in watching people play video games and practicing informal English, I think this is a really great place for you to go. Here is a link to his channel: https://www.twitch.tv/angryginger3169/videos

Of course, feel free to look at other people's channels as well! There are a lot of videos and streams on this website!  

Trump wants the US to fund a $5.7 billion (570.000.000.000円) wall to "secure the border" from unauthorized immigration from Mexico and Central America. During a meeting with top Democrats before the shutdown began, Trump said he would be "proud" to shut the government for "border security". He has since warned that he is prepared for the shutdown to last years, and he told top Democrats he would "look foolish" if he backed down from his demand.

It has officially been a month since the shutdown started back on December 22 and there is still no end in site. Currently in America there are some federal government employees who are deemed "essential" are being forced to work without pay. This includes those of the TSA and air traffic control. It is also coming into light that these workers barley make enough money to make rent and food each month that they now are facing the possibly of dropping behind on rent and potentially being kicked out of their homes. Lines in the airport are backed up being run by unhappy and unpaid TSA agents. The airplanes are being directed by unpaid employees.

Some federal employers have filed law suit against the American government for forcing them to work during this shutdown with the American Federation of Government Employees calling these conditions inhumane. In the past, Congress has approved back pay for the employees forced to work but America has never seen such a long shut down. But since its back pay that means the workers won't be paid until the government reopens. (What a silly sentence. Workers aren't paid until the Government opens.)

As we near the end of January we can only hope that it means the end of the shutdown.
  

I met up with my wife in Utazu for an impromptu date night. A friend told me in passing about The Gold Tower. The Gold Tower is a place full of amusement facilities and gatcha machines. What I didn't know is that the building also had an observatory on the top floor. My wife found out about it from reading an Utazu tourist pamphlet and suggested that we check it out.

Once we reached the top of the Gold Tower, we were mesmerized by the view. In the distance we saw the Seto Ohashi Bridge! There were chairs all around the observatory deck so we could sit down and stare at the scenery. I took one quick picture of one side of the observatory. If you look closely, you can even spot the moon! Can you find the moon?
  

In Seoul I had a tasty mushroom burger! Since I don't eat meat, I'm always on the hunt for vegetarian spins of classic dishes such as a hamburger. I've had a soy burger in Japan, but this burger's "patty" was a hearty mushroom with breading on the outside. It was so yummy it's inspired me to make my own at home. I love mushrooms and I think there a great substitute for meat.

  

I was walking home one day
When I saw a crow
Sitting in a branch with its head hanging low.

“Why so sad?”
I asked the bird.

“Yesterday the wind blew so much
My little house flew out of the tree
So now I must build it all over again.”

“That is a bother.” I said thoughtfully.
“You has best get started
Or you will have nothing to sleep in tonight.”

“I suppose...” said the crow.
“But I am just so sad
I do not want to do anything!”

“Keep your chin up!” I said with a smile.

“What?” Said the crow.
“Will pointing my chin up really help me gather sticks?”

“Of course not,” I chuckled.
“But trying to be cheerful will!
Think happy thoughts and maybe
You can get on with picking up your sticks!
For that, is what it means to keep your chin up!”