www.snowmanjapan.net

Asahikawa American English Conversation School

Snowman Japan Web Log

NOTE:  The OBJECTIVE of this BLOG is to help my students with their study of English.

AND

For all of you, out there, around the world to;

SEE HOKKAIDO

2008 July 20 Sunday and 21 Monday.

Umi No Hi, 海の日 or as I like to call it, Marine Day, is a National Holiday in Japan.   Ikuko and I were planning to go to Sapporo and stay overnight on Sunday, but I backed out of the deal at the last moment because I had an awesome stomach ache.   No thank you, to riding the train for 3 hours and walking around a big city, far away from toilets, all day long.   I stayed home.  So, Ikuko went with her mother instead.   Her younger sister lives in Sapporo now, so they all had a merry time as a happy trio.   While they were swilling it up at the Sapporo Beer Garden Genghis Khan BBQ beer hall, I was sitting at home, eating brown rice and natto.     After that, I had a midnight snack of hot buttered popcorn.   Thanks to Charles Hamel, I can once again enjoy the smoky flavor of fresh popped popcorn, right here in my own home.   He brought it with him from Houston Texas USA, when he and his family made their big move to Hokkaido.   What a treat and a much appreciated and often used gift.   Thanx again.    Ikuko came back from Sapporo at about 12 noon on Monday morning, and showed me all of the photos she had taken on her mobile phone camera.   Looks like everybody had a really good time.   Me too, in a lonely sort of way.    Starting tomorrow is the last week of classes before the start of a three week summer vacation.   I'm giving a final exam tomorrow at AU, making use of the internet to get the job done.   Being able to find the information you want on the web quickly and easily, is an important job skill in this day and age.   College kids need to learn this as fast as possible.   Some of them will.    Others won't.   It's an individual choice.

2008 July 19 Saturday.

The smart little girl who comes to my classroom every Saturday morning, couldn't come today because she had a bad headache.   I hope she feels better soon.   With my morning lesson canceled, I had the perfect opportunity to get back to basics on the electric bass guitar.  I am all the way up to track 20 on a 65 track instructional CD that came with the textbook entitled; EASY BASS.   Yeah, that's right up my alley.   ABC 123.   After about 90 minutes of practice, I had to change clothes and get ready to go the the Grand Hotel by 14:00 for the celebration of the 45th Anniversary of Asahikawa Women's Junior College, 40th Anniversary of Asahikawa University etc.    It was a huge event, with the likes of who is who in Hokkaido, all in attendance.   Even the Mayor of Asahikawa, Mr. Nishikawa himself, found the time in his busy schedule, to show up and make a speech.   See the photo above/left for details.    After about one hour of speeches and awards presentations, everyone of the more than 220 people who came today, went into the room next door for food and drinks.    We were also treated to an excellent performance of some very complicated music by the 旭川大学高等学校吹奏楽部　Asahikawa University High School Brass Band.   They were really good!   They must practice almost every day, in order to pull off a perfect performance like the one they did today.   Another delightful treat for today, was to discover that the elderly gentleman seated to my left at the banquet table, and who teaches information processing on Tuesday mornings, is in fact distantly related to my wife's family!     To keep it short, he is the husband of the sister of the mother of the the husband of my wife's older sister.   Therefore we have the same two nephews, in common!    Did you follow that?    OK, here it is again in reverse order.   My wife has two sisters.   One older sister and one younger sister.    My wife's older sister, is married to a man.   That man's mother also has a sister.   That sister is married to the elderly gentleman who sat next to me today at the banquet table.    Yeah, I know.   It's a long and winding road, but all of us are connected in some way.   Whether we know it or not.

2008 July 14 Monday thru July 18 Friday.

I was not as hot this week, as it was last week, and I didn't need to turn on the cooling system.   About a month ago, my wife received a used digital camera from her younger sister.   It is a RICHO Caplio R2 5.0 Mega Pixel unit, and you can see it in the photo above/left.  Ikuko almost never uses a camera, so I have developed the custom of taking this camera with me where ever I go.    It is by far, smaller than any other camera that I have, and it takes very good photos.   Now, I will never miss another photo opportunity because I didn't have a camera with me.   Thanks Yuki!    This camera will be well used by me.   Not only does this camera take still photos, but it also takes motion video as well.   Plus, it can also be used as a voice recorder for sound only.   Isn't it amazing what electricity and magnetism can do.   On Monday, I had my last lesson with an 8 year old girl who has been coming to my classroom for about 5 years.   She and her family will be moving to Chitose because of her father's job.   I hope they can find a good English classroom in that city so that she can continue her studies there.  On Thursday at about 20:30 while I was walking the aisles at the next door supermarket, a beautiful young woman runs up to me saying; "ノーマン先生、ノーマン先生！"  She came right up to me and we looked at each other face to face.   I could not remember who she was, until she said; "I am Haruka".    As soon as I heard that, I knew exactly who she was.   I haven't seen her in about 3 years, but she and her brother who are fraternal twins  一卵性双生児, used to come to my classroom during their elementary school and junior high school days.   Now they are both 23 years old and attending universities in California USA.    How's that for a job well done, by all hands on deck.    It's a small world after all.   Be kind to your neighbors.

2008 July 12 Saturday and July 13 Sunday.

At about 18:00 on Saturday, I went over the hill and down into TomiSawa to attend a private BBQ party being held for an American guy, how used to live in Asahikawa for a long time, but now lives in Atlanta Georgia.    I haven't seen this guy for about 8 or 9 years, but when I saw him again today, it was like we had never been apart.   Some people just don't change no matter how long you know them.   This party was rather unusual for me, because there were no Japanese people at it.    Only non-Japanese.   There were people from Canada, England, Holland, Sri Lanka and of course, the USA.   As such, the common language was English.   One thing I noticed, is that these people like to talk about other people a lot.   In other words, GOSSIP.    Gossip is something which I don't like much and almost never do myself, so today I heard a lot of strange stories about some of the people who were at the party, and some other people who weren't at the party.  Stories I had never heard before, even though the events being described happened both recently, and many years ago.   As a result, I grew rather bored with most of the conversations, and went inside the house to play my bass guitar which I had brought along with me.    Fortunately, the owner of the house also likes to play live music so he soon joined me with his guitar and microphone, and we started making some groovy sounds.    The photo in today's blog shows one of my bass guitars and one of my six string electric guitars, sitting in my classroom, after being prepared for transport to the party.    I needed to do an equipment check before I left, and also put all new strings on the stratocaster.     The guy from Holland who was at the party, was also a very good guitar player and singer, and he knew a lot of good songs from memory.  So, I played along with him too on the bass guitar.    The party ended about midnight.   Because I was driving that day, I drank no alcohol at the party but I had a few beers when I got home.    I continued to play the bass guitar at very low volume, practicing the basics over and over again, until about 5:00 Sunday morning.   Music and languages are my specialty, and what I like to do most.

2008 July 7 Monday thru July 11 Friday.

The WORLD comes to Hokkaido.    What a nightmare for the traffic cops.   I stayed far away from all of the hoop-la, and didn't leave Asahikawa.    I had already scoped out the Windsor Hotel Lake Toya, during Golden Week of 2007 on May 12.    Click here to read the details.  Unfortunately for the World Leaders and their entourages, the weather at Lake Toya this year on July 7, 8 and 9, was not the best.   From Live News Broadcasts, I could see that it was very overcast and dark.   Not the best way to remember this beautiful island of Hokkaido.   When it is clear and sunny, Lake Toya is absolutely stunning in its own natural beauty.   The Windsor Hotel has the best view, because it is located on the highest hill, that surrounds the lake itself.   A Magnificent View from the top.   Will this 34th G8 Summit be remembered as the 3 days which rocked Hokkaido?   Hmmmm,... I wonder.    I will be here as usual, 365/24/7  waiting for yet another sunny day, and visiting  the Windsor Hotel again, in the very near future.     By the way, a word about the Annual G8 Summits, in general.    Every year, this is a big media event, and that is about all that it is.   Nothing of real importance is decided at the G8 Summits.   All of the really serious issues about how the world will be managed in the near and not so distant future, is decided at the Annual Bilderberg  Summit that is held every year BEFORE the G8 Summit.    What does that tell you?    Exactly!    Everything that is really really really important, has already been decided before the annual G8 summit even starts.   Therefore, the top of the top in the Governments of the BIG 8, can relax and talk about family and friends and favorite memories and, etc.     Consider the G8 Summit to be a very short summer vacation in some far and distant land for all the government leaders of the first world countries.    The only disappointment I have about the whole affair this year, was the lousy weather that G. W. Bush and Family, had to suffer through during their very brief visit to Hokkaido.    They arrived in Hokkaido, and left from Hokkaido aboard Air Force One, at Chitose Air Base.   I know that somebody somewhere in Hokkaido, was there on those days to take photos of Air Force One coming into and going out of Chitose Air Base.    I wish I could see those photos.   That would be an excellent adventure, in and of itself.  If you have some, please e-mail me at snowmanjapan@live.jp     Thanx again!!!

2008 July 5 Saturday and July 6 Sunday.

Saturday morning starting at 10:30, was my private lesson with the 8 year old girl, who really tries to speak English at every moment during her lessons.   What a pleasure this is for her, and me as well.   Today, we used some hand written cards that I made many years ago, to learn words of opposite meaning, ANTONYMS 反意語.   Words such as HOT and COLD, LONG and SHORT, DEEP and SHALLOW, etc.   Not only did she learn all of the words, but she used her imagination in coming up with short sentences, that use both words in a meaningful way.   For example, The ocean is DEEP but small rivers are SHALLOW.   Girls have LONG hair, but boys have SHORT hair (not always).  Summer is HOT and WINTER is cold in Hokkaido.   And so on and so forth.   It was a very interesting lesson for both her and myself, and when her mother came by my classroom at 11:30 to pick her daughter up, the eight years old girl was surprised to see that ONE HOUR had already passed by, like it was just one wrinkle in time.   The rest of the day I spent watching some interesting BBC documentaries on YOU TUBE, and also playing my black Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar, UNPLUGGED while listening to some of my favorite POP ROCK CDs on the music player.    It is overcast and rainy today, and not a nice day to be out and around, unless you absolutely have to be.

