My Private Hokkaido

2008 December 28 Sunday and December 29 Monday.

2009-06-03T15:33:00.003+09:00

Did I mention that it is snowing again?
It snowed non-stop for four days straight.

How much did we get?
Take a look at the photo on the left and see for yourself.

I haven't driven my van since last Thursday, so you can see how much piled up since that time. A lot.

Certainly enough for every ski ground both near to the city and far away, to get a long awaited blessing and open up full time.

Ikuko and I finally finished printing and writing messages on about 300 New Year Cards 年賀状 that we send out every year, so tomorrow I am ready to go snowboarding for the first time this season.

I will be going to Santa Present Park for the night session starting at 16:00, most likely Charlie and his oldest son will be there too.

Charlie sent me an email telling about his big adventure at Kamui Ski Links yesterday.

He came to the conclusion that he needed some more practice time at a smaller mountain before he was fully ready to get back up on the big slopes again.

I know exactly what he means.
About 16 years ago when I tried snowboarding for the first time in my life, I was having a really hard time with it.

Even though I was born and raised in Snow Country in Spokane Washington, I was never allowed to go skiing by my parents.

So before I came to Asahikawa in 1990, I had never even been on a chair lift before.

In fact, the first time I tried to get onto a chair lift with my new snowboard attached to my left foot, I fell off right at the beginning.

How embarrassing is that!?!

On my second try, I was able to ride the lift up to the top and then promptly fell down again as I was trying to get off of the chair lift, and slide down to the staging area below.

After I had attached my right foot to the snowboard binding and tried to stand up, I fell down again, and so on and so forth.

The first 3 or 4 times I went to a ski ground, I did a whole lot more falling down than I did of any meaningful riding.

Finally on the 4th or 5th trip to the ski ground, I found my balance and was off down the slopes in a free riding style that I still use to this day.

In a word, learning how to ride a snowboard is very much like learning how to ride a bicycle.

Once you find your balance, you will remember it for the rest of your life.

Even if you haven't ridden a bicycle for many years, you can still get on a bicycle and ride it again immediately.

The only question is HOW LONG can you ride it before you get really tired. Snowboarding is the same basic principle.

I didn't go snowboarding at all last season, and only one or two times during the season before that.

Tomorrow I will try it again for the first time in almost two years.

I know I will be exhausted after about 60 to 90 minutes, but I need more exercise in my life because I spend most of my time sitting in a chair, either talking to people or making stuff on a PC.

It's time to spread my wings again.

2008 December 26 Friday and December 27 Saturday.

2009-05-19T17:48:00.003+09:00

Finally!!! The Big Snow!!!

This is the light and fluffy powder snow that Hokkaido is world famous for.

You can see from the photo on the left, that it has piled up fast, and that it continues to come down heavy.

In fact, it is coming down so heavy that I can't even see the lights of the Santa Present Park Ski Ground which I know for sure is fully open today.

Charlie Hamel told me in an email last week that he and some of his students were planning to go to Kamui Ski Links today, and get in some skiing and snowboarding.

If it is snowing this hard down here, imagine what it must be like up there on the mountains.

I know from personal experience that being able to see where you are going on the ski slopes during such a heavy snowstorm, can very very difficult if not impossible.

You can call it a White Out.

On the other hand, if you can see where you are going during a heavy powder downfall, you will have the most excellent adventure humanly possible without leaving the ground.

Riding a snowboard through deep powder snow, is equivalent to flying through the clouds on a magic carpet.

It is unbelievably easy sailing.
Almost effortless.

The only problem you may encounter is trying to get back up on your feet, if you fall down.

Not because it hurts, in fact it is like falling into a bed of feathers, but because there is nothing solid to push against while trying to get back up on your feet.

This can take a lot of time and effort, and cause you to tire out quickly.

Overall, this is the season to do some of the best snowboarding that the world has to offer.

Right here in Hokkaido.
That is why people come here from all over the world, especially from other parts of Asia and also from New Zealand and Australia.

I am going to hurry up and finish writing all of my New Year Cards 年賀状 tonight, so I can get out my dusty old snowboard and go for a big ride tomorrow.

I can't wait to get back into it again.

2008 December 25 Thursday.

2009-05-19T16:46:00.003+09:00

Merry Christmas Everybody!!!

Meanwhile,.....

第２００話　　米国、ゼロ金利政策と量的緩和の採用（薄まるドル）　☆☆☆

前回の第１９９話にて、「海図のない航海、ゼロ金利に向かう？ＦＲＢ」として米国がゼロ金利政策の採用に向かう可能性が高いこと、また既にリーマン・ブラザーズの破綻後の金融の混乱への対応策として、金利から通貨の供給量という政策の変更すなわち「量的緩和策」に実質的に乗り出しているとした。

「量的緩和策」とは簡単に表現するならば“紙幣を増刷し、ばら撒く”政策であり、為替市場の観点からすれば、究極の通貨安政策とした。すでに日本が２００１年に採用した政策だが、日本の場合には、量的緩和策採用から約１年後の２００２年２月に１ドル＝１３５円台を記録したのが円の最安値だった。

しかし、そこをピークに２００４年３月の１１０円割れまでむしろ円高が進んだ。

第１９９話では「なぜ、そこで止まったのか。それは日本が経常黒字国であり、対外債権国であるからではないか。

片や米国は、経常赤字国であり世界最大の対外債務国である。

ドルが基軸通貨であるということが、大きなメリットであり、それが歯止めになる可能性はあるが、仮に大赤字国が本格的な量的緩和策に乗り出すならば、日本円のような水準で果たして止まるのか否か」とした。

年末が迫った今月の１６日。米国では２日にわたりＦＯＭＣ（連邦公開市場委員会）が開かれ、利下げが行われた。

市場の大勢は０．５％の引き下げを予想したが実際には０．７５％の大幅な引き下げとなった。

そればかりか、今回の引き下げは１％と過去最低に並んでいた金利水準を０％から０．２
５％にするという金利水準をゾーンで設定するという異例の政策決定となった。

中央銀行であるＦＲＢが操作しているのは、銀行間の貸し借りの金利を意味するＦＦレート（フェデラル・ファンド・レート）だが、その目標金利にゼロ金利を含めたという点に今回の特徴がある。

すなわち米国の政策金利（中央銀行が操作する金利）は、名実共にゼロ％を正式に採用したことにより、下げ余地はなくなったことになる。

さらに今回のＦＯＭＣではその声明文にて「長期国債の買い入れの検討」をうたい、量的緩和策の導入を正式に決めたのも大きな特徴だった。

ＦＲＢはこれから（下げ余地のない）金利ではなく、（世の中に出回る）資金量で金融市場ひいては経済に影響を与えるという政策を採ることとなった。

これで１１月の第１９９話で触れた環境が生まれることとなった。

果たしてこの決定が発表された直後から為替市場ではドルが売られた。

市場では米国の利下げを織り込む形で１２月に入るとともに主要通貨に対しドル売りの流れが起きていたが、予想を上回る緩和策の発表に下げ幅が大きくなった。

特にドル円相場は急落状態（円急騰）となり１ドル８７円１３銭と１９９５年７月以来の円高水準を記録するに至った。

「量的緩和策」を別の方法で説明するならば、それは１００％のジュースに水を足すようなイメージを浮かべていただければいいだろう。

当然ジュースは薄まる。９０％、８０％というふうに。このジュースの濃度の薄まりは通貨価値の薄まりを意味することになる。

極端に薄まるとこれは「マネー・インフレ」ということに至る。

「通貨の堕落」という言葉があるのだが、金融市場の、そして経済のカネ回りを良くするために金利の引き下げでは足りず、更に（印刷した）通貨を“ばら撒く”という政策は両刃の剣でもあるわけだ。

この“通貨を薄める政策”の導入に金市場は敏感に反応することになった。
政策の発表直後にはドル建て価格は今年の１０月８日以来となる８８０ドル台の高値まで買い進まれたのである。

ドル建て金価格は、ドル相場との逆相関性を維持しており、２００９年入り後もこの関係が続きそうだ。

足元でＦＲＢが乗り出した政策は為替要因としてはドル安政策であり、机の上（理論上）ではドルの暴落をも思わせるものといえる。

ただし現実の相場はそれほど簡単なものではないだろう。

対抗馬たるユーロの存在も確かなものとは言えないためだ。

ユーロ圏経済も今回の一連の金融危機のなかで大きなダメージを受けており、更なる利下げ（金融緩和）が必要とされているのである。

年始早々にもＥＣＢ（欧州中銀）は利下げに向かうと見られており、現在２％となっているユーロ圏の金利と米国の金利差は縮小が予想されている。

これはドルのサポート要因といえる。

ユーロ圏よりもさらに激しい景気の収縮に見舞われていると見られる英国の利下げも大きくなると見られており、年始早々、今度はヨーロッパでの利下げの度合いが注目点になっている。

その結果がまたドル建て金価格の方向性を左右することになる。

ちなみに、かかる環境の下で、ドル円相場の円高の波は終わっているとは思えず、年末年始を挟んでの更なる円高方向への動きも想定できる環境ではないかと思われる。

年始は１月２週のヨーロッパの金融政策の動きを踏まえながら、価格動向に触れたいと思います。

皆様、良い年をお迎えください。（１２月２５日記）

金融・貴金属アナリスト
亀井幸一郎

※本レポートは執筆者の個人的な見解を述べたものであり、
　実際の投資にあたってはお客様ご自身にてリスクをご判断ください。

2008 December 24 Wednesday.

2009-05-18T23:00:00.008+09:00

T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care. In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled down for a long winter's nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below, When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name; "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky, So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my hand, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack. His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow; The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread; He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose; He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night." Poem by Clement Clarke Moore

Reading Voice by Norman Delaney
Piano Music by Liz Story CLICK HERE to LISTEN

Reading Voice recorded on 2006 December 24　

2008 December 23 Tuesday.

2009-05-15T23:45:00.004+09:00

Today is a National Holiday in Japan.

It is the Emperor's Birthday 天皇誕生日 to be exact.

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko came to Asahikawa on July 4, 2003 for the first time in more than 30 years.
T
he Royal Couple were on a tour of Hokkaido that year, and they traveled around this beautiful island by motorcade.

One of the events on their schedule was to have a Luncheon Banquet at the Taisetsu Crystal Hall which is right across the street from my classroom.

Because I knew the schedule of events on that day, I waited outside on the street along the route of the motorcade as it left the Luncheon Banquet at about 15:00.

I was in a big crowd of people, but lucky for me, I am taller than most of the other people, so I could raise up my one-shot-at-a-time digital camera over my head in an attempt to take a photo of the Emperor as he and the Empress passed by on their way to their next event.

Even though I couldn't use the viewfinder so as to be sure that I got a good photo, I got lucky none the less.

As you can see from the photo on the left, this was a very lucky photo indeed, because I only had one chance.

The one and only chance in my lifetime perhaps.
As a result, I nailed it. Later that same day, during the evening, there was another large gathering of people, this time in front of the Asahikawa City Hall to wave up at the Royal Couple as they waved back down to the crowd below from a 15th floor window in the Asahikawa Grand Hotel.

I was able to take some very interesting photos of the occasion and you can see the photo gallery for that day by clicking here.

You can also read the very short essay I wrote about it by clicking here.

As I said at the start of today's blog, today is a National Holiday so I had no classes to teach.

With about 3 weeks of winter vacation in front of me, I began to think of all of the things that I must do, and most of the other things that I want to do.
It is a rather long list.　

2008 December 15 Monday thru December 22 Monday.

2009-05-14T23:39:00.002+09:00

Today, December 22 is the Winter Solstice.
It is the longest night and the shortest day of the year.
It is not the coldest time of year in Asahikawa, that will come in the middle of February.
This past week was my last week of classes before the start of my 3 week winter vacation.

As such, there was a small Xmas Party during each and every one of my classes, with a small gift for each and every student to take home with them.
Speaking of Xmas parties, I was invited to the METS 英会話 School's Xmas party, that was held at the Leo Palace Hotel on Saturday night from 19:00 until 21:00.

I don't know for sure, but I think this school has been around longer than my own classroom.
I remember seeing their Town Pages Advertisement every year since I first started my school back in 1996.

Anyway, I met the people who work at and manage the school for the very first time on Saturday evening.

In a word, they are very nice people and if you live in the Suehiro Area of Asahikawa, you may enjoy attending some of their classes.

They even have classes at other locations around Asahikawa such as Lumine and other citizen learning centers.
Be on the look out for METS メッツ　英会話 posters when you go shopping at the 100 Yen store or you local supermarket.

After the METS 英会話 Xmas Party was finished at 21:30, I was invited by the manager Mr. S., to join everyone at another location for a second party, but I declined the offer because I was thinking about doing some more work on my affiliate website the Every Thing Japan Network.

So, I sad thank you very much and started walking home along the icy sidewalks of downtown Asahikawa.
As I passed by the Planet Building, I suddenly remembered that I haven't been to the Piano in Pub, for a very long time.

Since I was already in the area, I decided to take the elevator up to the 8th floor and join the party.
The reason I like this place so much, is because the owner can play any song on the piano and the customers can sing along on an open microphone.

If you like going to a Karaoke Box and singing all of you favorite songs, you will like this place even better.
Not only that, but on Saturday nights they are open until 02:00 on Sunday morning, and a lot of really talented musicians stop by to play their musical instruments. It is an excellent place to meet up and get together for for a LIVE JAM!

On Sunday afternoon starting at 14:00, I went bowling with the Asahikawa University Lifelong Learning Class 旭川大学生涯教育クラス at the Dinos Sugai Building located on Taisetsu Doori. About the only time I go bowling at all, is with this group of people, and in 2005 I got the highest score over two games and won about 10,000 yen worth of book certificates.

However, this year I didn't do as well.
Although I paid 1,200 yen for two games of bowling, I won a total of 1,500 yen in book gift certificates 図書カード.
Not a bad deal by any standards.

Tomorrow is the Emperor's Birthday and thus, a National Holiday.

2008 December 8 Monday thru December 14 Sunday.

2009-05-13T21:52:00.002+09:00

An open letter to Link Share Japan. Thank you for wasting my time!!!

As you may already know if you are a regular reader of this blog, I have started a new website in early September of this year, the main purpose of which was to be an affiliate advertiser for the products and services of other companies.

Although this type of affiliate marketing has been around for a bit more than ten years, it is still a relatively new business idea in the course of human history.

With a lot of help from my good friend Charlie, I started to understand a little bit of what this world of internet marketing is all about.

I receive several internet newsletters from various organizations, one of which is from the Highlights for Children education company.

I used to read this monthly magazine as a child and was hoping to share it with my students here in Japan, so I looked at their website to see if they had an affiliate program.

Sure enough, they did. When I clicked on the link, I was taken to the English language website for Link Share USA.

On that website I clicked on the big button that said Publishers Join Now. I was taken to a Japanese Language sign up page.

I didn't think anything was unusual about this, as it often happens with many websites such a Google.

Anyway this is not a problem for me because I can read Japanese.
So I filled out all of the required information, in the Japanese Language.

One of the data input boxes required me to describe the purpose of my website, so I filled it in like this. 日本の全てを英語の世界に紹介する、または、日本に住んでいる外国人に、便利な買物サイトを紹介したいとのことです。 In English I would translate this as; "Introduce everything about Japan to the English Speaking World. Also, provide a one stop shopping website for foreigners living in Japan.

Is there any confusion, either in English or in Japanese, as to the purpose of my new affiliate website, the Every Thing Japan Network?

About two business days after I made my affiliate application to Link Share Japan, my website was approved to become a publisher, so immediately started applying to most of the various companies that are registered with Link Share Japan as advertisers.

I was approved by about 80% of the advertisers that I applied to, starting with the companies that I myself have bought things from and know are good products and services.

Companies such as ALC which also goes by the name アルク and publishes many language learning materials which I myself have used to learn Japanese, Chinese and Korean.

Sky Perfect TV, to which I myself have be a subscriber for about 10 years.

Glico グリコ which makes many of the snack foods that my wife enjoys eating, etc, etc.

I was very happy and satisfied to be able to introduce these products and services to the non-Japanese speaking world, which is about 95% of the world population.

I must have spent more than 100 hours putting up banner advertisements for my favorite companies onto my new website. I even made a sale through one of them, thus earning a small commission. Then, everything suddenly changed.

About two weeks after being approved as a publisher thru Link Share Japan, I received the following email from them.
ご登録されたWEBサイトは「ECサイトのパートナー」の観点から一定の基準をもって審査を行っておりますが、審査の結果、下記の理由により、登録申請を一時的に保留とさせていただいております。 ※日本語以外のコンテンツで構成されているサイト
For those of my readers who can't read Japanese, let me summarize the above message.

Your website being registered as a partner to Electronic Commerce websites, as been examined, and the results of the examination are that your application had been put on temporary hold for the following reason.

THE CONTENTS OF YOUR WEBSITE IS IN A LANGUAGE OTHER THAN JAPANESE.

Say What????

You have already approved my website, that is why I was able to get banner links from your advertisers.

Not only that, but I wrote about the purpose of my website in my application.
Didn't you read it before you approved my website?

Did you even look at my website before approving my application?

What kind of nonsense is this?

In an attempt to find out what this was all about, I contacted the Link Share USA branch of the company to find out if I could transfer my account to them, instead of the Japanese Network.

At first, I got an email from Link Share USA, with the URL for the signup page.
I went to the English Language sign up page, but I was not able to complete the process, because the data input form does not recognize "Hokkaido" as a legitimate location for an address.

So, I wrote them back again and asked what I should do. They said that they will contact me again when the issue is resolved.
As of this writing, I have heard nothing more from them.

As far a Link Share Japan is concerned; I have asked them several questions:
Number one. WHY did you approve my website in the first place if you already knew that the contents was written in English?
Number two. WHY is there no mention in the affiliate agreement that the contents of an affiliate's website MUST BE IN JAPANESE ONLY? For those of you who can read Japanese, click here to read the agreement for yourself. Especially take a close look at article 8 　第８条。

On December 6, 2008 when Link Share Japan deactivated my account, and thus wasted about 100 hours of my time that I spent applying to advertisers, getting approved, and then putting banner links on my website, I wrote to them again and asked them; WHY IS THERE NOTHING IN THE AFFILIATE AGREEMENT ABOUT PUBLISHER WEBSITE CONTENTS NEEDING TO BE WRITTEN IN JAPANESE ONLY???

Here is the reply I got.
参加規約に「日本語以外のサイト」の参加を言及する文章はありません。但し、弊社は、参加規約の第18条に基づき、日本のネットワークに参画するアフィリエイトサイトが基準をクリアするよう精査しています。
English translation: There is nothing written in the affiliate agreement about publisher sites using languages other than Japanese.

However, in accordance with article 18 (of the affiliate agreement) all publisher websites are carefully checked to insure they clear the standards of the Link Share Japan Network.

Below this comment I was given a URL to click on that leads to a web page in the FAQ sections of the website!!!! Click here to read that page.

Again, if you can't read Japanese let me summarize the contents of the page.
No affiliates under 18 years of age, No under construction websites, No gambling or adult porno or chat websites.

No websites that require a sign in page to access the website. No multi level marketing websites. No websites that promote racial or religious or ethnic hatred. etc. etc.

Oh! and by the way, no websites that are written in a language other than Japanese.

Can you believe this xit!?!?
Remember, this information was not written in the affiliate agreement itself.

It was written on a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) web page, and merely referred to by the agreement in article 18!!!

While most of these standards are just common sense, the requirement to have all publisher website contents in Japanese only, is not common sense.

After all, only about 5% of the worlds population can read Japanese.

The number of people who can read English is much greater than that.

Now, that is common sense.
Conclusion: Link Share Japan has a business model perfect for the stone age.

Wake up boys!!! Your competitors such as Value Commerece, Commission Junction, Pepper Jam Network and so forth are going to steal your market share and put you in the internet marketing has been category.

Best of luck to you guys.

And once again, thank you so much for wasting about 100 hours of my time!!!!

Have a Merry Xmas.

2008 December 1 Monday thru December 7 Sunday.

2009-05-12T17:34:00.003+09:00

Believe it or not, it was raining all week, until Saturday when it started snowing again.

The snow continues today on Sunday, and hopefully every day after that.

I wanna go snowboarding at Santa Present Park next Saturday night, if possible.

The main reason I often go to Santa Present Park at night is because it is only a 15 minute drive from my house and it is not very crowded at night.

I don't like waiting in lines for any reason, especially ski lifts.

Santa Present Park is a good place for beginning skiers or snowboarders to start learning how to ride on the snow.

There are three different ski lifts there.

The lift in the middle is short and takes you up to less than half way on the hill.

From there, it is a gentle slope down to the bottom of the hill, just perfect for beginners.

In fact, that is where I first learned how to snowboard about 15 years ago.

The photo you can see in today's blog was taken on Saturday at the Taisetsu Arena, which is right next door to my classroom.

I was invited to attend these ice hockey games by one of my architect friends, Mr. N. His youngest son, who is now almost 20 years old was supposed to perform some of his original rap songs after the children's hockey match, and before the start of the professional hockey match.

I have known Mr. N for about 16 years, and remember his youngest son when he was still in kindergarten.

Now, this kid has pink hair, hip hop fashion, and a foul mouth that spews forth all of the dirtiest words in the English Language, but not much else.

It reminds me of a Willie Nelson song that goes something like this; "Momma don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys,..." In this case I would substitute the word "cowboys" for "rappers".

Despite this small disappointment in stunted growth, I'm glad I went because I like to watch ice hockey games live, even though the Taisetsu Areana is ice cold.

Another enjoyable thing about going was that I was able to meet a young Canadian lady, who was brought along by Mr. N's wife.

Mr. N's wife is a school nurse in the Furano area, and the 21 year old Canadian lady is employed as an

Assistant Language Teacher in the same general area.

She has a good sense of humor and was a lot of fun to talk to, especially because we are both native speakers of North American English.

She told me that she had arrived in Hokkaido only about 5 months ago, but that she had been studying the Japanese Language, on her own, since she was about 15 years old!

This surprised me so I asked her if she had been to Japan before when she was in junior high school, on a home stay program or something like that.

She replied that she had just come to Japan this year for the first time, but that she liked to study languages, and that is why she first started learning Japanese about 6 years ago.

I too like learning languages so we had something in common to talk about.

Tomorrow morning, Charlie and I are off to Mebae Kindergarten めばえ幼稚園 to do a special Christmas Songs Show for the kids out there.

Last year I had to do it by myself so this year's show should be a lot more fun for everyone.

2008 November 17 Monday thru November 30 Sunday.

2009-05-11T15:26:00.005+09:00

The reason I haven't written anything for about two weeks is not because I have nothing to write about, but rather because I have been spending all of my free time developing my new website at http://EveryThingJapan.net
The purpose of that website is entirely different from this website.

The Every Thing Japan Network website was made for the sole purpose of becoming an affiliate marketer for advertisers of various companies.