On Sunday morning, I woke up at about 07:00 and noticed immediately, that it was going to be very hot and humid today.   Yesterday's rain and today's sunny weather were combining to create that heavy, sticky and hot air, which really takes the fight out of me.    Time to close off all the windows, and turn on the cooler.   I have a big job to do today, and you can see what that job was in today's blog photo.    Yep!  That's right, A3 sized full color laminated presentation cards, designed to go along with that very well known CHILDREN'S SONG; Mary had a Little Lamb.   What a classic!    And so easy for even 3 year olds to understand.   Not only do the words of the song appear on the back of each picture card in both English and Japanese, but I also made three A4 sized handouts, which the kindergarten teachers can use to teach the kids the lyrics, in both English and Japanese.    The entire job took me about 5 hours to complete.   Well worth the effort as I will be using these cards and my acoustic guitar tomorrow morning at めばえ幼稚園 and many more times after that, at various gigs.    FUN FOR HIRE!!!    Have Car and Guitar.   Will Travel.

2008 July 1 Tuesday thru July 4 Friday.

Happy Birthday USA!    How long has it been now,.....     Let's see the year 2008 minus the year 1776 equals; 232 years as a sovereign nation.    Congratulations.    Try a little harder, and you might rival the glory of the Roman Empire.   Wait a minute, what am I talking about.   Consider China.   How long has that culture been on this planet?   Four thousand some years is what I have heard.    Now, that's a long time.   Anyway, July 4 is a National Holiday in the USA, and falling on a Friday this year, you can be sure that a lot of people will be taking a very long and enjoyable 3 day weekend.   Because the month of July is rather hot, in most of the continental USA, there will be lots of outdoor activities including BBQ parties, softball games, volleyball games etc.   The climax of the day is the BIG FIREWORKS DISPLAY 花火大会 in each and every city, town and village, that you might happen to be in, on that day.   In my hometown of Spokane Washington, it is hot and dry every year in July, and the perfect season to get out the pyrotechnics, and enjoy the lights and smoke.    I remember well, how I used to ride my Schwinn Cherry Picker banana seat bicycle all over the place, visiting the fireworks stands, that sprang up all over the small city of Spokane.   Each and every year, they had something new to offer, plus all of the old favorites that we bought every year.    Another thing that I learned to do, while reading my Encyclopedia Britannica, was how to make gunpowder out of the 3 essential ingredients.    Salt Peter, Sulpher and Charcoal.    I didn't make any explosive devices, only sparklers and fountains that shot out an enormous amount of heat and light, and were not dangerous to the public at large.    Boy, those were the days.   Nowadays, I live in Japan where these type of small fireworks are available for sale to the public at most stores, of any kind, all around Hokkaido.    Oddly enough, even though I had enjoyed this type of activity when I was just a kid in the USA, I have never bought nor used any small scale fireworks in Japan.   I like the big sky burst displays of fireworks much better.   Maybe this is because I have no children of my own, and therefore no real opportunity to buy and use these hand sized fireworks, which are so popular in all parts of Japan.   According to my calendar, there will be a big fireworks display on Sunday July 13 starting at 20:15 near the 北旭川大橋, and then, many more after that date.   Click here for a full schedule of the big fireworks displays in Hokkaido for 2008.   See ya there.

2008 June 30 Monday.

The last day of June and heading into summer full steam ahead.   I will be closing my little classroom for about 3 weeks from July 27 until August 17 so that I can relax Spread Eagle Style in the great outdoors of Hokkaido.   The photo you can see in today's blog is of Oregano Flowering Plants that are located just outside my window along the sidewalk.   In fact, the color of this flower is the same as the color of my laminated signs, that I have taped to my windows.   I made them that way on purpose.   By the way, on last Saturday at about 15:30 while I was walking along the upper cycling road of the Biei River and towards the RyoJin Bridge, I was suddenly and viciously attacked by two crows!    The attack went on for a good five minutes, as I was forced to spin around, walk backwards, walk sideways and flail my arms around above my head.    The two of them were most definitely after me, and I was not very close to their nesting areas, so I know there must be another reason.    Crows have good memories.   Crows reincarnate at a more rapid pace than humans.   These crows remembered me from Kodiak Alaska.   Yiikes!!!   What comes around goes around.    I lived for 2 and one half years in Kodiak Alaska, and I must say that there is nothing to do there.    Except, go walking around the hills and valleys and shoot guns and camp out.    There are many dangerous Kodiak Brown Bears all over the island, so it is just common sense to take firearms with you when you go outside of the USCG Air Station gates.    I packed a .357 magnum revolver, and a rifle with me at all times outside of the airbase.   The long gun would be either a Ruger Mini 14 Model   .223 caliber semi automatic rifle, or an 8mm Mauser German WWII vintage standard issue rifle, with scope.   Either way, if I had happened to stumble into a bear, I would have had a good chance of surviving.    I never did run into a bear.   Never.     But, I did bring the firearms with me every time.    So, I started shooting at crows.    I must have killed hundreds of them, both from up close and from very far away.    Two of those crows spotted me on Saturday afternoon, and would have shot me too, if only they had guns.    They don't have guns and neither do I, anymore.    The 5 minutes I spent fighting them off, as I slowly walked along the upper cycling road towards the 両神橋 on my way to the BBQ party, made me wish that I had a slingshot.    I could have saved a lot of energy by using an archery type method of self-defense on them.    Crows are big and intelligent birds.    They can be noisy and obnoxious, and they do harass my favorite sky rider, the Eagle Hawk 鷹   鳶.    Maybe the eagle hawk and I should join forces to drive away the crows.   Naaaah!, it will never happen.    Crows will always be with us.

2008 June 26 Thursday thru June 29 Sunday.

The warm and sunny weather continues, but on some days, it can be a bit cold at night.   On Thursday, Ikuko wanted to go to the Korean BBQ Restaurant KinKaRo 金花郎 because they have an all you can eat plan on Thursday's only.   There are two KinKaRo Korean BBQ that I know of.   The closest one to our house is on 1 Jodori at about 5 Chome.    It is a short easy walk from our place, but we took a longer detour along the cycling road of the Chubetsu River in order to get some much needed exercise.   When we got there, we we happy to see that there would be no waiting for a table, which is rather unusual because this place is always packed full of hungry people.    We got a nice private booth and started looking at the menu.   The all-you-can-eat plan 食べ放題 is 2,700 yen per person, plus drinks.    The all-you-can-drink plan 飲み放題 is  1,290 per person, plus food.   Hmmmm,....    What to do?    Easy choice, get the all-you-can-drink option and then order food as we see fit.   So, that's what we did.   While we were there, I recognized one of the waitresses as a former student at my classroom.   She is now about 22 years old, and is going to a technical school in Eniwa, so she can become a Certified Nutritionist.   It was very pleasant to see her again, and she was doing a very good job as a waitress on this evening.    The service was prompt, the food was delicious and the beer was ice cold.   Total cost for the evening meal, a little over 7,000 yen.   Not a low price but a fair price.   Remember, both locations of this restaurant are almost always full, with people standing in line outside the shop waiting for it to open at 17:00 on weekdays and 16:00 on weekends.   Another excellent example, of a very well run small business that makes money hand over fist.    Ikuko and I,  will certainly go there again and again.   My Friday morning class at the Dokan Nusring School  was a lot of fun as usual.   Today we enacted a skit about buying some sunglasses and asking for a discount and then a bigger discount.   I was the shop owner and the students played the part of the customer.   I call each and every student by name, and they have to do the skit either once, twice or thrice until they have completely memorized, all of their lines.   I gave them the script about two weeks ago, so most of them got it right on their first try.   Sometimes, I will attempt to throw the students off of their mental balance by saying something that is not written in the script.    For example, the first line in the skit is the shop owner saying;  "Welcome! How may I help you today?"   But sometimes I say it in Korean as; "O So O Se Yo!"   The idea here, is to get the student to stop and think and hopefully respond with;  "Do you speak English?"   To which I say; "Yes, I do.  May I help you?"  and then the skit continues.    Of course, some of the students speak English better than other students, and they will Ad Lib during the skit, making it much more interesting and enjoyable for everyone.     On Saturday at about noon, I received a telephone call from an old friend, inviting Ikuko and myself to an outdoor BBQ party at his house.    Ikuko already had plans to go to Sapporo and attend some type of seminar about making money as an internet affiliate website, so I went to the BBQ party by myself.    The person who invited me and Ikuko to come over to his house today, is a long time restaurant owner in Asahikawa, and he always has the best ingredients for his BBQ parties.   Again, this location is within easy walking distance from my home, so I took a stroll in the very warm afternoon sun.   I even was able to stop at an old time Rice Wine Shop and pick up 2 bottles of 男山笹おり all malt rice wine at a premium price, and bring it with me to the party.    Mr. Baba has two grandchildren, both of whom I have not met in about 2 years.   Kids grow up fast.   The granddaughter was especially looking bigger and more like a girl, than a baby.   She and I spent most of the party time feeding watermelon rinds to the many black ants walking around on the asphalt, and later hide and seek with her inside the house running from window to window on the first floor, and I trying to locate her with my eyes, as I sat next to her mother and the other guests outside, drinking the best nectar and eating the best foods, while they talked about things of which I know not, and while I played at a distance with a very cute and lively girl.    Human Relations.   You don't need a PhD to figure it out.   After the party was winding down at whatever time it was, I walked back home across the bridge and went to bed, almost immediately.   Ikuko wasn't home yet, because she took the last train from Sapporo to Asahikawa.    I went to bed and slept quite well, thank you.    I didn't get out of bed on Sunday until about 10:30, and didn't get around to checking my email until about 13:00, because I was very dug in at my Private Hokkaido.   When I did check my email, I discovered that Charlie Hamel had sent me a message about a Festival in HigashiKawa Town.    I didn't know anything about this event, so I called Charlie and left a message on his answering machine.   It turns out that there is a festival with fireworks at the the HigashiKawa Forest Park 東神楽森林公園 during most of Sunday.    Ikuko and I both had risen early, and gone to bed late on Saturday, so we had to decline the Hamel Family's generous invitation, and stay at home tonight.   Summer has just only begun. There will be many more opportunities to get out and enjoy the warm weather, during the next several months.   I Can't Wait to see what happens next.