If you have never heard of INTERNET AFFILIATE MARKETING before, and already have your own blog or website, let me take a few moments of my time to explain the basics of how to earn extra money on the internet, in your spare time, at home, without spending any of your own money to get started.

First of all, you need to get a unique domain name that you can call your own. This might cost you somewhere between $5 or $10. Then you need to find a web hosting company to host your web site. You can get both at the web hosting company that I use. It is located in Canada and is called MyHosting.

There are even many websites on the internet where you can START A BLOG FOR FREE, such as Rakuten and Blogger.
I myself, prefer to have total control over my websites and not use any of the free blogger services offered, because I don't like working with the limited user interfaces that those free websites offer.

This SnowmanJapan website was built up using MicroSoft FrontPage and starting with only one blank web page, but that software is no longer being supported by MicroSoft.

The EveryThingJapan site is being made with Adobe (Macromedia Studio MX) Dreamweaver software, and it is truly a joy to work with this professional software package. The placement of everything on the web page can be made with pixel perfect accuracy, and no need for guess work.

Once you have your own blog or website up and running on the internet, you are ready to apply to various companies and start putting advertisements on your blog or website.

Perhaps the easiest place to get started is with
Google AdSense for content. Advertisers use Google AdWords to put text based advertisements on your website automatically. The text advertisements will be similar to the text based content of your blog or other essays that you have published on your website.

If somebody clicks on one of your AdSense for Content advertising links, Google charges the advertiser some money, and then pays you a percentage of that money as an AdSense publisher. Either way, Google makes money on the deal, and so do you. Of course you are not allowed to click on your own AdSense links, or Google will ban you from the program.

Another place to get started with placing colorful banners and product ads on your website is at Amazon dot COM or Amazon dot CO dot JP. Amazon calls its affiliates "associates", but they are both the same thing. All you have to do is go to the sign up page and fill out the information there, and Amazon will get back to you within a few business days and tell you whether or not you have been approved for their program.

Amazon has a wide variety of marketing tools for
Associate Publishers that are easy to use, and can add a lot of colorful content to your website.

Other places to find affiliate programs are websites such as http://LinkShare.com http://LinkShare.ne.jp both of which are RakuTen companies.
Another website you might want to check out is http://www.cj.com The website is called Commission Junction.

Another website you might want to consider is http://ClickBank.com These websites are different from Amazon in that they offer opportunities to sign up with many other companies, known as advertisers, and not just with one company, like Amazon.

After you have signed up at these websites, the website will allow you to apply for an affiliate program with all of their advertisers.
Each and every advertiser that you apply to will either accept or reject your website as an affiliate publisher for that particular company.

So far, I have been accepted by about 80% of the advertisers that I have applied to, for a total of almost 300 companies that allow me to be an affiliate publisher for them, through the above mentioned websites.

Sorry I haven't written for so long. In fact some of my students have been asking me to write more often, like I used to do, because they use this blog as a textbook for learning English at home.

As you can imagine, with almost 300 companies and all of their banners and product links to look over and choose from, I haven't had much time to write this blog, until today.
A few of my students have asked me about how to make money on the internet from home, and the above information is what I have told them.

I hope all of my students and the rest of you out there, who read this blog, will benefit from this very basic information about Internet Affiliate Marketing.
Until next time, happy surfing.

By the way, just below this blog, you can see a live example of Google AdSense for content. The common text says Ads by Google, and you have probably seen them on many other web sites.

2008 November 11 Tuesday thru November 16 Sunday.

2009-04-02T17:32:00.003+09:00

The G20 Summit held in Washington D.C.

This news even made the front page of the Hokkaido Newspaper complete with a photograph similar the one you can see on the left.

The main purpose of this summit was to solve the looming world financial crisis.

Even though they came up with some statements for the news media about how they are making progress to fix the problems, such as; "We must lay the foundation for reform to help ensure that a global crisis, such as this one, does not happen again," they didn't tell the public what they are really planning to do.

I don't know much about the Bank of Japan, but I do know a little bit about the Federal Reserve Banks (FRB) of the USA.

Therefore, I would like to share with my readers what little I do know about the FRB, and let them draw their own conclusions as to what will happen next.

Despite its governmental sounding name, the FRB is not a part of the
Government of the United States of America.

It is instead, a cartel of privately owned banking corporations, who have the power to tell the United States

Treasury Department, how much money to print, and when to print it.
How did the FRB get started, and how did they get the power that they have now?

The FRB, also called the Federal Reserve System, was created in 1913 by the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act.

This legislation was rushed through the United States Congress without proper debate on December 23, 1913 when many of the congressmen were not even in attendance, because they were at their homes for the Christmas Holidays.

Despite this incredible fact, President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill into law on the very same day!

The American public was told that the Federal Reserve System would prevent any more financial crisis, which had caused the great depressions in 1893 and 1907.

Now that a small group of private banks controlled the entire money supply of the United States, they rapidly increased the amount of money in circulation during the years 1914 thru 1919 until the money supply doubled, by making extensive loans to other smaller banks, which encouraged those smaller banks made extensive loans to the general public.

Then in 1920, the Federal Reserve began to call in its loans from the smaller banks, and the smaller banks in turn had to call in their loans from the general public.

This caused the public whom had their life savings in the smaller banks, to rush to the bank and withdraw their money.

Because the smaller banks didn't have all of that money on hand, many of them had to close their doors.

In fact about 5,400 smaller banks went out of business during this time. In other words, bankrupt.

As a result, the Federal Reserve Bank bought all of these smaller banks at a very low price, further consolidating their monopoly on the banking business.

However, the financial panic of 1920 was just a warm up for what was to come next.

During the years of 1921 thru 1929 the Federal Reserve again increased the money supply by more than 62% by giving loans the remaining smaller banks, which in turn gave out loans to the general public.

There was also a new type of loan called a "Margin Loan" in the Stock Market.

Simply put, a margin loan is a loan to stock market investors, whereby the investor can buy, say, $1000 worth of stock with a payment of only $100 down.

The stock broker would cover the other 90% of the value of the stock.

This margin loan system works very well, as long as stock prices continue to rise, and it created many new millionaires.

In fact, this era in U.S. History is remembered as The Roaring Twenties.

Unfortunately, a margin loan can be called in at any time and must be paid off within 24 hours.

This is know as a "Margin Call". The party ended on October 24, 1929 when the biggest investors in the stock market, the big bankers, quietly started selling most all of their stocks.

This forced the stock brokers to make massive margin calls, in order to get the money needed pay the big investors their money, for the stocks which they had just sold. What happened to the small investors?

They lost everything they had, and went deeply into debt at the same time.

Many people committed suicide as a result of this deliberate market manipulation. This time about 16,000 smaller banks went out of business.

What followed next was the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Only World War II and The New Deal by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, both of them financed by the International Banking Cartel which drastically increased the money supply again, ended the great depression.
Fast forward to 2008 and the Sub Prime Housing Loan Crisis.

Banks have been lending massive amounts of money to people, so that they could buy houses with no money down and at very low starting interest rates.

So, many many people who really couldn't afford it, signed housing loan contracts, and bought new houses.

The catch, is that the mortgage interest rates became adjustable after the first one or two years.

In other words, what started out as house payments of say $400 per month, suddenly became house payments of $700, $800 and more per month.

Because most peoples' income did not increase by the same amount, they could no longer afford to pay their mortgages, and had to move out of their new homes.

Sounds a lot like a Margin Call, doesn't it.

Not only that, but the financial markets started to buy up these bad mortgages, and repackage them together into what appeared to be investment grade products, and sell them on the stock market.

Now, as stock prices continue to fall, the Federal Reserve continues to print more and more paper money, to bailout Wall Street and now the Big Automobile Makers, and maybe the Airline

Industry is next in line to get FREE MONEY. Money printed out of thin air, with nothing of value behind it. This creates INFLATION, a rise in prices of everything, and if the FRB continues print more paper money, HYPER-INFLATION.

In reality, the VALUE of commodities is not going up, instead, the value of the U.S. Dollar paper money is going down.

What do you think is going to happen next? Put on your thinking caps, and fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a rough ride.

2008 November 6 Thursday thru November 10 Monday.

2009-03-26T16:25:00.002+09:00

During the weekend, I spent all of my time making 250 brand new laminated Question and Answer cards based on the 6W1H interrogatives 疑問詞.

Namely; What, When, When, Who, Why, Which and How.

This is the second edition of these such cards and they are based upon the 12 page textbook that I wrote about 2 years ago, that was designed for pair work in large classroom settings of between 20 and 40 students.

The first edition of these cards was made 12 years ago when we first opened our new classroom in June of 1996.

At that time, I didn't even have a personal computer, so I used Ikuko's word processor to create and print out the A4 sized sheets of paper with 10 questions each on them.

Not only did I have to cut the A4 sized paper into 10 business card sized pieces, but I also had to cut the cardboard craft sheets into the same size as well.

I even bought a big table top guillotine type paper cutter to help me get the job done.

After cutting the paper and the cardboard into their proper sizes, I used very wide transparent cellophane packing tape, to attach the printed question paper onto the cardboard, one at a time.

They weren't pretty, but they worked rather well for that moment in time.
Nowadays, things are much different.

Not only do I not need the thick cardboard to make these Q and A cards, but I can print out both the Q and A side of the card, as well as a colorful backside to each card, that shows the level of difficultly, and my classroom's logo mark. SBK

Because I spent the entire weekend making these brand new full color Q and A cards, some people might come to the conclusion that I worked overtime to get the job done.

That's only one way to look at the situation.I look at it from a different perspective.

My classroom is the LOVE OF MY LIFE along with my wife.

We are both TOTALLY COMMITTED to making this small business a big success.

All of the time I spend teaching classes and making teaching materials for those classes, is the time of my life and the objective is to make our classroom, the best in this city.

In reality, it already IS. The only competition I have, is with myself to make it even better tomorrow, than it is today.

What most people would look upon as overtime work, I look upon as PAYING IT FORWARD.

I am always prepared to do the best job I can do, on any given day.

That day was today, Monday November 10.

For my last class of this day, from 19:00 to 20:00, I had a full house of 5 students, all of them of very different ages and all of them, from very different backgrounds.

Sitting around the same table with me, and using the Q and A part two cards, as the textbook for our lesson together, we engaged in very interesting discussions, of many different types.

It was awesome. The LOVE was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

To say it went smoothly is an understatement.

It was a most enjoyable and interesting lesson for all in attendance, because everyone became totally spontaneous in their conversations with me and all of the other students, by using the Q and A cards as a launching point.

What a blast it was. The promised 50 minutes lesson became 65 minutes, and I finally had to call a halt to the lesson time.

Phuck Yeah! 話せる　使える　楽しい　スノーマン　米会話.

What you get is more than what was promised to you.
Who could complain? 　Nobody. Least of all me.

2008 November 1 Saturday thru November 5 Wednesday.

2009-03-18T16:32:00.004+09:00

Super Quantum Synchronicity

Ikuko and I had a bet about the USA Presidential Election Results.

She thought McCain would win, and I knew different.

So I challenged her to a bet, that if Obama was elected, she would buy us dinner and drinks at a restaurant of my choice.

When the morning edition of the Hokkaido Newspaper came to my door this morning, the front page headline said "Obama in the lead."

I didn't even bother to look at the rest of the newspaper at that point in time.

Finally at about 17:00 when the evening edition of the 道新 Newspaper arrived at my door, the headline read "Obama is the next President of the United States of America".

No big surprise there.

Our last class of the day was canceled by the student so we were able to go out to dinner an hour earlier than usual.

Ikuko needed about 15 minutes to get ready to leave, so I sat down to take another look at the morning newspaper.

I slowly looked through every page, and when I got close to the last pages of the newspaper, I GOT A BIG SURPRISE.