2008 June 23 Monday thru June 25 Wednesday.

Monday morning at 10:00 I had my first gig of this year at the Chestnut Tree Kindergarten くりの木幼稚園.   You can see a photo of the chipmunk who guards the front door of the building, above/left.   This kindergarten has about 220 students and they all assemble at the same time in the big hall for my performance, so it is almost impossible to talk face to face with any one student at a time.   Therefore, I bring my guitar along with me, plus a lot of big colorful laminated flash cards, that are related to the songs, and the kids and I spend most of the hour singing songs together.   What else can I do in such a situation?   Kids just naturally respond to music and in fact understand it better than spoken language at this point in their lives.   After that was finished at about 11:10, I took my sweet time driving back to my place, because the weather was so beautiful today.    At 13:00 I had my usual 90 minute class at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会.   One of the students, the longest attending member of this class, told us about a 3 day trip she and her husband had recently taken to the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.   She described many interesting things about her trip, including the fact that they had visited the YASUKUNI SHRINE   靖国神社.   When she told all of us the reason for their visit to the shrine, it literally blew my mind.   It turns out that her husband's father was killed on the tiny island of Iwo Jima, in 1945 during the Pacific War!!!   I almost fell out of my chair.   I myself have also lived on the island of Iwo Jima for about one year in 1976 as a member of the United States Coast Guard.   In fact, that is where I first started learning the Japanese Language.   Another amazing fact about this lady, is that she is the ONLY original member of this group that is still in attendance, after 12 years of continuous classes!!!    Is this a coincidence???   Or, is it synchronicity.   You decide.   I already KNOW what IT is.   By the way, a word about Yasukuni Shrine.   In my opinion, visiting Yasukuni Shrine by any Japanese person, be it the Prime Minister of Japan or the garbage man of Shinjuku, is a TOTALLY PRIVATE matter for that person.  Anybody who criticizes someone for visiting the shrine, is out of line.    In the newspapers, on TV and other media, I often see China or Korea or some other country making a big fuss over the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.   It is none of their phucking business!   The only difference between a WAR HERO and a WAR CRIMINAL, is the fact that the war hero's country WON THE WAR, and the war criminal's country LOST THE WAR.   That is all.    WAR IS ATROCITIES!!!   We never hear anybody criticizing the President of the USA for laying a big flower wreath at the ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, do we.    Use your phuckin' brains and get a clue.  WAR IS ATROCITIES and Yasukuni Shrine is an issue for the Japanese People, and the Japanese People ONLY!   The rest of you can all go jump into the Pacific Ocean.    The TRUTH between RED blood and GOLD medals is ORANGE goo.

2008 June 21 Saturday and June 22 Sunday.

This is the time of the year when the SUN rises early, and sets late in the Northern Hemisphere.   Hokkaido is not the northernmost place that I have ever lived.   In fact, Seattle Washington USA is farther north than Asahikawa, but it rains so much there, you might not even notice the extended daylight hours if you have lived near Seattle all your life.   No, the farthest north I have ever lived was, KODIAK ALASKA.    That place is much, much father north than any place in Japan.   I lived in Kodiak for 2 and one half years, so I was able to experience the Summer Solstice from that location, two times.   In Kodiak Alaska during this time of the year, the sun sets at about midnight, and then rises again at about 03:00 hours.   In other words, the sky never gets completely dark.   As a result, there are many outdoor activities such as; drunken softball games, volleyball games,  and the like.   On the other hand, during the Winter Solstice, Kodiak is very, very dark all day long.   Rather depressing when considering the fact that there is not much to do there during the winter season.   No natural hot springs to ease the pain.   Hokkaido is much, much better when it comes to human comforts.   In all seasons.   When I lived in Alaska from 1978 until 1980, I met many people who told me that Alaska was the best place to live on this earth.    For a while I almost believed them, but with all things considered, I decided that it was not true for me.    For one thing, everything in Alaska is so big, that it is difficult to feel as if you have an intimate relationship with nature.   Every city, town or village, is so far away from every other city, town or village, that you really need an airplane to get around.    A long time ago, someone told me that, there are more small airplanes in Alaska than there are passenger cars.    From my experience, that sounds about right to me.   When I lived in Kodiak Alaska, I was a member of the United States Coast Guard working as an Aviation Electronics Technician (AT3) and flying around in HC-130 airplanes as a radioman/navigator.   As such, I visited almost every major airfield that there is in Alaska.    In other words, I have seen almost all of Alaska from the air.   It is HUGE, and mostly UGLY.    The most beautiful part of Alaska is the SouthEastern part around Juneau and Sitka, which shares a national border with Canada.   In that part of Alaska, there are lots of really big and tall trees, and even a few natural hot springs.   The rest of the state is rather barren with nothing of real interest to see for the common tourist.   However, I do understand the feelings of most residents of Alaska, when they say that it is the best place in the USA to live, if you want to get away from crowded cities.   That is true to the extreme.   If you really want to live where there is absolutely nothing at all, Alaska would be a good choice.   I prefer an island called Hokkaido where you can visit the 5th largest city in Japan (Sapporo) and yet, get away to any other place on this island, on the beach at the sea or in the mountains, where there is absolutely nobody else around, for as far as you can see.    I have found my true spiritual home.   HOKKAIDO.   How about you?   Home is where the HEART is.    And at times, a good home must be relocated.   To a place where THE PATH is clearly visible.

2008 June 16 Monday thru June 20 Friday.

The Summer Solstice is here and now, once again, just like it is every year at this time.   Why is this important?   That depends upon your occupation, but for farmers and other folks who live close to the natural world, this is the apex of the sun's ascent into the northern hemisphere.   We all know that the word "summer" means 夏, but what does the word "Solstice" really mean?    SOL means SUN, from the ancient Latin Language, and STICE means STOP.   In other words, the SUN STOPS its climb up to its highest point in the sky, appears to stay there for about 3 days, and then begins to gradually get lower in the sky at HIGH NOON 正午, every day of the year until about December 22 when the Winter Solstice occurs.   This is ancient knowledge and is just so much common sense, that it seems as if it is not worth mentioning at all.   Except for the fact that when I talk to a lot of high school and even college kids and mention the words 夏至 or 冬至 , about 50% of the students have no idea of what I am talking about.   YIKES!!!    Think about that for a moment.   We all live through it every year, and everybody notices that the days get longer and the nights get shorter, as we approach the Summer Solstice.    And likewise, after about 3 days we all notice that the days get shorter, and the nights get longer, as we cycle on over to the Autumn Equinox and back on into the Winter Solstice.   How could any living entity be it PLANT or ANIMAL or PLASMA, fail to notice this????   The answer is that EVERYTHING notices this, but only about 50% of the young people today, know how to describe it, or what it is called in modern language.    That is one reason why I am sure to bring this subject up in all of my classes, when they happen during these important times of the yearly cycle.     By the way, when Ikuko and I went out for an evening walk on Wednesday, we were greeted by a full view of a FULL MOON rising above the TAISETSU ARENA, and still low in the SouthEastern Sky which made it appear to be RED.   The CHERRY MOON.    Full and beautiful.   What a trip, and I only had to step outside from the back door of my abode to enjoy it all.    We enjoyed walking by the light of the moon for about one hour in the warm evening air.    A full cherry moon near the summer solstice.   A memory that will last forever.

2008 June 14 Saturday and June 15 Sunday.

I had a private lesson with the 9 year old elementary school girl as usual on Saturday morning, but today her mother told me that her daughter has a headache, and also she slightly injured her right leg during some kind of sports activity, so they wanted a 30 minute lesson, instead of the full 50 - 60 minutes, which we have every week.   The young girl's lack of concentration today was rather obvious, but I tried my best to make her feel better and extend the time to 50 minutes or more.   I was only able to coax 40 minutes out of her today, but that is much better than nothing.   Either way, I get paid the same so it's not about money for me, but rather about student SATISFACTION with my job performance.   I take that more seriously than anything else, in every teaching job that I do.   I am there FOR THE STUDENT.   The student is NOT there for me.   In Japanese they have a well known saying that goes like this;  お客様は神様です.   Meaning; The Customer is GOD.   If you are an entrepreneur who owns and runs a small business, of any kind, you know exactly what I am talking about.    Even if you live in the Western World, some people STILL GET IT.   It's about a WIN=WIN situation.    There need not be any losers, in the game of LIFE.    Ya see, the IDEAL is total co-operation.   Helping yourself BY helping each other.   How simple is that?   As you all know, I have been an inhabitant of HOKKAIDO for more than 18 years NOW.    When I first arrived here on March 12, 1990,.....   I immediately had a good feeling about this place.     So did Charlie Hamel and family, when they first set down, BOOTS ON THE GROUND at the Asahikawa International Airport, on 2008 March 26.   I have been corresponding with Charlie for more than about 2 years via the internet, but I only just recently, met him and his family, face to face for the first time, on that March afternoon.    Since that time, Charlie has been publishing a Private Blog for family and friends only, the URL of which I will not make public.    As I have been reading his blog everyday since it was begun, I have come to realize that Charlie and Me, have a lot of things in common, when it comes to living in JAPAN, especially HOKKAIDO.    This little old island has a lot to offer.   It is easily visible on a world map.   In the big city of Sapporo and some districts of small city Asahikawa, land prices are very expensive.    In other locations around Hokkaido, you can get LAND FOR FREE.    If you are willing to,...... etc.      I am not making this up.   There really is FREE LAND IN HOKKAIDO.   I have even see a big sign by a rest stop that was inviting people to move to the village in exchange for free land.    I may have even taken a photo of it.   I'll look for it later.    By the way, the photo in today's blog shows what I did for the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday.    I made a new series of 105 Conversation Topic Cards, for use with mostly adult students.    The small stack of black and white cards that you can see at the top of the photo, are the ones that I made about 12 years ago.   At that time, we only had a simple word-processor, cardboard sheets, glue and wide cellophane tape.    They have worked well over the years, but it's time to reinvent the wheel, an totally remake and expand this set of teaching/learning materials.    Now that I have a PC with graphics software, a color ink-jet printer and a laminating machine, I can make much more professional looking flash cards, and so on.   The entire job took me about 12 hours over several days to complete.   I will make more later.    Time to go take a walk.