My good friend Mr. Akira Baba had passed away on November 3 at his home, in his bed, with a look of peacefulness on his face.

Also written in the newspaper was that November 5 was to be the funeral wake starting at 18:00 at the Ohtani Temple not far from our home.

After I got over the initial shock upon reading the news, I showed the newspaper article to Ikuko.

We immediately changed our dinner plans, got all dressed up in black, and walked on over to the temple to participate in the funeral wake that had already started about one hour ago.

We stayed there for about 2 hours and then walked back home. I even cried a little bit.

Mr. Akira Baba was born on March 12, 1936.

I first stepped out of an airplane and laid my feet on ground at the arrival lobby of the Asahikawa International Airport on March 12, 1990.

My wife Ikuko was born on March 11, 1963.
Mr. Akira Baba was 72 years old when he passed away.

That is exactly 6 times around the 12 year animal zodiac, in the year of the rat.

Mr. Akira Baba was very knowledgeable about world culture and local Hokkaido history and culture in particular.

Mr. Akira Baba passed away on November 3, 2008.
November 3 is a National Holiday every year in Japan.

It is called 文化の日, meaning CULTURE DAY.
Mr. Akira Baba was childhood friends with my wife's uncle.

In other words, her father's younger brother.

Ikuko and I opened our classroom in 1996, which was the same year of Mr. Akira Baba's 60th birthday.

A 60th birthday is a big deal in Japan known as KanReki 還暦.

Need I say it again? Everything is connected to everything else, even if you aren't aware of it.

Super heavy synchronicity showed itself to me again today, and weighed heavy upon my heart.

Mr. Akira Baba and I have taken many trips together around Hokkaido in connection with our activities as members of the Hokkaido Cultural Property Protection Association.

I have also spent many enjoyable hours at his wonderful Pub Restaurant Ohfune.

Click here to see a short photo slideshow of his place.

Click here to read my translation of a Hokkaido Newspaper article about him and his very successful business.

See you again in the big cosmos my friend! Where shall we travel to again next time?

馬場昭様のご冥福をお祈り申し上げます。

マスター、本当にありがとうございました。

2008 October 27 Monday thru October 31 Friday.

2009-02-09T21:02:00.003+09:00

The final countdown into the month of November.

As such, the rain is getting colder, the wind is getting stronger, and the snow is beginning to fall onto the streets of this city.

November is a season between seasons.

Not enough snow at the ski grounds yet to have any fun, but just enough snow on the streets to make driving dangerous.

The key word for winter driving is GO SLOW.

It is easy to drive fast in the snow, but it is not possible to stop in time, to avoid a fender bender.

I got my tires changed from summer to winter on Thursday.

I let my friendly TOYOTA dealer in SueHiro 末広 take care of that for me.

I have neither the tools nor the time to do it myself.

I leave it up to the experts, to get the job done right.

Not only did they change the tires, and store them at their location, they did a full chassis and engine inspection including oil change, plus a car wash both inside and out.

The only thing they don't do, is windows, from the inside.

I can't complain. I'll do it myself someday, when I finally get around to doing it.

As you already may well know, October 31 of every year, is known as HALLOWEEN among urban dwellers.

The origins of Halloween are pretty much an open secret, but if you haven't thought about it for a long time, you might enjoy reading my essay while listening to a PODCAST of me, reading out loud the very same essay.

When I was a kid, I loved Halloween more than Christmas.

Why was that? Because there is FREE CANDY!!!

If you are an adult and reading this BLOG, your candy may be different from the sugar laden crap that most young kids like.

Your favorite CANDY might BEER or Japanese Rice Wine.
Or, whatever.If it tastes good, eat it. If it smells good, drink it. If it feels RIGHT, do it.

Are all slogans from the not too distant past, but it is ALWAYS TRUE, because that's just the way IT IS.

See ya again soon, on the POWDER SNOW side of the HILL.

The Crystal Hill.

2008 October 20 Monday thru October 26 Sunday.

2009-02-09T18:48:00.003+09:00

It is steadily getting colder but the sun was out for much of the week.

During the weekend there were some very sudden and violent rainstorms, with thunder and lightning.

For those of you who were caught out in the rain without an umbrella, I hope you didn't catch a nasty cold out of the deal.

I didn't go anyway this weekend, even though I am running very low on Korean Dried Red Chili Pepper Flakes.

An essential ingredient for me at almost every meal. Especially with soups and curry.

One of my favorite snacks between classes, is to eat pre-cooked curry packets with brown rice.

There are many varieties of curry packets for sale at any super market in Japan.

They range in price from 70 yen up to 400 yen for just one 200 gram foil package.

Some of these brands taste better than others, but none of them are any where near spicy enough, for me.

That is why dried red chili pepper flakes are so important to me.

I usually add about one heaping レンゲ soup spoon full of red pepper for every packet of curry that I heat up in the microwave oven.

First, I heat up the curry sauce in a domburi bowl.

Then, I add the hot and spicy red stuff, stirring it around well so as to mix the flavors together.

Then the bowl goes back into the microwave again for a second heating.

When the chime rings, I take the bowl out of the oven, mix it around again, and then add two or three scoops of freshly cooked brown rice on top of it all.

Yum yum.

The brown rice provides a lot of bulk, fiber and minerals, and the wicked hot curry sauce provides the zesty flavor that I need to make it all worthwhile.

Considering the large amount of red chili flakes that I use almost every day, I need to go to Western Supermarket and buy huge bags of imported Korean red chili.

The tiny little bags of it that they sell at the next door Seikyo Supermarket aren't even enough for one meal, for me.

Am I hooked on this stuff??? I guess so.

I wonder if most Koreans eat as much of this stuff as I do?

I guess I'll have to ask one some time.

2008 October 14 Tuesday thru October 19 Sunday.

2009-02-05T17:35:00.004+09:00

Lots of nice weather this week, along with some sudden thunder storms and heavy rainfall, especially early Saturday morning.

On Wednesday after my last lesson was finished at 21:00, the two students in that private lesson and I, went to a Live House and Karaoke Bar called Good Luck　（Good楽）that is located right across the pedestrian mall from SanBanKan 三番館.

I have never been here before but my private lesson students have, so they introduced me to the owner and his wife, who have been operating this very nice place for about 3 years now.

Not only do they have the latest Karaoke equipment, but they also have a band set with drums, bass guitar, many other guitars, and maybe even keyboards.

I like these kind of hangouts, because I get to hear a lot of local musicians play lots of good music, and I myself even stand in as a singer or bass guitar player from time to time.

The prices here are reasonable, the place is new and clean and the owners are very friendly. It is located at 旭川市３条通１４丁目 in the 越知ビル２F.

Their web site is located at http://fhp.from.jp/goodluckisa/

They are open from 11:00 - 16:00 for coffee and lunch time, and then again from 18:00 - 25:00 for a cafe and bar with live music by whomever wants to play some music.

I know for sure that I will be going back again and again.

If you love live music as much as I do and have never been to this place, please give it a try.

I think you will like it too.

On another topic of conversation, Thursday October 16 was Me and Ikuko's 14th wedding anniversary.

Fourteen years sounds like a long time, but really it's just the blink of an eye when you have a happy life together.

I let Ikuko choose the restaurant for our dinner and drinks celebration, so she choose KinKaRo 金花郎 located on 1 Jodori and within easy walking distance from our home.

This restaurant is very very popular and is usually packed with people, but on Thursday night is had a lot of open tables so we didn't have to wait at all.

The food of course is very good and that is why it is so popular.

The price is a little bit on the high side, but it is well worth the experience.

If you like Korean Style BBQ and have never been to KinKaRo before, I think you will like it too.

They have two locations that I know of.

The one in the photo above/left is the one we always go to which is on 1 Jodori at about 4 Chome, and the other one is just off of 1 Jodori at about 18 or 19 Chome.

Both places have exactly the same menu and the same good flavors.

They don't take reservations so if you want to go on a weekend or holiday, you better get there before 17:00, and be the first in line.

Good products and good service at a reasonable price is all an MBA needs to know about having a successful business.

Let the bean counters argue over the nickels and dimes.

2008 October 6 Monday thru October 13 Monday.

2009-01-28T17:46:00.009+09:00

Another cold and rainy week, until Saturday when the sun came out again and it started to warm up.

Monday October 13 was a National Holiday known as 体育の日.

Literally, Physical Education Day. I'm not much into exercise or sports anymore like I used to be, so I made plans to drive down to Otaru instead.

I took my usual route to the Sea of Japan on Route 94, also known as the Inada Mashike Line 稲田　増毛　線.

This is a beautiful drive in any season, but now with the autumn leaves becoming more and more colorful, there were some unbelievably bright reds, yellows and orange colored leaves to be enjoyed along the way.

I took my sweet time and drove very slowly so I could fully enjoy the multi-colored tapestry laid out before my eyes.

When I got to the beach at Mashike, I was surprised to see how windy it was.

When I opened the door of my van, the wind almost ripped it off!

Also, the waves were extremely rough and very high, at about 4 to 5 meters.

I have never seen the sea this rough at this location before. But then again, I have never been to this location in the middle of October before either.

I sat in my van and watched the beautiful but deadly ocean roll and growl with the fury of a woman scorned.

The next day, early on Sunday morning, I heard on the radio news that 5 young people from Asahikawa had been walking around on the rocks at Golden Cape 黄金岬 in Rumoi, when they got hit by a big wave.

Three of them got out alive, but two of them are still missing. Most likely their bodies will never be found. Nature is beautiful, but if you don't fully understand and respect her, your going to get whacked.

I finally arrived in Otaru City at about 18:00, parked my van at the MaxValue open 24 hours supermarket, and walked along the Canal Plaza until I arrived at Otaru Micro Beer in Warehouse Number 1.

The main reason that I came all the way from Asahikawa on this day, was to see the PALOSIKS perform the new songs from their new CD, which I also bought on the same day.

The first time I had the good fortune to meet PALOSIKS was on 2006 MAY 3.

I just happened to be in Otaru During Golden Week, because I had cabin fever real bad, and I love the beer they make in Otaru City Hokkaido Japan.

A couple of good reasons to make the 470 kilometer round trip, and stay overnight in the HOTEL NOAH.

This time I went in October and was able to drink the German Style Oktober Fest Beer that Otaru makes every year, at this time.

It was the first time that I have been to Otaru Beer in October and the first time I was able to drink this special limited quantity beer.

How was it?

In a word, Deeeeeeeeeeeeelishih!!!!

Take a look at the photo on the left to see what I am bragging about.

Hokkaido makes WORLD CLASS ALL MALT BEER, and in abundance.

By the way, the PALOSIKS new album is called ゆる　ふわ　Relax.

You can some songs from the album at the Palosiks MySpace web site by clicking here.

I will be writing an album review about it and putting it on this web page of my new web site at the Every Thing Japan Network in the near future.

You can also buy their new album from Amazon Co Jp as well as at the Otaru Beer Hall itself.

Enjoy!

Online Shopping for Everythig Japanese and more …

2008 October 1 Wednesday thru October 5 Sunday.

2008-11-22T23:26:00.008+09:00

As expected the winds get colder and the rain falls suddenly and more often.

It is harvest season and the rice farmers are working as fast as they can to rake in this year's crop before the snow level reaches the low lands.

Early on Saturday afternoon, I drove out to the Kamiubun 上雨分 section of Asahikawa, to retrace the roads that I and my friend Brian Smith would often go cycling along, on our mountain bikes.

Everything was pretty much the way I remember it from many years ago, except that there was some new road construction going on.