2008 June 10 Tuesday thru June 13 Friday.

And the beat goes on.   The photo above/left is of our favorite Grilled Chicken やきとり restaurant.   It is known as ToriSen とりせん  and you can get a feel for the place by viewing the photo in today's blog.   The shop has been around for a long time, ever since I first came to this town 18 years ago, and most likely much longer than before that time.   The entire staff is female, except for one older guy, who is the main chef.   They make a unique type of サンギ which is a Hokkaido word for deep fried chicken nuggets, except at this place, they make it with the bones still inside.   Sort of similar to Southern Fried Chicken.   It's crispy on the outside, and juicy on the inside.    On Wednesday, I had a class with the first year students at the Kosei Nursing school as usual.   Every year, at least one of the new first year students, has already graduated from a junior college and has some employment experience, before enrolling in this nursing school.   As such, they already have enough credits for English, in order to graduate from this school.   Therefore, I sign a piece of paper saying that I acknowledge this fact, and do not require them to attend my English class.   Each time I do this, the student will stop coming to my class.   Except for this year.   The young woman told me that she enjoyed my class so much that she wanted to attend, even though she is not required to do so.    I told her how happy I was that she enjoyed my class and thanked her for continuing to attend.   That made both of us feel pretty good.   The rest of my classes for the week went pretty much as usual, both at home and away.   The weather has been overcast, rainy and a bit cold this entire week.  I hope it gets sunny and warm on this weekend.   Summer officially starts next weekend.

2008 June 9 Monday.

Happy 12th Anniversary to the only child, that me and my wife have given birth to, together.   The child's name is; Snowman's American English Family Classroom.    Has it really been that long?   Yes, it has.  But, that is not the whole story.    The idea for having my own Language Learning/Language Teaching Classroom, started more than 30 years ago.   That is the time, when I first visited Japan as a member of the USCG.   After one week at Yokota Air Base, I was flown to the tiny island of Iwo Jima 硫黄島, for a 12 month tour of duty.   It was at that time, and on that island, that I first began to learn the Japanese Language.   I really liked this new challenge, and I spent every spare moment learning how to speak, read and write this most beautiful of all pentatonic scale spoken languages.   A pentatonic scale, has only 5 notes in the octave.   Likewise, Japanese has only 5 vowel sounds あ　い　う　え　お  in the ENTIRE LANGUAGE!   Is this unusual?     Yes, very.    I can think of only one other modern language, that is spoken by enough people on this planet today, to rank in the TOP TEN INTERNET LANGUAGES, that has 5 or less vowel sounds.   That language is Spanish.   Anyway, since that time, I have spent countless hours learning the Japanese Language.   Now, it is a very useful tool in my daily life.   Not only that, but I know exactly what it is like for someone else to begin learning a totally new, and completely different foreign language, from the ground up.    If learning languages is interesting, wouldn't teaching them to other people be just the same, or even more interesting?    Yes, it would be.    And it certainly has been.   And it will continue to BE.   If you can make your most interesting hobby, into your life's work, you have a job in paradise.   A paradise that welcomes each and everyone, who is WILLING to put forth the EFFORT required to make it happen.   ABC is really C B A.    Conceive, Believe, Achieve.    How simple is that?    ABC, 123.    Back to basics, and a lifestyle that makes sense, in all aspects of that lifestyle.  If you really hate your present job, do yourself a big favor, and ask yourself this simple question.    "Did I, myself, go to this company and apply for a job, OR did the company come to my house, and force me at gun-point, to work long hours for little pay."    Which is it?   I think we all know the answer to that question.

2008 June 8 Sunday.

What a busy Sunday.   First on my list, was a drive over to Shibinai Elementary School 志比内小学校 to observe their 99th annual Sports Day Event 第９９回 運動会.   I got there just a few minutes after 09:00, and the opening ceremony was already underway.   This very long standing school has only 15 students this year.   It was the most intimate school sports day, I have ever been to.   The only reason I know anything about this school, is because my friend Charlie Hamel has one of his two kids, attending school there.  You can see the entire student body in the photo above/left.   Charlie's other kid is still too young to attend elementary school so he had lots of free time today.   He and I, and a lot of the other smaller kids did various things together like; playing catch with a soft baseball and two gloves.   Kicking a soccer ball around and finally having water gun fights amongst ourselves with the tiny little plastic water guns that the school had given out as prizes, after one of the earlier events.    I had to leave before 12:00, so that I could swing by my house to pick up Ikuko, and then drive on over to the Citizens Culture Hall 市民文化会館 to listen to only 3 of the 37 chorus groups that performed during the long day 第５４回　旭川合唱会.   After we listened to the groups that we came to hear, Ikuko and I left the hall, and drove back into Kagura to shop for food, and batteries for my digital cameras.    The weather today is excellent, and summer is just around the corner.    Starting at about 18:00, Ikuko and I had a private 2 person Korean BBQ party on our big balcony.   Of course, as with any cook-out, there has to be lots of delicious all malt beer, to wash down the freshly cooked meats.    Today we roasted lots of beef strips which I marinated in salt, course black pepper, vinegar and soy sauce.   After the beef strips were cooked, they were immersed in 大根おろし sauce and then folded into a leaf of fresh green lettuce.   The final touch before putting it into the mouth, was a huge frosting of hot red pepper paste  right on the outside tip of the green food missile.    Then, put it straight into your mouth and bite down hard.   The first taste sensation, is the hot red pepper paste, soon followed by the BBQed beef and it's Giant Radish soy sauce juicy flavor.   As you begin to chew into the unit, the refreshing taste of the green lettuce begins to take over your palate, and you have yourself a juicy mini meal.    This is an excellent way to eat charcoal grilled beef strips, and I highly recommend it.   But,.....   don't wear a white shirt when eating this, and have plenty of moist hand towels おしぼり sitting on the table, within easy reach.

2008 June 5 Thursday thru June 7 Saturday.

The photo in today's blog, is a close up of a 500 ml bottle of OtokoYama SasaOri All Malt Rice Wine 男山笹おり　特別純米　生酒.   I have written about this before, but I think it deserves another mention, for all of my readers out there, who may not be familiar with this most excellent, cold Japanese Sake.    From the photo, you can see that the rice wine looks like there are clouds floating in it.   There are.   These are clouds of LIVING YEAST that are still active, producing alcohol inside the bottle.   No kidding.   This rice wine is totally non-pasteurized, meaning that it was never heated up, not even to room temperature, during the entire process of its production.  This rice wine is made during the coldest months of the year, and then bottled in March.   It is keep in a freezer at a temperature of minus 5 degrees Celsius for about two months, before it is shipped out to the wholesalers and retailers in late May of each year, for sale to the general public.  Even after that, it must be kept refrigerated at a very low temperature until it is consumed by the end user.    This Japanese Sake tastes so damn good, it is like the nectar of the gods.   I am not kidding.   In fact, on Friday evening at about 19:00, Charles Hamel, a long time reader of this blog, called me up to tell me how much he was enjoying drinking this cold rice wine, even as we spoke on the telephone.   That's right Charlie, this stuff is ONLY sold in HOKKAIDO.   Welcome to the best island on the planet.  For many reasons, not JUST this ONE.   Also this year I have seen for the first time, big red paper labels with holes punched in them, for hanging around the neck of the 500 ml bottles, specifically INFORMING everybody that this juice MUST BE KEPT REFRIGERATED!   It's true.   I have had two encounters with spoiled SasaOri.   The first one happened at a 7-Eleven store about 8 years ago.  The bottle was inside a cooler display case, but when I reached in and got it out, I noticed right away that the color was not cloudy clear, but slightly yellow.    Xit!!!   I thought to myself.    But, I took a chance and bought it anyway.    Immediately thereafter, I discovered that it was indeed rotten.    I knew for a fact that the raw rice wine had been kept in a warm place for some amount of time.   It was ruined.     I vowed to never make that mistake again.  But I forgot about it, UNTIL,.... July 8, 2006.    On that day, I was taking photographs at the Mebae Kindergarten TANABATA FESTIVAL on a beautiful warm evening.   When that gig was finished at about 18:00, I decided to get a bottle of my favorite summertime swill, at a nearby supermarket in Kamui.    Much to my horror, I found no bottles of SasaOri in the chilled sections of the store, but I did find five full cases of it, sitting  on the floor of the supermarket, right next to the cheap wine and cheap whisky.    Oh my Gawd!  Somebody doesn't know how to care for this product.  This time, I called a clerk and asked him if there were any cold SasaOri bottles in the back room.   He said, "I'll go check."    About 2 minutes later, he came back with a cold 500 ml bottle in his hand.   When he gave it to me, I could see right away that the color was a bit on the yellow side.   This bottle is cold, but it hasn't always been that way.   It was rotten too.   I was totally hacked-off,  so I asked the clerk to call the store manager.    I did this for ONE reason and ONE reason ONLY.    To prevent the total waste of this most delicious raw pure malt rice wine on the planet.   WHAT A WASTE!   I hate to see stuff like that.  I had a big smile on my face when I informed the store manger that this product was rotten, and would create a bad impression with the customers who bought and drank it.   Naturally, this would create a very bad image for the OtokoYama company.     UNFAIR!    The company's products are excellent.   But some of them require special handling.   Seeing this mindless waste, and feeling extremely sad, I sent an email to Mr. Sasaki at the OtokoYama company, who is the Marketing Director and long time personal  friend of mine.     As a token of his gratitude, he personally came by my classroom on the Sunday Morning of July 30, 2006 and delivered a cold four-pack of the delicious brew.   Maybe my whistle-blowing, has something to do with the new RED BOTTLENECK TAGS that drape each and every bottle of SasaOri which are on sale this year. 