I saw many farmers out in their drained off rice fields with harvesting machines, cutting down the rice, spitting out the leaves and stalks, and then unloading the golden grain into a waiting truck.

It's the same thing every year at this time.

A job that has to be done.

Many people are depending on the farmers to bring in the staple food of Japan.
Rice.

Some like it polished and white, I like it brown.

Either way, it's fresh out of the fields.Yum yum.

Another thing that is always the same each year at this time, is the changing color of the leaves.

The best way to describe Hokkaido during the summer is GREEN.

This is the greenest place I have ever lived, and in more ways than one.

Higher up in the mountains, there is more color right now, than there is here in the lowlands.That will change very quickly.

The best way to describe Hokkaido in autumn, is RED GOLD and YELLOW.

An amazing patchwork interwoven colors that can keep a professional photographer busy for hours.

Coming soon, the all white blanket of winter snow.Don't say I didn't warn you.

It says so right at the top of the ASAHIKAWA page of this website.

Warning!!! Asahikawa is covered in snow for about 5 months of the year, every year.

If you don't like snow, don't move here.
Yeah, it's been there since the birth of this FrontPage web site.

Speaking of giving birth to new web sites, I have started a new one using the

DreamWeaver MX software package, and it looks and feels completely different than this old rusty web site.

The new web site is at www.everythingjapan.net and is being designed as a customized google search engine, and also as an affiliate web site for the promotion of all products and services that are MADE IN JAPAN.

If you are looking for a quick and accurate search for something about Japan, you might enjoy using the search engine portal on this NEW WEB SITE.

You will be able to find what you are looking for more quickly, because I have designed it to filter out unrelated content.

Try it! I think you'll like it!

2008 September 30 Tuesday.

2008-11-05T23:56:00.001+09:00

Thirty (30) days has September, April, June and November.

All the rest have Thirty-one (31), except for February which has Twenty-eight (28) days.

Unless it is LEAP YEAR, that is the time, when the days of February are Twenty-nine (29).

This is how children in the USA are taught to remember how many days are in each month, throughout the year.

It works well, if you understand the English Language.

Here in Japan, they have another method.

It involves starting with a closed fist, and counting from the the knuckle of the index finger which is up high (January), to the valley between the index finger and the middle finger, which is low (February).

Up to the next high point of the knuckle of the middle finger (March), down into the valley between the middle finger and the ring finger (April) then up to the knuckle of the ring finger (May) then down into the valley between the ring finger and the little finger (June) then up to the knuckle of the little finger (July).

At this point, you start at the knuckle of the little finger where you already are and count that as August.

Then you go back down into the valley between the little finger and ring finger (September) up to the knuckle of the ring finger (October) back down into the valley between the ring finger and middle finger (November), and finally back up to the knuckle of the middle finger (December).

The meaning of this exercise is that the high points on the knuckles, represents the months with 31 days.

The valleys between the knuckles represents the months with 30 days.

The only exception being February which has either 28 days or 29 days, depending on the year.

Which method works best for you? I use both of them.

By the way, the photo in today's blog was taken just today in the Nagayama District of Asahikawa, not to far from the campus of Asahikawa University.

You can clearly see that there is a lot of new snow since September 24, when it all started again for the foreseeable future.

From this day forward, you will be able to see the snow line get lower and lower on the mountains, and then onto the flatlands were most of the humans live.

There is no escape. Unless,.....

You get aboard an airplane and fly off of the island of Hokkaido.

I'm staying here. In the hot tube.

Catching big fluffy snow flakes on my tongue, as they fall from the sky.
It's just another way to fly.

2008 September 25 Thursday thru September 29 Monday.

2008-11-05T23:26:00.001+09:00

It was cold, dark and rainy all week, until Saturday morning.

Then the sun came out and it warmed up a bit, making for a pleasant Indian Summer 小春日和 kind of feeling.

I spent most of my time developing a new web site at the URL of www.everythingjapan.net .

It looks and feels much different than this web site, and has a completely different purpose.

The web site you are looking at now, started out about 6 years ago, and looked very different then, than it does today.

The only reason I started this web site way back then, was to give people more information about my classroom, than the Town Pages (Yellow Pages) in the telephone book could provide.

In fact, the web site was finished just in time, before the new telephone directories were shipped to everyone in Asahikawa.

I had put my URL www.snowmanjapan.net in my new advertisement, and didn't want people to try and access it, only to come up with a "FILE NOT FOUND" message, when they did so.

That would be very embarrassing, to say the least.

I used FrontPage 2000 to make my first web site, and even that simple to use software was a big challenge for me, at that time. My first web site had only about 5 web pages in it, and was very confusing for the user to navigate through.

A year or two later, I upgraded my software to FrontPage 2002 and bought a big thick book from Amazon dot COM, called the Developer's Guide.

This book helped a lot, and I learned how to make frames for the web site, making it easier to set up a navigation menu for the users.

After that, I was able to organize this web site much better and added many new items to the navigation menu, and several hundreds of pages of original content, to this web site. It was a big improvement.

In the year 2004, I discovered Marcomedia (now Adobe) software.

They had a software package called Studio MX, which contained Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Freehand and Flash.

When I first bought, installed and tried to use this software, I was overwhelmed by the number of menus and functions that this excellent software package has.
Again, I went to Amazon dot COM and bought a set of about 5 books, to help me learn how to use this new and amazing web development tool.

It wasn't easy, and I am still an amateur, but finally, I produced a small (for now) web site that you can see at www.everythingjapan.net

One of the things I discovered is, that DreamWeaver is so much more powerful than FrontPage, I began to wonder why I ever used FrontPage at all. The reason is, FrontPage is so much easier to learn for people like me, who are not very Techno Smart.

But, the good news is, I am becoming more knowledgeable about the internet and the IT industry in general, thanks in large part to my good friend Charles Hamel.

He has been working with computers and the internet for a lot longer than I have, and he has shown me so many things about IT, that he has removed the fish scales from my eyes, about the World Wide Web.

Thank you so much, my dear friend Charlie.

You truly are; ON THE PATH in Hokkaido Japan.

2008 September 24 Wednesday.

2008-11-05T23:00:00.001+09:00

According to the evening addition of the Hokkaido Newspaper, Mt. Asahidake got it's first snow on the mountain peak 初雪冠雪 just today.

Wait a minute! It is only September 24! Say what?!?

Welcome to Hokkaido.

It is time to start wearing warmer clothes again, especially at night.

Summer in Hokkaido is extraordinarily beautiful.

It is also very short. I hope you enjoyed it again this year, as much as I did.

With colder weather approaching rapidly, day by day, I and most other people who live here, will be spending more and more time indoors.

It's a good time to do all of the things you have been planning to do, but didn't do, because you have been spending so much time in the great outdoors.

In my case, I will be spending more time developing web sites and reading books about how to do that, and reading more books about various other things.

For other people, it will be a time to get back to THE classroom and study English or music or flower arrangement or the tea ceremony or whatever.

The long winter in Hokkaido makes it easier to stay indoors and really concentrate on the STUDY at hand.

Recently, I have been getting a lot of new adult students coming to take a look at my classroom, and then starting regular lessons on a weekly basis.

Last week a man and a woman began private lessons every week on Wednesday, starting at 20:00.

The man is about the same age as me, and is also a guitar player with a band called LIBERTY and the woman works at a law office.

I am also a guitar player so we have a lot in common and we both love many of the same songs.

Mostly stuff from the USA rock and roll style of the 1960s and forward from that time.

I don't play the 6 string guitar as much as I used to, because I like to play the bass guitar more nowadays.

Also, just today, I had two adults come to take a look at my classroom for a free trial lesson.

The man is also a guitar player who likes HEAVY METAL, and the woman can play the trumpet and violin.

Another interesting thing about these two people, is that they both work at Asahiyama Zoo!!!

What a cool job! I love animals too, so I could enjoy a job like that, if ever I had the opportunity to do it.

They both found out about my classroom after seeing this web site on the internet.

In fact, the man who came today is one of the people who has designed and currently maintains the Asahiyama Zoo Web Site.

A very good web site indeed.

I have a permanent link to it on the LINKS page of this web site.

The main reason they both came to take a look at my classroom today, is because many foreign tourists come to the Asahiyama Zoo every year, and being able to speak English is very usefu, for their jobs.

I hope they both decide to come back again and start taking lessons on a weekly basis.

I really enjoyed meeting and talking with them today.

By the way, the photo in today's blog is of a brand of Japanese Rice Wine made by KuniMare 国稀 which is located in Mashike Town 増毛町.

I have been to this rice wine brewery several times, and you can see a photo slide show of Mashike Town by clicking here.

This particular product is called Hokkai Nigori Zake 北海にごり酒 and was made during July of this year.

It usually hits the shelves of the supermarkets around September and that is why I am enjoying it right now, as I write this blog.

It is not 100% Rice Malt Wine 純米酒ではない but it is raw and needs to be keep cold or it will spoil.

It has a sweet smooth flavor and is about 20% alcohol, so it's easy to drink a little bit too much, and get tipsy.

As you can see from the photo, it is not clear, but cloudy.

The meaning of Nigori is something like "cloudy", and that is why the brew looks something like watered down milk.

The perfect drink for this season.

If you love Japanese Rice Wine the way I do, please try this product.
You won't be disappointed.

CHEERS!

2008 September 23 Tuesday.

2008-11-05T22:17:00.001+09:00

Today is the Autumn Equinox 秋分の日 and a National Holiday in Japan.

Not only is this day the official end of summer on the calendar, it is also noticeably colder in the air with some rain in the evening.

Time to switch from cold water baths to hot water baths.

Ikuko and I stayed home today, and didn't go anywhere except to the supermarket just before closing time.

I did some work on the internet, and then later tried again to make some musical sounds come out of my newly acquired plastic ShakuHachi 尺八 Flute.

I am making some progress and discovering a whole new world of music at the same time.

I love to feel the deep vibrations of the flute when I make a sound that can be called a musical note.

Oh no! Another obsession.

I usually go down to the bank of the Biei River to practice, but today it was so cold and rainy that I just stayed indoors and practiced in my classroom.
So far, nobody has complained about it.

Of course, I closed all of the windows double tight so that none of my horrible sounds could leak out into the world.

I am years away from any kind of public performance, but I will get there.

Practice, practice practice.

2008 September 16 Tuesday thru September 22 Monday.

2008-10-13T00:37:00.007+09:00

The Autumn Equinox is tomorrow, and the weather this past week has been absolutely gorgeous.

I love this time of year the most of all.

I like to spend a lot of time outdoors, both day and night.

Because it is still warm enough to walk around with bare feet and sandals.

I like to walk slow, and take my alto recorder with me.

Which got me to thinking again, about my promise to myself, to get a Japanese ShakuHachi Bamboo flute THIS YEAR, and learn how to play it too.

I was thinking that I may have to pay from between 20,000 yen to 40,000 yen for a beginner's bamboo flute.

A bit expensive, but I really want to do this, so I decided to go downtown on Saturday afternoon and buy one.

The only store which I could find, that had any 尺八 for sale, was the OoNuma Musical Instruments Store 大沼楽器 at 2 Jodori 11 Chome.

When I walked into the store, I saw a very nice looking shakuhachi with a price tag of 100,000 yen.

YIKES! I wonder if they have something a bit less expensive. They did.

The one I bought, is the one you can see in the photo on the left.

It only cost 9,000 yen because it is made of plastic.

A very hard and thick plastic, but plastic nonetheless.

The black band that you can see in the middle of the flute is the place where you can pull it apart into two pieces, making it easy to carry around in a small bag.

The shakuhachi is not easy to play.

It has no reeds in the mouthpiece, in fact it has no mouthpiece at all.