2008 June 2 Monday thru June 4 Wednesday.

This week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday is the 護国神社祭 here in Asahikawa.   The GoKokuJinJaSai is held every year at this time, and for the purpose of remembering all of the Japanese soldiers and civilians who have died in times of war.   Every year during this event, there is a rainstorm usually together with thunder and lightning.   This is known as "The Rain of Tears" 涙雨 and is said to represent the tears of sorrow caused by the suffering of war.   The main locations for the festival activities is the GoKoku Shrine itself which is located in 春光　right next door to the JSDF base.    Also, there is a three day carnival in Tokiwa Park that looks something like the photo above/left.   Wednesday morning I had no classes, so I was out driving around enjoying the sunny morning.   I drove past the GoKoku Shrine and all around the perimeter of the JSDF base several times.   Today was a special day on the base, and all of the troops were in full battle gear, driving tanks and every other vehicle they own, including small boats and helicopters.   Of course, they were displaying the unit colors and other battle flags as well.   I stopped along the public street just outside of the fence and watched for about 5 minutes.   It was pretty cool.   In fact, on Sunday June 8, the JSDF base in ShunKo will have an OPEN TO THE PUBLIC day between the hours of 09:00 and 15:00.   I already have two events that I will attend on Sunday, but hopefully I will also be able to make it out to the base again before 15:00.   I'd like to take a closer look at those helicopters that fly over my neighborhood several times a day, every single day.   After watching the troops on parade, I drove over to Tokiwa Park to watch the carnies set up their stalls.    They were just getting started when I got there at about 10:40.   The library doesn't open until 11:00, so I had a lot of time to just wander around the park, and observe their work in progress.   Tokiwa Park, by the way, is recognized as one of the 100 most beautiful parks in all of Japan.   There is even a small stone and bronze plaque at the entrance of the park that says so.   It truly is a wonderful park, both during the day and also at night.   From 15:00 until 20:00 I had straight classes at my classroom, but right after that, I took a taxi to Tokiwa Park and wandered around among the huge crowd for about 2 and one half hours, sipping on a big bottle of 男山笹おり, as I always do, and taking many photos.   During my time there this evening, many young people, mostly college students, called out to me and I talked with them for a few minutes each time.   I even ran into a group of four girls who go the the Kosei Nursing School, and they all gave me a big hug.   Confirming once again, that the best things in life are,.........   

2008 June 1 Sunday.

It is an overcast and rainy day.   I have been invited to attend a wedding celebration party at the Asahikawa Grand Hotel, starting at 13:00.   The woman getting married is a student at my classroom who came from Mie Prefecture 三重県, and her husband's hometown is Asahikawa.   As such, a lot of people who don't live in Hokkaido came to this wedding celebration party today.   As usual, I was the only non-Japanese person in attendance, and I only knew 2 of the 97 other people who  were there also.   The ceremony was gorgeous, the food was great, and there were a wide variety of drinks to be enjoyed.   The whole thing lasted about 2 and one half hours.   According to a card at each place setting, there was a second party scheduled at a different location in the city, to be held from 16:30 until 18:30.    However, in my semi-drunken state, the time registered in my brain as "6:30 pm until 8:30 pm".    This is the time I believed to be true, when I left the Grand Hotel and got into a taxi for the short ride back home at about 15:30.   I was thinking to myself, "I have enough time to change my clothes, have a bite to eat, and then head back into town for the second party.   Well, my belief was wrong.   After sitting around at my home until about 17:30, I looked at the card again to confirm the location of the second party and was shocked to realize that the second party was already half over!!!    Ahgggggg!!!   I missed my chance to have some drinks with Taemi, her husband and some of their friends.   What an idiot I was.   My name is Norman not Morman, but sometimes I call myself Moron!   Can't turn back the clock.   Just wait for the next opportunity.

2008 May 26 Monday thru May 31 Saturday.

Back to business.   At 13:00 on Monday, the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会, had two new visitors who came to see our discussion group in action.   The young lady who did not attend last week because of severe Pollen Allergy symptoms, did attend this week, but also with very severe allergic reactions to pollen.    She was wearing a double layered white mask on her face, and was forced to remove it from time to time, in order to expectorate the excess mucus from her nose, and watery eyes.   I know EXACTLY how you feel Mrs. I.   Drink 甜茶 and stop taking that useless poison, commonly known as;  Over The Counter pharmaceuticals.    I have been there and tried that, it does not work.   Try a different approach.   A more herbal remedy may be just the ticket you need, to fly into breathable air again.   On Tuesday, I spent about 90 minutes with a group of Freshman Students at Asahikawa University, in the computer lab.   About 25% of them didn't show up today.   The lesson continues without them.   On Wednesday at the Kosei Nursing School, our 90 minute class together was a lot of fun.   The entire time was spent with me and each and every one of the 40 students taking turns, practicing a pre-scripted telephone conversation, using real cell phone display models as props.   A few of the students, who are really interested in speaking English, took the opportunity to ad-lib, and get off script.   GOOD!!!   That is exactly what I want to happen during these skits 演習.   An actively participating student group is a teacher's dream come true, in real time.   On Friday at the Dokan Nursing School, I had a 90 minute class with one half of the 2nd year students.   Again, I and each and everyone of the 20 students performed a pre-scripted skit, about buying a fitted hat.   Trying on three different hats until the size was just right.   Some students were able to ad-lib through the script, but some could not memorize their lines at all.   On Saturday, I drove out to Shibinai to visit with Charles Hamel and family.   We took a drive over to the 東川森林公園 and the kids took a ride on the Green Slider.   Also, Charlie made a short video for one of his blog readers who had sent him a small gift in the mail.   Charlie has a new type of video camera called FlipVideo, which is entirely without any moving parts!  No tapes to mess around with at all.   It takes reasonably good movies and is about the size of my hand.    His model can record up to one hour of video, which can then be downloaded to a PC via a USB connection.   Very easy to use.   A must have for any serious video blogger.   After we got back from the park, Charlie showed me some of his other websites and how he manages them, plus some of his ANIME drawings that he makes using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator.    It was a very interesting and educational day for me.   See ya again next week on Sunday at the 志比内小学校運動会!

2008 May 24 Saturday and May 25 Sunday.

I was hoping that Ikuko and I could get get on the road to Otaru by about 13:30 or so, but we were delayed until about 15:45.   It was hot and sunny this afternoon, so I dressed in short pants and a short sleeved shirt for the drive to the coast.   The route I always use when driving to the Sea of Japan from Asahikawa is as follows:   First I get onto Highway 12 at the border between Kamui and Chuwa.  I drive along Route 12 through two long tunnels until I get to the KamiKoTan 神居コタン area.   There, after the end of the second long tunnel, I turn right onto Route 57 heading towards FukaGawa 深川.    At FukaGawa, many people turn off onto Route 223 which leads directly to downtown Rumoi 留萌.   I don't.   Instead, I continue on along Route 57 driving through FukaGawa and then on into MoSeUshi 妹背牛.   There, I turn off onto Route 628 which is close to the PePeRu OnSen ペペル温泉.    After driving for about 8 kilometers along Route 628, I turn left onto Route 94 which is also known as the 稲田増毛線.    This Route 94 will take you all the way to Sea of Japan Coastline and Route 231 at a point about 3 kilometers south of Rumoi.   This is by far the most scenic way to drive to the beach from Asahikawa.   After taking a rest at the rocky beach at the end of Route 94, we headed south down Route 231 towards Mashike Town 増毛町.    Right after passing through Mashike Town, there begins a long series of tunnels which last all of the way down the オロロンライン until you get into HamaMasu Town 浜益町.   We stopped along the way in HamaMasu to eat some Sea Urchin Rice Bowl うに丼 and other delicious foods.   Then, we got back on the road for the remaining 90 minutes or so drive to Otaru.    I know exactly how to get to Authent Hotel, because I have been there many times before.   They even have free parking inside one of those Vertical Parking Elevators 立体駐車場, which is located right next door to the main entrance of the hotel.    When we drove up to the entrance of the hotel to unload our bags, the person who came out to greet us, remembered me right away.   He said; "You came here last year too, didn't you?"    I said; "Yes, I did.  And the year before that, and the year before that, etc."    It is nice to see a familiar face again, when on the road.   We checked in at about 19:30 and then immediately went back outside again, for the short walk to the Canal Plaza Area 運河プラザ and the Otaru Beer Factory in Warehouse Number One.    Before we left Asahikawa today, we already knew that the PALOSIKS would not be performing tonight.   However, we were looking forward to drinking the Helles German Style Beer ヘルス which is only available during the springtime and early summer of each year.    This beer is truly a masterpiece of this brewery, and only costs 1,680 yen per liter.    ONLY???!!!   Let's see, that is about 10 times more expensive than gasoline!    Yeah, well,.....  what the hell.  Helles is damn good beer.   Unfortunately for us, we were both still rather full from our late meal in HamaMasu, and we couldn't  drink as much good beer as we usually do.   Did we save any money on the deal?   No, not really.   Sea Urchin Rice Bowl costs about 2,600 per serving, making it rather pricey for a single meal.   But who cares anyway.   Money is just dirty paper.    After spending about 90 minutes at the Otaru Beer Factory, Ikuko and I walked around a bit along the famous canal area.   There were far less people than we expected, but then again, it was just another Saturday night in Otaru, with no special consecutive holidays for the Japanese Salary Man.   Even though the air temperature was about 15 degrees C., the air felt colder than that because of the Sea Breeze moisture in the air.    We hurried back to the Authen Hotel so that we could use the Mist Sauna and other fine bathing facilities.    It felt very good to warm up again, and drink some brandy as we watched TV until about 02:00.

On Sunday morning, we woke up at about 7:30 and went up to the 11th floor for a Western Style all you can eat 食べ放題 breakfast.   They also offer a Japanese Style breakfast on the 3rd floor of the hotel, for those customers who prefer it that way.   We always choose the Western Style Breakfast with its scrambled eggs, bacon, crispy rolls, plus plenty of strong coffee and fresh Hokkaido milk.   I almost never make this kind of meal for myself at home, even though I could do so very easily.    I prefer brown rice 玄米 and natto 納豆, with various seasonings like kimchi, or hot mustard and soy sauce.   But this morning is different.   A once or twice in a year, experience.   As such, I really shoveled it down.   Tasted sooooooooo good.   Just like my typical childhood breakfast in Spokane Washington.      Anyway, today it is raining in Otaru, and other locations in Hokkaido, as well.   So, instead of driving back to Asahikawa, along the same route on which we came, we decided to first visit Wing Bay Otaru and take a look around.    We haven't been inside this shopping complex for about 10 years, and many things have changed.   One of the differences that I really liked, is the fact that, they have a stage on the first floor, for musical artists to perform upon.    Our timing was just right and we caught the performance of two guys on amplified acoustic guitars, with excellent vocals.    Asahikawa should have more of this type of stuff, in the AEON Shopping Mall.   After looking around there for about 90 minutes, we were back on the road, Route 5 heading towards Sapporo, where we got onto Route 12 for the remaining trip back to Asahikawa.   Distance wise, this route is shorter than taking the coast highway, but there are so many stop lights and traffic jams along the way, that it usually takes more time to arrive at our final destination.    However, Ikuko's younger sister was recently transferred from Tokyo to Sapporo for her job, so we decided to drop in at her office and say hello.   She had to work today until about 19:00, so we were only able to talk to her for a few minutes.     Finally, Ikuko and I arrived back home at about 19:30 and immediately stretched out with a beer or two, to unwind.   Driving through the big city, really makes me tired.   That's why I always take JR if my only destination on a trip, is going to Sapporo.