Just an open hole at the top with a very small v-shaped cutout at the front.

It is like blowing across the top of an open bottle in order to make a sound, only much more difficult.

I has a total of five finger holes. Four on the front and one on the back.

The easiest sound to make, is with all of the finger holes open.

Even this took me a good 30 minutes to learn how to make a steady musical sound.

After practicing for 3 days straight, I was finally able to make a sound with all 5 finger holes covered.

I say make a sound, but not music. Not yet.

This is by far, the most difficult musical instrument, I have ever tried to play. (I have never tried to play the violin or the clarinet, or the trombone, etc.)

I really love the sound of the Japanese Bamboo Flute 尺八, and I am confident that I will be able to make it sound nice, after several years of practice.

I know for a fact that anyone who really tries hard to do something, that they really want to do, will be able to make it happen.

Even non-Japanese people can learn how to play the shakuhachi well.

Click here to see a YOU TUBE video of Todd Barton playing a song called "AKEBONO" on a very expensive flute.

I want to become that good too, someday.

Another thing which I bought on the same day, was a book about 15 historical sites of the Jomon Culture, which are in Hokkaido and the North northeast area of Japan 北東北.

I saw an article about it in the Hokkaido Newspaper a few weeks ago, and decided to buy it right then and there.

I have already been to most of the Jomon sites in Hokkaido, in fact you can see a photo slide show which I made of the Oofune Site that I visited on 2007 August 9.

It is located in Minami Kayabe Village which is now a part of Hakodate City.

Please view this photo slide show by clicking here.

The main purpose of this book is to show the reader how to get to each of these 15 sites, and what they can see once they get there.

Also, the cover of the book says; "With the aim of having these historical remains registered as World Heritage Sites. I totally agree.

The Jomon Civilization dates back from 12,000 years ago up to about 3,000 years ago.

That is a very long time. Unfortunately, they did not develop any writing system so we have no written record of their daily lifestyle, and no clue as to what kind of language they spoke.

Was it the original Japanese Language? Maybe so.

The Japanese Language as only 5 vowel sounds, which is a very small number by modern language standards.

I have already studied quite a bit about the Jomon Culture, and will continue to do so from now on.

Human Beings living in total harmony with the earth.　　That was the Jomon People.

On Sunday morning of September 21, I went to the KeiMei Elementary School 啓明小学校 to watch their School Arts Festival 学芸会.

The only reason I went to this event, is because 5 of the students who come to my classroom, also attend this elementary school and they invited me over and over again to come and see them perform.

So, I made a special trip out to their school, to see them on stage.

I enjoyed it very much, but the sound system wasn't very good, and I couldn't understand what the actors on stage were saying.

Finally towards the end of the event when the 6th graders got up on stage to do their performance about the beginning of this school 80 years ago, I was able to move closer to the stage and hear what the actors were saying.

It was a lot more interesting for me than the previous performances of their younger classmates.

The event was finished at about 12:30 and I quickly got back into my van, so I could drive on over to the next event that I wanted to attend, on that day.

The next event that I wanted to go to was a free outdoor music stage, right in front of the Marui Imai Department store on the pedestrian shopping mall 買物公園, that was scheduled to start at 12:00 and end at about 17:00.

I couldn't find any free parking, so I drove my van back to my house, and walked from there back into town.

I arrived at about 13:30, just in time to hear a Rolling Stones Cover Band crank out some wicked sounds, at high volume. What a treat!

In total, there were about 13 different bands, playing different kinds of music.

The photo on the left is of a band called "Hauling Scrap" which was probably the most dynamic of all the bands.

Also, it was one of the youngest of the bands in terms of the member's ages.

About half of all the other bands were composed of older guys about the same age as me.

There was a large crowd gathered around for each performance, with people drinking beer and dancing to the music.

A very peaceful and enjoyable afternoon, with not one policeman in sight.

I met many people near the stage area, whom I have known for many years, and

I even made a few new friends as well.

I play music too, so I can really appreciate what goes into making a band sound good. A lot of practice.

It has been several years since I have played on stage at one of these events, but I hope to do so again in the very near future.

Nowadays I am concentrating on the electric bass guitar the most, of all of the instruments that I can play.

Oh yes, let's not forget that I just started learning how to play the Japanese Bamboo Flute 尺八 only 3 days ago.

It will most likely take me about 3 years to learn how to play even one song, well.

Yeah, so what! I have enough time to do that too.

Lifelong learning is my greatest pleasure, now that I am 52 years young.

There is always something new to learn. ALWAYS.

2008 September 8 Monday thru September 15 Monday.

2008-10-09T17:31:00.003+09:00

GOLDEN HARVEST

Monday September 15 was a National Holiday in Japan known as KeiRo no Hi 敬老の日 Respect for the Aged Day.

What a novel idea! Show respect and pay attention to the older people in society, who have built this country into what it is today. I am talking about Japan.

In the very beginning of the stage play RUN, which I translated into English from the original Japanese, writer Kuramoto Soh 倉本總 wrote the following;
As for me,…. Well,…. I used to be the same way.

I graduated from college and got a job at a big company.

It was during that time when Japan was still recovering from the damage it had suffered by defeat in the big war.

Anyway, without knowing why, I started running. Running,…… running and doing my best. I lived that way for almost 40 years.

Getting closer and closer to retirement. Today was my last day on the job.

(pause)

Yeah, lately I’ve been really confused.Even though I’ve reached retirement, should I keep on running?

Or, should I just stop around here somewhere, and take a rest?

That’s why I’m just standing around here and waiting.I don’t know what to do.
　
The main point being that in late 1945, Japan was just a big pile of ashes with a black rain falling.

It is a whole new world today. Because of the slavish work of the millions of survivors from the atrocity that IS every war, Japan has become the most peaceful, most civilized nation on the face of this earth today.

Made in Japan, means something special. Including this rice field in Higashi Kagura 東神楽町. Japonica rice.

I prefer to eat it as unpolished brown rice 玄米.

I could buy it directly from the farmers if I really wanted to, but usually buy it at a WESTERN supermarket.

One of the few supermarkets were you can easily buy unpolished brown rice.

I eat more than 5 kilograms of it every month.

I cook it in a regular rice cooker, in the same way you would cook white rice.

Brown rice smells a bit nasty while it's cooking, but it tastes great.

A bit more chewy than white rice, and not appropriate for use as sushi すし, but it goes great with curry カレーライス and everything else.

Once you have had brown rice, you might like it better than white rice, but I doubt it.

I am not in the majority as a brown rice eater, but then again, I know what I like.

Fiber filled golden grains of locally grown brown rice.

2008 September 1 Monday thru September 7 Sunday.

2008-10-09T16:40:00.004+09:00

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were the days of the Okagura Festival お神楽まつり here in the Kagura District of Asahikawa.

It is held every year on September 1, 2 and 3.

Unfortunately, this year it rained on September 1 and 3. Rained Big Time.

September 2 was a beautiful sunny day, and I was able to video tape the children of Kagura Elementary School as they carried the Omikoshi 御神輿　(portable shrine) along the main streets of the Kagura District.

I will be putting that video on my PrivateHokkaido channel at YOUTUBE in the near future.

Tuesday was also a big day for HOMAC, as they held a big Sports Festival 運動会 at the Taisetsu Arena.

All of the HOMAC stores in the DoHoku Area 道北 were closed on that day, so that everyone could participate in the event.

After the big sports day event, everyone went to TsuboHachi 居酒屋つぼ八 for dinner and drinks.

After that, many of them went to a place in Kamui called HiBana 火花 which is another Izakaya type of restaurant.

Ikuko has a part time job at HOMAC, so that is the only reason I know anything about this.

I myself did not participate in any of these activities, until about 11:00 p.m. of September 2.

I was alone at home, drinking some TAKA 貴 brand NihonShu 日本酒 and playing the bass guitar, when suddenly I heard Ikuko's voice calling me from the entrance of our classroom.

At first, I thought I was hearing things 空耳 but in fact it was Ikuko's voice.

When I put down my bass guitar and walked over to the entrance to take a look, Ikuko was standing there in tears, with two of her coworkers from HOMAC standing at the open door.

My first question was; "What Happened?"

The answer was that Ikuko had fallen down and injured her shoulder.

I could see from a close examination that she may have dislocated her shoulder, so I called her mother and auntie and told them what happened.

After they came to my classroom to see Ikuko for themselves, we decided to call an ambulance and have Ikuko taken to the Red Cross Hospital.

At the hospital, the doctor confirmed the fact that Ikuko had indeed dislocated her shoulder.

After he popped her shoulder back into its proper place, and put on a big Velcro bandage, we left the hospital and went back home.

Good Gawd! I never knew that eating and drinking at a Pub Restaurant 居酒屋 could be so dangerous.

This particular Izakaya has rooms where they have tables in the style of HoriKotatsu 堀コタツ.

A KOTATSU 炬燵 is table with very short legs.

The ones that most people might have in their homes also have an electric heater attached to the bottom of the table board, and also a thick curtain hanging from the outer edges of the table and down to the floor.

These traditional Japanese style low tables are meant to be used while sitting on the floor.

In some modern Pub Restaurants, the seating arrangements have been modified so that a hole has been dug from the floor level down to about one half of a meter in depth, so that the customers can sit on the floor at the KoTatsu and let their feet hang down into the hole.

This design makes it feel more like sitting on a bench that sitting on the floor.

It is much more comfortable for people who may have sore legs.

Anyway, to make a long story shorter, Ikuko was walking between these tables on her way towards the toilet, when she somehow managed to step into the hole with her right foot, and fall to the floor hitting her left shoulder hard.

I myself have sat at such tables at Pub Restaurants many times before, and I could not visualize how someone could so easily injure themselves in this way.
Ikuko's repeated explanation of her accident caused me to become even more bewildered about the whole affair.

So, on Sunday September 7, I drove her down to the very same restaurant at about 16:50, just before opening time, to have a look at the accident scene for myself.

We talked to the manager and I looked at the big room where it all happened, and I could see no negligence on the part of the Pub Restaurant for faulty equipment, or dangerous surroundings, so I apologized to the staff for barging in on them before opening time, and distracting them from their preparation work.

Conclusion? Ikuko herself, had been careless in not watching where she was walking and had caused the accident to herself, by herself.

WATCH YOUR STEP is common sense, in the world of the living.

XIT happens. Accidents do too. That is why, they are called ACCIDENTS.

Words have specific meanings. Pay closer attention to the world around you and watch your steps carefully.
Your damn lucky you didn't hit your head on the ground first.

You could have been in one helluva worse condition than you are right now.

Count your blessings and throw away the BLAME GAME.

You did this one, to yourself. WATCH YOUR STEP.

The photo in today's blog was taken on July 2, 2006.

It was taken at ShoSanBetsu 初山別村 along the Sea of Japan.

I even took a dip in the shining sea that day, before I took this photo.

This photo was copied and pasted here without any changes whatsoever.

It was taken by my 3.0 Megapixal Digital Camera on that very lovely day.

I took a very large number of photos on that day, but this one was THE BEST of the lot. You can even see RiShiri Island 利尻島 in the background, thru the gates of the ToriI 鳥居.

Also known as RiShiri FuJi. A photo says it all.

Hokkaido = BEAUTY.

Come and see it for yourself, sometime.

2008 August 25 Monday thru August 31 Sunday.

2008-09-20T23:39:00.003+09:00

The last week of August, and autumn is just around the corner.

My first gig on Monday was at the Chestnut Tree Kindergarten くりの木幼稚園 starting at 10:00.

As usual, I was up on stage in front of about 220 noisy kids.

See the photo above/left for details. This week I talked about summer vacation activities using big colorful laminated flash cards to make the English words easier to remember.