2008 May 19 Monday thru May 23 Friday.

The cutting edge of the evening chill, has mellowed out.   It is getting warmer, day by day, but typhoon number 4, was raising hell as it pounded southern Japan and then moved farther out into the Pacific Ocean as it came up north towards Hokkaido latitudes.   It was very windy on Tuesday and Wednesday especially.  On Monday at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会, one of our regular members couldn't come this week because she was down with POLLEN ALLERGY 花粉症.   I know exactly what that feels like.   I missed a gig just a few weeks ago, at the DoKan Nursing school, for the very same reason.   On Tuesday, I was at Asahikawa University between the hours of 10:20 and 12:10 in a Computer Learning Lab on the 4th floor, of the main building.   About half way through that class, the wind outside of the windows became so loud, that myself and 3 other students, parted the heavy drapes hung over the windows, to look outside and see how strong the wind really was.   It was whipping around the inner courtyard of the campus, like the TASMANIAN DEVIL of Warner Brothers Movies アニメ.   Strong, Loud and Scary.   Fortunately, unlike southern Honshu, the KamiKawa Basin got very little rain, by comparison.   Thursday was a regular kind of teaching day, with LOVE all around.   Friday morning at the Dokan Nursing School was more fun than usual, because I used my Morning Call gag on the 2nd year students, two times during that class.   The gag goes like this;   Every time I start a class at this school, I look at the student list, call out to each and every student by name, greet them and ask them a simple question.   The IDEA here, is to stimulate some kind of casual conversation.   This works well with motivated students.   Non-motivated students, can't even understand what I am saying, unless the student sitting next to them interprets my remarks into Japanese for them.   If one or more of the students is absent when I get to their name on the class list, I ask the attending students if anybody knows the absentee student's mobile phone number.   Every time I ask, at least one student will say that they know the phone number.   At that point, I ask them to call the absentee student on their mobile phone, and then give the phone to me while it is still ringing.    When the absentee student answers their phone, I say; "Hello!  This is Norman at the Dokan Nursing School.    We have an English class together today, do you think you can make it to the classroom, before the lesson ends at 10:30?   etc., etc.    Of course by now, everyone in the classroom is rolling with laughter and the student on the other end of the phone, is in a state of disbelief.    Most likely, no other teacher anywhere ever, has pulled this gag on them before.   If the student I am calling doesn't answer the phone, I leave a message on their answering service.   Either way, this is a fun and easy way, to get everyone in the class buzzing with laughter and light conversation.    It works every time.    After that class was finished at 10:30, I took a taxi back to my place to eat brunch, and do various things before the next class at my classroom began, at 15:00.     When all classes for Friday were finished at 20:00, Ikuko and I went for a 60 minute walk along the cycling roads of the Biei and Chubetsu Rivers, as we often do.    We talked about, what to do, during the weekend, because Ikuko has both Sunday and Monday off, from her part time job at HOMAC.   We decided to go to Otaru and spend one night at the Authent Hotel.  A place where we have stayed many times before.

2008 May 18 Sunday.

Today was the first day of this year, that felt like an early summer's day.   Warm and sunny, with very little wind.   At about 12:00, I called Charlie Hamel, to see if he was up for a bicycle ride.   He said he was ready to go, so I packed my mountain bike into my Toyota Noah, and drove from Asahikawa up to Shibinai, using the back roads as much as possible.    The way I always go there is as follows;   First I get onto Route  237 and drive towards Biei.    After driving for 19.5 kilometers and just before the hill known as 美瑛坂, there is a sharp turnoff to the left which says 志比内　旭岳温泉　天人峡.    I turn left there and get onto Route 213, which will take me right to the intersection nearest the Shibinai Elementary School, after driving for another 14 kilometers.   The nice thing about taking this route, is that there are no traffic lights anywhere along route 213.    It is also a very scenic drive that I enjoy every time.   I arrived at Charlie's house and was greeted by some of the  kids who were playing outside.    When Charlie came out of his house, he told me that he had a present for me.   I went inside to take a look, and was pleasantly surprised to see a hot-air-popcorn-popper, and several kilograms of raw popcorn!   Before the Hamel Family left Texas for Hokkaido, they sent me an email and asked me if I wanted them to buy me anything in the USA that I can't easily get in Asahikawa.   I thought about it for a few days, and then realized that I have been eating pre-popped popcorn, that I buy for about 100 yen per bag, at the local supermarket.    I love popcorn, but nothing tastes better than fresh popped popcorn, that is warm and fragrant, and full of life.   Therefore, I asked them to get me the above mentioned products.   Thank you!!!   I really appreciate it!   Charlie and I saddled up, and got onto the road at about 13:30.   We rode on Route 213 which leads up to the ChuBetsu Dam, ChuBetsu Lake and then on to the Y in the road, where you can take a right towards TenNinKyo, OR take a left towards AsahiDake OnSen.   We didn't ride that far.    We turned off of the main road, and drifted on down into the base of the very large, ChuBetsu Dam.   See the photo above/left for details.   While we were there, we got rained on a bit.    Then, we got back on the main road, and back towards ShiBiNai, but this time along the gravel-lined elevated river embankments, that are everywhere, on this island.   A slightly bumpy, but very scenic way to ride.   We continued along the scenic route until we got back on the main road, for the remaining short ride to the 第一遊水地.    This has recently become a public park, with a very nice park golf course, right next door.    Also in this area, are some really nice looking private homes, newly built and mostly in a Northern European style.   Some of the places also have, huge beautiful gardens.    A very nice place to live, for a very long time.   After looking around that area in a somewhat casual manner, Charlie and I rode back over to his house, about 4 kilometers away.    We were both slightly afflicted with either leg pain, or butt pain.    I was the one with the butt pain.   After sitting on Charlie's flat  porch in the late afternoon sun, while having water-blaster gun-fights with the local kids, for about 20 minutes, I drove back home along the same route that I had come.  Along the way, I got rained on, but only for a few moments.   The brief rain storm both felt good, and smelled fresh.    After I arrived back home at about 16:20, I immediately started a beer and BBQ party for Ikuko and myself.   Today's menu;  Indian Curry Marinated Chicken Breast with Giant Green Onion blocks.    Slowly roasted over a charcoal grill, with Yebisu Gold All Malt Beer.   While we were lounging around on the second floor balcony and watching all the people and cars go by, the head chef of the soba noodle restaurant came outside from the main entrance and walked along the front of the building and then around the side and into the back door.   While he was doing so, I looked up at us and said; KONNICHIWA!    I held up the big tall cold boy in my right hand salute fashion, and returned the greeting.  Then he said; "That food you're cooking smells good."    I said; "Thank you.  I won't steal any of your customers!"    We both laughed and went about our business.    It's great to have friendly neighbors.

2008 May 13 Tuesday thru May 17 Saturday.

Another long week of many classes and not so friendly weather.  Along with my regular teaching schedule, I had an interview at the Asahikawa City Hall Foreign Relations Division.   The purpose of the interview was to generate content, to be used in a monthly newsletter that is produced by the Asahikawa International Committee.   You can visit their website by clicking here.    I was interviewed by a young gentleman named Brendon, who said he is from California, near Los Angles.   He asked me a series of about 14 or 15 questions, which the interviewer had devised by himself, after looking around on this website.   In fact, the way he contacted me in the first place was by sending me an email to the address listed on the top page.  The title of the newsletter article is;  Hello Asahikawa!,  and it will also appear on the website at this page.    Most likely it will be in the June 2008 issue.    About 10 years ago, I was asked to write a short essay for this very same newsletter.   It wasn't an interview, and they didn't have a website at that time.   I'd like to share it with my readers right now but,  I can't find a copy of my WORD document on which I wrote it.   Basically, I said that;  I really like living in Asahikawa, because the city is not too big and not too small, it is close to the big nature of the mountains and the seas, and the people are very open and friendly.   That is the gist of what I said, at that time.   I still feel the same way today.   Some things never change.   Anyway, also working at the same office as Brendon, is one of my long time students.   She has been coming to my classroom a lot longer, than she has been working at this office, but I know she can do a good job at her new position in the office of the foreign relations division for the City of Asahikawa.   One thing that impressed me about Brendon, is his knowledge of the Japanese Language.  Speaking, reading and writing, seems to be a daily necessity for his life and job.   He told me that he had studied Japanese at the university and had come to Japan on the JET Program, in order to make practical use of what he had learned while living in the USA.   Now, that's a man with a plan.  Rock on big guy!     On a different subject, the photos you can see above/left were taken on May 4th, 2000.   This is  the 上雨粉林道 which is a rather long mountain bike trip from my place in Kagura.    I haven't been to this area on a bicycle ride for a long time, but I think it might be a place where I should ride through again, this year.   At the time that this photo was taken, there were not many insects in the air, yet.    If you come back to this location in summer, don't forget to bring some bug repellent.   There are huge horsefly looking critters, that draw visible blood when biting human flesh.   Speaking of mountain biking, Charlie Hamel and I have been talking about going together on a serious riding adventure, but somehow, I haven't been able to get my ass in gear, and get going.   To tell ya all the truth, I haven't done any serious cycling for about 2 long years.    One of the reasons, is because Ikuko likes walking much better than cycling, so if I wanna go out with her, I've gotta hoof it.   However, now that Charlie is here and ready to ride, I need to fix my flat tire, tune up the gear cables and get back on the road.   I thought that day, might be today, but I was wrong.   After my only class for today was finished at 11:30, I sat down to eat a big lunch of 冷やしラーメン.    Made last night by Ikuko, and still plenty of leftovers, for lunch today.   I ate it slowly, while watching some documentaries on You Tube.      About 90 minutes later, when I was finished eating, and ready to ride down to my friendly bike dealer's store for a patch job and a tune up,......   THUNDER and LIGHTNING.    What are the chances of that?         No cycling for today.  Maybe tomorrow?   Maybe not, but I do wanna drive upstream to Shibinai, and visit with Charles Hamel and Family.    We both have lots of other mutual hobbies, that we can enjoy together.   I'll call ya tomorrow at about 12:00 noon, my friend.   Hope to see you all again real soon.