One of the cards represented the word DRIVE. I even made up a new song the night before called MY CAR, that was simple and easy to remember for the kids.

With my acoustic guitar in hand, we sang my new song, and a couple of other old songs that the kids already knew.

Finally, all the kids came up to the stage one by one and we shook hands and said; "Bye bye. See you next time!"

After my class, the kids got to go outside and play on the big lawn that the kindergarten has. They even got served freshly sliced watermelons.

My next class on Monday was the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会 from 13:00 until 14:30.

This week, one of the ladies told us about her family's 12 day trip to FRANCE, which started off on a bad note.

After the very long flight from Japan to France, they arrived at their hotel, only to discover that the hotel had NO RECORD OF THEIR RESERVATION even though the family had a printed out copy of their reservation confirmation in hand, and showed it to the front desk clerk.

Wow! How is that for a laid back attitude about running a business.

Actually, I have heard this same horror story before from other students who traveled to Spain and Turkey, arriving after a long hard day of traveling, only to discover that the hotel they thought they had reservations at, didn't have any reservations for them.

I seriously doubt if something like this ever happens in Japan or Germany.

Anyway, despite an uncomfortable second rate hotel room on the very first night, the 12 day trip turned out to be a wonderful experience for her and her family.

Other students talked about various things, and we never got around to the printed hand out that I gave to them last week.

No, problem there. We can use it anytime.

I have a thousand more that I can prepare on a moments notice for any class.

Tuesday through Friday was a regular school week at my little classroom.

On Saturday afternoon around 13:00, I drove out to Shibinai to visit Charles Hamel and family.

They live in a farming community, and even have their own little garden plots.

Despite the rather small area that they had to grow in, they had an amazing abundance of tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, red hot chili peppers, carrots and corn.

When I first arrived and walked in the front door, I smelled something delicious on the gas stove.

Turns out that Charlie was making a big pot full of TEXMEX (Texas/Mexico) SALSA サルサ with fresh off the vine ingredients from his own garden, and the farms of his neighbors as well.

I don't know about you, but I just love Mexican food with a big dish of salsa on the side.

It was a lucky day for me too, because Charlie has so many tomatoes, that they are beginning to rot on the vine.

Not all of them, just some of them. There are still lots of green tomatoes that will become edible in the very near future as well.

As a result, Charlie let me pick as many of the edible tomatoes as I could, and I picked a lot of them.

After I got back home from Shibinai, I got out a big aluminum pot and started making a huge batch of my own fresh salsa.

It was so good, I even surprised myself. Fresh ingredients really do make a big difference.

I hope I will be doing this again, in the very near future.

On Sunday, Ikuko and I took a long drive to Biei, Shirogane and Tokachi Dake Observation Area.

The weather was perfect, and I brought along my video camera and new tripod.
I got some excellent video of the active volcano, the surrounding mountains, the sunset and myself in a natural outdoor hot tub in the dark with a chemical light stick, making light drawings in the water.

When these videos have been edited and finalized, I will put them on the Private Hokkaido channel on YOU TUBE.

Please check it from time to time for new videos that will be COMING SOON.

Tomorrow is the start of my favorite month, SEPTEMBER.

The Autumn Appetite 食欲の秋 is now upon us. Harvest season in Hokkaido is something everyone should see for themselves.

Please come and visit some time

2008 August 23 Saturday and August 24 Sunday.

2008-09-18T23:54:00.002+09:00

Every Saturday morning starting at 10:30, I have a private lesson with a very intelligent 9 year old girl, who also takes lessons for; piano, social dance and opera singing.

She learns very quickly and is enjoyable to teach. After her lesson was finished at about 11:30, I made myself a meal of what I call; Mexican Rice Bowl メキシコ丼.

I use ground beef seasoned with Turmeric, Cumin, Hot red pepper flakes, salt and black pepper.

I cook this mixture very slowly in a covered fry pan until the meat is cooked to medium-well-done.

Then, I scramble and egg or two, pour it on top of the round meat patty, and cover the fry pan again for about 2 or 3 more minutes.

When I remove the fry pan lid again, I have a big round beef patty held together with steamed egg on top.

Next, I get a big deep bowl and pile it half full with brown rice 玄米, and slide the big beef patty on top of it.

Finally, I sprinkle some grated cheese over that and then pour a generous amount of hot salsa over the top of that, and I'm ready to eat.

Yum yum. It tastes like tacos.

About 2 hours after eating my big brunch, I became very sleepy and could not stay awake.

Later in the day, I was planning to drive to Numata Town 沼田町 and video tape the YohTaka Andon Festival 夜高あんどん祭り in the evening, so I decided to lie down and take a nap at about 14:00.

I didn't wake up again until 21:31! Oooops!

I missed my chance to make an excellent DVD of a very interesting festival. Maybe next year.

I must have still been tired from the 12 kilometer walk that Ikuko and I took on Friday night.

A walk that lasted for more than 2 hours.

Am I trying to burn the candle at both ends?

On Sunday, I stayed home all day and learned more about editing videos and making DVDs.

Also, I uploaded the final video clip of the Hokkaido Newspaper's Big Fireworks display to my YOU TUBE channel.

This is the BIG ENDING to a wonderful event.

You can view the video too, by clicking here.

Be sure to also click on the WATCH IN HIGH QUALITY　高画質で見る link under the lower right corner of the video screen.

It looks much better in that mode of playback.

2008 August 20 Wednesday thru August 22 Friday.

2008-09-16T00:27:00.002+09:00

Most of the public schools are back in session as of Wednesday, and all of the students who come to my classroom were back at our lesson table as well.

It was nice to see their smiling faces and hear their stories of summer vacation, time passages.

On Thursday, the 13 year old girl who comes every week at this time, proudly showed me her Certificate of Eiken Pre Level 2 英検準２級.

She passed both the written test, and the interview test as well.

Before both exams, she and I and the other students in her class, did lots of practice for the interview part of the examination.

It paid off for all of us. She also had taken a good look at this website and expressed interest in being able to make the same type of website for herself one day.

She further went on to say, that she has weekly computer classes at her junior high school.

I asked her if the classroom was equipped with a BIG SCREEN so that every student can clearly see how the teacher is operating the PC.

When she replied "NO", I told her that such a big screen in any computer classroom is an absolute necessity.

She agreed with me saying; "The teacher's lessons are slow and difficult to understand."

Of course they are! He/she doesn't have a Big Screen and Projector to work with.

I wouldn't want to teach that class.

On Friday, the 30 year old lady with Downs Syndrome who comes to my classroom every week at this time, had a rather shocking story to tell.

With the help of her mother and father, she explained to me how she had been KICKED OUT OF her hula dance circle, by some of the older ladies in the group.

Ai Chan has been a member of this hula dance group for many years, and has given me many photos of their annual recitals in November.

It seems the older ladies wanted her out, because they thought they could GO PROFESSIONAL without her.

Hmmmm Let's see, 60 to 70 year old ladies have a chance at becoming PROFESSIONAL HULA DANCERS??? Dream BIG!!!

Anyway, Ai Chan found herself another HULA CIRCLE which she promptly joined. Good job Ai!!!

Don't let the TURKEYS drag you down. You can fly with EAGLES.

After that interesting lesson was finished at 20:00, Ikuko and I got dressed up warm and went out for a veeeeeeeeery long walk together.

The total distance must have been about 12 kilometers, and went like this. First, we crossed over the 両神橋 that separates Kagura and Kamui.

We turned left onto the long straight cycling road that borders the Biei River.

This is a very good place to take a long walk at night because there are less lights on this side of the river, and the night sky is more clearly visible. When we do the short route, we walk from RyoJin Bashi to HeiSei OoHashi 平成大橋, and then turn left to cross the bridge back into Kagura again. But today, we didn't do that.

We kept on going straight until we reached the next bridge, which is rather far away.

This part of the route is much darker also, making stargazing an even more enjoyable addition to the walking exercise.

So,... walk we did. And walk and walk and walk, until we reached the next bridge which is Route 90 and passes by 1,000,000 Volts 百万ボルト.

At this point in our long walk, we were only half finished.

The remainder of the trip back home took us along Route 237 from HyakuMan Boruto back to our home near Taisetsu Arena.

Not only was it a long distance for us, but I was also wearing wrist weights of 2 kilograms, on each wrist.

It helps me stretch out and exercise my upper body.

It also creates more weight for my POOR FEET, which also have to haul around my 99 kilogram body.

Poor feet. If can can lose some weight, will you stop torturing me ?

2008 August 18 Monday and 19 Tuesday.

2008-09-15T23:19:00.002+09:00

It's back to school for me an my students today.

Even though the public schools don't open until Wednesday, all of my elementary school and junior high school students came to my classroom today and yesterday.

Some of them don't even live in Kagura or Kamui, so they had to make a special trip to get here. Thank you so much.

On Monday from 13:00 until 14:30 I had a class with the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会, for the first time in 4 weeks.

The students had a lot to talk about, and so did I.

One of the young ladies told us about a trip that she and her husband took to MEXICO.

She also brought along 3 photo booklets with lots of really nice photos.

I felt very nostalgic when I heard her story and looked at the photographs, because I myself have also taken this same trip when I was about 16 years old.
Of course, I was traveling with my parents and my skinny little sister at that time, but I remember that vacation very well.

The route we took was to fly down to Mexico City and stay there for 2 nights.

In Mexico City, we got to see the very impressive pyramids built by the Aztec Civilization.

After that, we went to the Yucatan Peninsula and looked around at the various pyramids of the Maya Civilization at various places.

I distinctly remember skin diving with a mask and snorkel off of the coast at Merida and other locations.

I will never forget how clear the sea water was.

It was like entering a whole new world, as soon as I put my head underwater.

The young woman and her husband who went to Mexico during this year's summer vacation really enjoyed their time there.

She told the class how much she loved Mexican Food (me too) and that she loved TEQUILA as well!!!

She said that she had purchased 3 bottles of tequila and brought them back to Japan with her .

I have to admit, I used to love tequila also.

The really good authentic tequila is very delicious, and easy to drink. Therein lies the danger.

Tequila is at least 40% alcohol, and some folks say that it has an extra hypnotic effect as well.

In other words, it is easy to drink too much, too fast.

Behavior which can lead to a loss of memory, and odd behavior in public places.

I haven't drank any tequila in about 10 years, and have no plans to try it again, anytime, ever. Unless,........

On Tuesday, there were two new persons who came to take a look at my classroom.

Both of them have a definite goal in mind for their personal lives, when it comes to being able to speak English freely, and accurately.

MOTIVATION is the KEY word here, because motivation gives birth to ENTHUSIASM and enthusiasm gives ENERGY to DOING, and doing creates RESULTS.

In Japanese, they call it SeiSeki 成績. RESULTS.

Literally, the "the becoming, piles up upon itself"

That is how I read these two Kanji when used in this combination.

Even dust, can pile up to become a mountain, is another way to say it.

2008 August 1 Friday thru August 17 Sunday.

2008-09-01T05:19:00.002+09:00

My long 3 week summer vacation is finished today.

Usually during this time of year, I go for long drives and camping here and there around this beautiful island.

This year, I stayed at home.

The main reason being, I had rediscovered my Digital Video Movie Camera, after having not used it for about 3 years.

I have about 8 Mini DV cassette tapes that I had filmed in locations like Otaru and Niseko, but had never transferred them onto a computer hard disk.

So I did that. Also, I was encouraged by the good results I had gotten from filming at the Hokkaido Newspaper's annual Big Fireworks Display on July 31, and
I planned to do an even better job of filming at the Hanabi in Kagura held every year on August 14.