2008 May 12 Monday.

The photo on the left, is yet another excellent picture from the very well organized website, Rambling on my Hokkaido.   This is a snapshot of MiKuniToge 三国峠, which is about a 60 - 90 minutes drive from the center of Asahikawa.    From this angle, it looks like a rather dangerous drive along that very high and winding road.   When you actually drive across it though, it's NOT that scary.   Although, it really should be.

Speaking of scary, I went to the Young Buds Kindergarten again today, for the first class of the new school year.   Naturally, I met all of the 1st year students 年少.   Most of them were calm and relaxed, but a few of them were very anxious and frightened, and feeling the whole gamut of childish emotions.   This happens to everyone, when you suddenly realize, that your mommy and daddy will not always be at your side, 24/7/365.   And that's just the beginning of a life story.    One of the girls in the new class, has lived in an English Speaking Country for more than one year, and she could understand everything I said, during our short lesson.   Another young girl came up to me to shake my hand, at the end of the lesson, just like all of the others, but she also gave me a big hug, and a kiss on the left cheek.   It was so sweet.   Please don't tell Ikuko, about this kiss and tell, story.     After that was all finished at about 12:00 noon, I drove back to my classroom to make and eat some more of that red soup Korean style ramen that I sometimes make for myself.    Starting at 13:00, I was back at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会.   I started off the conversation circle today, by talking about my boring Golden Week.   Usually, I travel far and wide around Hokkaido during GW, but this year I didn't, because of various reasons, as noted in my previous blogs.   Almost everyone else in the group had a travel tale to tell, and one young lady in particular, had prepared an interesting quiz, about how to read the names of some small towns and villages along Route 142, that runs between 釧路町 and 厚岸町 in Eastern Hokkaido.   I don't have enough time to reproduce all of the アイヌ語当て字語（漢字） here in this blog, but if you have a copy of the very detailed Hokkaido Super Mapple, somewhere in your home, you can look at it, and see for yourself.     I couldn't read 90% of the place names that she wrote upon the white board.   That was a great presentation Mrs. I!   Please do another one again sometime.

2008 May 10 Saturday and May 11 Sunday.

Saturday morning started at 10:30, when I had a one hour private lesson with an 8 year old girl, who comes to my classroom every week at this time.   Last week she didn't come, because she and her family went down to Tokyo and Yokohama during Golden Week, to see some relatives and do some sightseeing.    During that time, she visited Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea, along with some other amusement parks in Yokohama.   This week when she came to class, she told me all about her adventures IN ENGLISH!   She even drew some illustrations of what she had seen and experienced during her trip.    This very intelligent little lady, is one of the very few children who come to my classroom, who actually tries to use English as her first language, when she is with me.   We almost never speak Japanese to each other.   Amazing.      After that lesson was finished, I made some really hot and spicy Korean Ramen for lunch.   It is my own very simple recipe and I would never think of making it for someone else, but I must admit that I really do love to eat stuff, made with lots of hot red peppers.   I'm not sure why that is, but it IS.   I was hoping that I could drive out to ShiBiNai and visit with Charles Hamel and family, but Charlie was busy helping one of his neighbors, set up a new restaurant.   A very neighborly and noble thing to do.   Maybe I should have gone out there to help them, but I was more interested in playing the guitar, again today.    Since about 2 or 3 weeks ago, I have been getting back into an artist from Great Britain, whom I have been listening to since about 1984.   When I lived in the USA, I had many of his albums on cassette tapes, and I would spend countless hours listening to his music and playing along on both electric and acoustic guitars.   Again this Saturday, I used You Tube to find the songs I love, and my acoustic guitar to play along with the rhythms and melodies.   The British Musician to whom I am referring is Al Stewart.    You can see a You Tube video of him and his band, performing his original song, The Last Days of the Century, by clicking on his name above.   Later on, I also played around on the Alto Recorder, and just for fun.   Sunday was Mothers' Day.   Of which I had completely forgotten about until about 10:30 am on Sunday Morning, when Ikuko reminded me of it.    My mother and father are both deceased now, and the only bloodline family member whom is still slaving away on prison planet, is my skinny little sister, who lives in Seattle.   She is not a mother, so I didn't send her a greeting card.   We were mainly concerned with Ikuko's mother, who is still active and healthy, and living not too far away from us.  That's why Ikuko remembered that today is Mothers' Day, and I didn't.  To make up for my forgetfulness, I have thrown together a haphazard digital greeting card, to post in this blog.   You can see my less than diligent results, above/left.    Tomorrow, I get to play my guitar at the Young Buds Kindergarten めばえ幼稚園.    I am well prepared, and looking forward to it.   I think we will start with the ABC SONG, and work our way UP from there.

2008 May 5 Monday thru May 9 Friday.

Monday and Tuesday were both National Holidays so I had no classes to teach.   The weather during this entire five days can be characterized as cold, wet and windy.   I even saw a few snowflakes from time to time.   Well, that's the north country for ya.   Because of the consecutive holidays, I was able to make a new set of Question and Answer Cards, that are designed to be used together with my original textbook for elementary school students.   After the students have memorized all 12 pages of the textbook, the cards are used to test the learning comprehension of the students, by presenting the entire contents of the textbook, one question at a time, in completely random order.   This method, really puts the frosting on the cake.   It took me many hours over several days to finish all of the cards, but now that I have them, I can use them over and over again for many years to come.    Invest Time in Yourself.   Turn off the boob tube.   Watch You Tube instead.    Starting again Wednesday, it was back to a full schedule of classes throughout each day.    And it continued to be cold and windy, especially at night.    That's usually when Ikuko and I go for our walks.   Not this week.   It will get warmer soon, but my snow tires will stay attached until the third week in May.    I have seen it snow here before, as late as May 18.   The  hot times are still a month or so away.   When that season comes, we can really get down and go for some long drives, with overnight camp outs, and MEGA Star Gazing.    Bring on the Summer.  Bring on the Night.

2008 May 2 Friday thru May 4 Sunday.

The last day of classes before Golden Week.   On Friday, I went to the Dokan Nursing School from 9:00 until 10:30, for a 90 minute class with one half of the second year students.   Today I split the class into 3 groups of 6 students each, and one group of 2 students plus me.  We did page one of my original textbook called Q&A.   It was a most interesting and enjoyable lesson for the students, and myself.  After that, I had straight classes from 15:00 until 20:30 at my classroom.   On Saturday, I had originally planned to drive down to Otaru, and spend the night at the 道の駅 (MaxValue 24/7)　so that I could go to Otaru Beer and see the Palosiks do three live stage shows.   However, I got an email from a former student inviting me to a BBQ party at Kagura Oka Park on that same day, so I went to the BBQ party instead.   When I got to Kagura Oka Park, I was rather surprised to see that almost all of the cherry blossoms, had already fallen to the ground.   A bit early in the season for that, in Asahikawa.   Nonetheless, there were many other people gathered in the park for exactly the same reason.   While I was at the BBQ party, I was introduced to a guy who appeared to be about 25 or 26 years old.  When I said; "Hello, nice to meet you."   He didn't say anything in response.  In fact, he didn't even look up at me.   I have seen this behavior in some very young children before, but almost never in "ADULTS".  Even as the BBQ Party continued for the next 2 hours, this guy said almost nothing, to anyone,  the whole time.  He reminded me of my skinny little sister, who is very self-conscious (immature), and is unable to look people in the eyes, when talking to them.   In the case of my little sister, this is mainly because she was pampered 甘やかしてる and over-protected 過保護 all of her life.   Physically she got older, but mentally, she never grew up.   She probably never will, because she doesn't have to until,....   it becomes a tree to weak to stand.   See photo above/left for details.   Anyway, it was a bit windy, but it didn't rain at Saturday's BBQ Party.   I ate a lot of meat and drank a lot of beer, as I usually do at BBQ parties.   Not a very well balanced diet for the day, but rather enjoyable anyway.   Until the next day on Sunday.    On Sunday, Ikuko and I were planning to drive down to Otaru and spend the night, as per my previous plan for Saturday, but I had a huge stomach ache all day long, and certainly did not feel like driving, even for a short distance.   Trip Cancelled.   Maybe some other time.

2008 May 1 Thursday.

The first day of May.   Also known as May Day.   I don't know the details of this annual event, but it seems to have something to do with labor unions.     Also, it is the mid-point between the Spring Equinox 春分の日 and the Summer Solstice 夏至.    This has much more meaning for me, that anything having to do with some type of International Labor Movement, or whatever.   Anyway, I didn't have any classes today until 15:00, so I used my free time to do many things around my classroom and living room.    One of the things that I did was to make a new signboard 看板 for the windows of my classroom.    Big signboards can be very expensive.    But, by using a PC,  an ink jet printer and a laminating machine,  the small business owner, can save a ton of money.    Not only that, but you can get the exact results that you want, by Doing It Yourself (DIY).    I am very particular about the colors and designs that I use to advertise my little old classroom.   The laminated signs that I had taped to my classroom windows for about 4 years, have become color faded and hard to read.   Therefore, I decided to make completely new ones, using the same colors and design as before.   This is not difficult, but it does take time.    So, while I was printing out the new sheets of paper on my ink jet printer, I was also cleaning up the classroom and living room areas.   I often use a wet rag to wipe the surfaces of tables, chairs and other appliances.  Today, while using one wet rag for clean up, I absent mindedly left another rag in the bathroom sink, with the cold water running at full blast.     I was out in the other room, putting a sheet of paper into the printer, so as to print out the next letter of my signboard.    About one minute later when I went back into the bathroom area to get the wet rag, I discovered to my horror, that the rag had floated up into the overflow prevention drain holes near the top of the bathroom sink, thus blocking them.   As a result, a copious amount of cold water was running out over the top of the sink and down onto the floor below, and in all directions.   Oh my Gawwwwwwd!   I immediately turned off the water and unplugged the drain.     I grabbed a mop and started to mop up the excess water.   It was more than my little mop could handle.    About 2 minutes later, someone was ringing my classroom doorbell.   It was one of the office staff members from the first floor.    He said that water was leaking from my room down into a corner of the kitchen, of the restaurant which is directly below me.   Aw Xit!!!    This time I have screwed up BIG TIME.    I told the man that I was taking care of the problem, and went back to using my mop.   Suddenly, it dawned on me that my big WET/DRY Vacuum Cleaner, would do a much better and much quicker job of sucking up the excess water.   So, I got it out and went to work.   In about 2 minutes, I had all of the excess water sucked up off of the floor, ensuring that no more would leak down to the kitchen below me.   At that point, I walked downstairs and in through the back door of the soba noodle restaurant to inquire about any water damage that I may have caused by my absent-minded behavior.    The boss of this restaurant and I, both recognize each other immediately, by our physical appearances, so he was not too surprised to see me inside his kitchen.   I anxiously asked him;  "Did a lot of water leak down from my room into this kitchen?"   He replied; "No, not much."    Thank Gawd, I thought to myself.   Then I asked;  "Did any water leak into the dining room area?"   He answered;   "No, none at all."    I felt very relived to hear that.    I make mistakes, from time to time, as all humanoids do, but I always learn something new from any mistake.   Don't DO IT that way again, IS the basic message, from any mistake.    Lesson Learned, time to move on.    Golden Week, is just around the corner.  Time to kick back and relax.    Unless,... 

2008 April 21 Monday thru April 30 Wednesday.

The third week of back to school, and the end of the first month of spring.    April is an interesting month.   One day it will be very warm, say up to about 17 degrees Celsius and then on that very same day, during the nighttime, it can get down to -5 degrees Celsius.   That is a rather large change in temperature for just 24 hours, don't you think?   Not only that, but April has its fair share of cold and rainy days as well.   If you live closer to the mountains, you may even see some snowflakes falling out of the sky, from time to time.   For some folks, April 29 which is now known as ShoWa No Hi 昭和の日, is the start of Golden Week for 2008.   In fact, on Wednesday April 30, I was absent minded enough to drive all the way out to the Kosei Nursing School, in order to teach my English class to the first year students, only to discover that there was almost nobody at the school.    When I got to the teacher's lounge, and opened my folder, I discovered that today and tomorrow and every day after that until May 7, is an extended holiday for all of the students.   Imagine the surprise of the very few staff members who were at the school on that day, when they saw me walking around in the building.   I was surprised too, but I shouldn't have been.   After I got back home and looked at my own personal schedule book again, I was amazed to discover that I had NOT written down that a KNS class was scheduled for April 30!   Even though I should have double checked my schedule book the night before, for some reason I did not, and had ASSUMED that I did indeed have a class on April 30.   You know what they say about the word ASSUME;  "It makes an ASS out of yoU and ME."    Yeah, it sure did that today.   Jeez, what an idiot I was.    However, being located all the way out in East Asahikawa 東旭川, and not far from the Asahiyama Zoo 旭山動物園, I took advantage of my huge blunder and drove over to take a look at the zoo, from outside of the gate.   Apparently, they open the zoo at 9:00, because there were a lot of guardsmen standing around directing traffic, as people were lining up to get into the zoo.   A lot of tour buses were also heading for the East Gate of the zoo.  Being rather cold and overcast today, is not the best day to visit the zoo, but if you have come all the way from Taiwan or Korea to Asahikawa, it's a good day, because it is not raining.   Say hello to all of the friendly animals for me.   I'll come back again, on another day.

2008 April 14 Monday thru April 20 Sunday.

The second week of back to school.   Another good year is on the horizon with fresh faces, and motivated young people, starting off on their life adventures.   I too, have been trying to make a comeback, of sorts.  When the cycling roads become completely free of snow and ice, it is WALKING TIME.   Any time of the day or night.   The so called Metabolic Syndrome, is just a slowing down of a human being's metabolism.   And it is not just human beings.  Horses and other large animals also develop メタボ.    When I tried to do some research into the causes and remedies for Metabolic Syndrome on the World Wide Web,  I was NOT able to find any consensual conclusion, as to the reason why some animals get obese, and others don't.   I have thought about this topic for many years, and the only thing I can say with certainty, is that in modern society people tend to become sedentary.   They sit at a desk or table, and use their mouths for speaking and their hands for gestures, to do their daily work, and get a paycheck.   People who use their physical bodies, to do their jobs, from day to day, are much less likely to develop metabolic syndrome.   I am a professional language teacher, and I spend most of my working hours sitting in a chair, or standing in the front of a classroom talking.   I do not get anywhere near enough physical exercise, especially during the winter months when there is a lot of snow everywhere.    Starting last Sunday, I pledged to myself, to go for a walk 5 or 6 times a week, for between 30 minutes and 120 minutes, each and every time.    I must do this in order to speed up my metabolism again, so that I can lose weight, and get back to my normal body size of a 34 to 36 inch waist.   I have many pairs of Levi 501 Jeans sitting in boxes, just waiting to be worn again.    To increase the effectiveness of my time spent walking, I also wear weights on my wrists of between 1.0 kilograms and 2.0 kilograms.   In this way, by moving my arms around while I am walking, I burn more calories and strengthen my upper body muscles at the same time.   The only time I have to go for these long walks on weekdays, is after all of my classes for the day are finished, which is at 20:00 or sometimes 21:30.   Nonetheless, I need to do this on a consistent basis, or I will obtain no useful results for my health.   I mean, walking is such a natural and easy exercise to perform, I have no excuses for not doing it.  WALK ON!    On Sunday, I drove out to Shibinai to visit with Charles Hamel and Family.   The weather was warm and sunny, with a high temp. of about 20 degrees C.   We went for a short bicycle ride to a river bank of the nearby Chubetsu River and enjoyed the fresh air.  I met more of his new neighbors also.  A lot of very nice people live in Shibinai.   This is country living, away from the big city.  I myself would enjoy living there, but I couldn't get enough students to come to my classroom if I did.   Oh well, at least I can go out and visit the place from time to time.

2008 April 7 Monday thru April 13 Sunday.

It is the START of the New School Year, over here in Japan.   Everybody is busy with this and that, getting ready to congregate at the schools, and await summer vacation.    On Tuesday morning, I drove out to Asahikawa University to conduct a class with some of the new freshman students.   Using the computer lab again this year, I am accustomed to the random manner of interactivity with the students.   A lot of them will be surfing the internet, and not following my lesson plan for the day.   Others will complete the planned lesson for that day, and make progress.   Different strokes for different folks.   On Wednesday, I went out to the Kosei Nursing School (JA北海道厚生連旭川厚生看護専門学校）, for a class of about 40 new freshman students.   This class is always held in a rather large classroom, will all students sitting in their own little desk-chair combination units.    Therefore, it is very easy to move the seats around and form groups for pair work, and other such activities.  On Friday, I went out to the Dokan Nursing School 北海道立旭川高等看護学院 for a class with one half of the 2nd year students.   There are more boys in the class this year.   No problem there, in fact sometimes it makes things more lively and interesting.   I had a private lesson on Saturday morning, and after that it was time to play the folk guitar for a few hours.   Something I haven't done for a while.   On Sunday evening, I was able to take a nice long walk along the cycling roads that run along the Biei and Chubetsu Rivers.   No snow on the trail anymore.   I was smart enough to wear running shoes, but I refused to wear socks.    My feet stayed toasty warm, and I walked around for more than 90 minutes.   During that time, I saw light in the sky, grow suddenly brilliant white and then fade back into dull white, as it moved along it's path.   My first thought was that it is another "spook light", but it was too small and to far away to be confirmed as that.   My second thought was that it is a man-made satellite that had somehow caught a momentary direct hit of sunlight, and merely reflected it back to earth.    Exactly how this would work at night, I am not sure.   But I did see, the momentary glowing up to brilliance, of a celestial object, again tonight.   First one for the 2008 walking year.

2008 April 2 Wednesday thru April 6 Sunday.

Welcome to The Learning Curve.    If you are a non-native speaker of the English Language, and you are reading this blog, with a full understanding of what I am talking about, you already KNOW what The Learning Curve is all about.   The reason I bring this topic up TODAY, is because one of my most enthusiastic students, a middle-aged person who attends my classroom 3 times a week, told me something that was profoundly interesting for me.   This particular student has only been attending my classroom for one year.   Before he came to my classroom, he had attended a big name English Conversation School, in the city of Kitami for two years.   At that time, he wanted to study English as a hobby, because he was living alone, and had quite a bit of free time on his hands.    After 2 years of living and working in Kitami, he was transferred to Asahikawa, and he immediately starting looking for a new English Conversation School in Asahikawa 旭川英会話スクール.    It didn't take him long to find this website for my little ole school, right here on the WORLD WIDE WEB.    AKA the internet.    He called here and made an appointment for a free trial lesson 無料見学.   After that lesson, he immediately decided to sign up as a new member of this classroom, and has been coming here almost every week, and on average about 2 or 3 times a week, for a total of one year now.    At today's lesson he told me that he is so happy, that he can now speak English in a fluent and accurate manner, and he felt so good about IT, that he couldn't stop talking about IT.    I then explained to him in English, about the concept of a learning curve.     Please look at the graphic, above/left.    When a person, any person, first tries to learn something completely new, they START on the LEARNING CURVE.   At first, they must study very hard, and they do not make much progress.   But if they keep on trying for a long enough time, they will reach phase one.    At this point, they can feel that they have learned something new, but it is still not very useful in their daily lives.    If the student continues to study, they will make it to phase two and then phase three and up to phase four, where they notice a significant increase of their knowledge about the new study, but IT is still NOT QUITE ENOUGH to become very useful in their daily lives.    At this point, many people will have spent about 2 or 3 years studying this new knowledge and they all have a decision to make.    Should they continue their study, or should they quit?    Unfortunately, a lot of people get frustrated with their own slow progress, and give up at this point.    However, those students who keep on trying to learn more about their new knowledge, and DO NOT GIVE UP, have a very big surprise waiting for them, just around the corner. &nb