I went to the festival grounds about one hour early, and filmed the trees illumination and the live music show on stage before the start of the fireworks.

I was able to get a place right in front of the stage with an excellent camera angle for the upcoming launch of the fireworks.

I had my tripod down low and was sitting down during the entire display.

This time, I was careful not to make the mistakes I had made on July 31 while I was filming.

I used up the entire 60 minute tape and felt really good about my filming session.

Felt really good until I got home and attempted to download it all onto my computer hard disk.

That's when I discovered the awful truth.

The camera hadn't recorded anything at all!!!! WHAT IN THE WORLD????

I got out the owner's manual and looked through the back pages.

I soon discovered what the problem was.

The recording and playback heads of my camera were DIRTY!

The manual also said that a message will appear on the camera screen telling me when it is time to clean the camera heads.

No such message ever appeared.

I went from feeling really good, to feeling really bad in the space of just a few seconds. What a fool I had been.

I never thought that the camera heads were dirty, because I haven't used the camera all that much.

I was wrong. The next day, I went to a big electronics store not too far from my house, to buy a camera head cleaning cassette, and 3 new recording tapes as well.

When I tried to clean the camera heads with the cleaning tape, I discovered that
I had to do it three times in order to get them really clean.

Then I discovered that the recording cassette tape which I had used to "record" the Hanabi in Kagura, was worn out and would not record anymore.

I will not make this same mistake ever again.

Next year for the Hanabi in Kagura I will use a brand new tape to record the marvelous show.

In my opinion, this year's 20th anniversary of Hanabi in Kagura was the best ever.

They even had the fireworks synchronized with the loud music that they were playing during the entire event.

I really missed a grand opportunity to make an excellent DVD this year.

I'll get it right next year. On Saturday, Ikuko and I went to visit the family gravesite in Kannon Dai, on the top of the hill near the former Inosawa Ski Ground.

The weather was very nice as you can see from the photo above/left. Tomorrow, it is BACK TO SCHOOL.

See you all again at that time.　

2008 July 30 Wednesday and July 31 Thursday.

2008-08-27T14:17:00.002+09:00

On July 31, the Hokkaido Newspaper held their annual Big Fireworks Display 花火大会 along the banks of the Ishikari River 石狩川 just below Tokiwa Park.

Charles Hamel and his oldest son came over to my place at about 18:40, and soon thereafter walked with Ikuko and I over to the same location that we went to on July 25 when we watched the Yomiuri Newspaper's Fireworks together.

This time, instead of my snapshot camera, I brought my digital video camera.

It has been a long time since I have used this rather expensive but very good DV movie camera, so I had to sit down and read the instruction book again.

I bought a new tripod because my very old one broke during the photo session on July 25.

The four of us arrived at the river bank about 10 minutes before the start of the show.

When the final salvo of fireworks was finished at about 19:50, we all walked into the downtown area where the 3・6 Downtown Merchant's Festival was in full swing.

As usual, there was a lot of interesting and amusing things to see there.

When I got home, I downloaded my fireworks video onto a special computer hard disk, and began the editing process.

I was able to come up with the best 18 minutes of the fireworks display and put it onto a customized DVD.

The quality of the video is very good on the DVD.

I will send a copy of the DVD to my sister who lives in Seattle Washington.

For most of the rest of you, I have begun uploading the movie to my YOU TUBE account which is called PrivateHokkaido.

You can see the videos from that server, by clicking here.

The image quality of the DVD is much much better than what you can see on YouTube, but you can still get a good feeling for the excellent timing and combinations that the fireworks professionals put together, for the dazzling light show. ENJOY!!!

2008 July 29 Tuesday.

2008-08-22T16:03:00.002+09:00

Happy Birthday to ME!

Yeah, it's true. I'm still alive.

And, at 52 years young, I am finally playing with a full deck.

It's important to have a full set of tools, when playing the game of life.

Speaking of DECKS, I am going to spend most of today cleaning the big deck of my balcony with soap and water.

Summer fun, in the sun.

A clean deck is a happy deck. A happy deck for happy campers.

Count me IN!　

2008 July 25 Friday thru July 28 Monday.

2008-08-22T15:05:00.001+09:00

Summer vacation starts off with a bang.

At about 18:40, Charles Hamel and family drove all the way from Shibinai to the Asahikawa Michi no Eki, which is right next door to my classroom.

At about 19:00 Charlie and I walked on over to the river line below Tokiwa Park, and set up our cameras and tripods just below ShinBashi bridge.

The women and the kids, took the bus and arrived a bit later.

I was surprised to see that the place was not all that crowded.

In fact, it looked about half empty. I was drinking a bottle of Otokoyama Sasa Ori as I always do at this event, but I didn't share any with Charles.

Sorry Charlie, you have to drive back to Shibinai when this is all over, but I can walk home.

By the way, Charlie got some really good photos of the event, which you too can see by clicking here.

Three full weeks of no classes to teach for me, so I will be able to get out and about, or just stay at home and do some cleaning up, and bass guitar practice.

The more I play the bass guitar, the more I like it.

Oh No!!! Another obsession!

Time to get out the alto recorder again too.

2008 July 22 Tuesday thru July 24 Thursday.

2008-08-18T16:47:00.000+09:00

Just one more day of classes until the start of my summer vacation.

On Thursday July 24, Ikuko and I went to the annual Biei Fire Festival 美瑛火まつり　for the first time.

Every year on July 24, they hold this powerful event.

Why has it taken me so long to get there and see it for the first time?

Lack of planning. For years, I have been driving thru Biei on my way to the Mt.
Tokachi Observation Area 十勝岳　望岳台 and FukiAge Outdoor Spa 吹上温　泉露天の湯, and I have seen the posters for this event many times. Finally this year, I made the smart decision to go and see it.

It was awesome. The contrast between WATER and FIRE has never been more obvious.

Charles Hamel and family were at the event as well, and Charlie has a new digital camera, Canon EOS Kiss F 10.1 Megapixel DSLR which takes awesome photos! CLICK HERE to see one of his best.

A photo good enough to be published in National Geographic Magazine.
I also took a lot of photos on that night, with the very first digital camera I ever bought.

The CASIO QV-3000EX. This camera has the largest diameter glass lens, of all my digi cams. Perfect for night time photos.

With a digital camera it is cheap and easy to take a massive amount of photos.
Among those many photos, there are always some really good ones.

Once and a while, a really great photo.

You can see a slideshow of the best photos I took at this event by clicking here.

The origin of this festival in Biei, has a lot to do with the repeated eruptions of Mt. Tokachi in the years; 1857, 1887, 1926, 1962 and most recently in 1988.

That is very active volcano, if ever there was one.

As you can well imagine, having a volcano blew it's top in a place that is close to where you live, is a big disaster for human beings.

The main purpose of this festival which began exactly 20 years ago in 1988, is to beg the mountain to remain quiet, and not blow up again.

It seems to have worked so far. I think that I will make this one of my yearly traditions, and go every year from now on.

After all, I have had the experience of driving from Seattle Washington to

Spokane Washington on May 18, 1980 when Mount St. Helens blew up.

It was a scary experience that I will never forget.

There is nothing humans can physically do to prevent a volcanic eruption.

Spiritually, we may have a chance, if we show our respect for the power of MOTHER EARTH.

That is the real reason why this festival is so important.

2008 July 20 Sunday and 21 Monday.

2008-08-08T17:43:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-07-31T23:28:00.003+09:00

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.

2008-07-30T00:00:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-07-28T22:28:00.003+09:00

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.

2008-07-27T12:15:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-07-26T22:51:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-07-24T15:29:00.001+09:00

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.

2008-07-23T00:00:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-07-17T22:51:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-07-15T23:48:00.003+09:00

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.

2008-07-13T23:47:00.001+09:00

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.

2008-07-08T17:08:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-07-08T00:09:00.003+09:00

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.

2008-07-06T23:28:00.004+09:00

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.

2008-07-03T23:57:00.001+09:00

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.

2008-07-01T17:45:00.004+09:00

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.

2008-06-20T15:40:00.003+09:00

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.

2008-06-19T15:49:00.003+09:00

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.

2008-06-13T15:23:00.005+09:00

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.

2008-06-12T17:00:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-06-10T14:59:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-06-03T18:30:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-05-28T16:37:00.003+09:00

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.

2008-05-27T22:22:00.006+09:00

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.

2008-05-23T22:15:00.003+09:00

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.

2008-05-22T21:56:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-05-19T15:32:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-05-16T17:50:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-05-14T16:08:00.004+09:00

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.

2008-05-05T00:32:00.003+09:00

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.

2008-04-24T22:29:00.001+09:00

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.

2008-04-15T21:45:00.002+09:00

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.

2008-04-14T16:08:00.002+09:00

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 無料体験レッスン.

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.

After phase four, the amount of time spent studying begins to yield much bigger results in total learning achieved.

This is the point where critical mass has been achieved, and the return to the student for their time spent studying, INCREASES EXPONENTIALLY.

In other words, their total understanding of the knowledge at hand becomes greater and faster with each step they take towards that knowledge.

The student finally has enough pieces of the puzzle, to be able to SEE the BIGGER PICTURE of that knowledge base.

This is true for any type of LEARNING (knowledge acquisition).

It is a fundamental LAW of the COSMOS. IT never changes. IT just IS.

I KNOW FOR A FACT that this is true, because I have had many personal experiences, in my own 50 something years of humanoid EXISTENCE on this EARTH, that have taught me the true meaning of learning.

For example, learning how to play the guitar, the piano, the bass guitar, the Japanese Language, the teaching of languages, the learning of new languages, and the list goes on and on.

Don't be one of those people who give up when the going gets tough 三日坊主.

Hang in there and tough it out.

There are millions of sad stories about people who did their best, and then STOPPED ONLY 3 METERS AWAY FROM THE GOLD MINE.

Do not allow yourself to become one of them.

ROCK ON!

2008 April 1 Tuesday.

2008-04-13T10:08:00.002+09:00

It may be April Fools' Day, but I am not fooling when I say that Eastern Hokkaido got socked in with about 70 cm of wind blown snow during this long cold day.

What a nasty surprise for the people living in that part of this beautiful island. In Asahikawa, it was cold, but calm.

Very few natural disasters ever happen in the Kamikawa Basin 上川盆地.

Another item of good news is that, I got an email from my skinny little sister telling me that she had received the birthday card that I had sent her about 10 days ago.

That made me feel better, after wondering out loud in yesterday's blog, about whether or not I had actually sent it, or not.

Well, Thank Gawd I don't have Alzheimer's Disease!!!

Anyway, getting back to today, I had the privilege and opportunity, to attend a Teachers' Meeting of the Kosei Nursing School, that was held at the Asahikawa Grand Hotel, starting at 18:00.

As with just about every year at the general meeting, the staff and other teacher's commented on how the learning level of the students seems to be going down, year by year.

Personally, I feel that a big reason for this is that most young people these days, spend a lot of time communicating by mobile phones, and less time communicating face to face with other people.

They spend a lot of time pushing buttons, not just on their mobile phones, but also on PC or TV games as well.

As a result, they have no real self confidence when dealing with real people, face to face.

Even though these students can memorize most of the complicated facts presented to them during their three years of nursing school, most of them have trouble connecting all of the facts together into a whole, so that they can see the BIG PICTURE.

And believe me, it is not just this school. Far from it.

It is a general trend in society at large, and not just Japanese society either. In general, I call it a DUMBING DOWN of society.

Most likely, it all started way back in the early 1950s when the first black and white television sets, became freely available to the general public.

Since that time, people have been spending less and less time interacting with other people, and more and more time interacting with electronic devices, of many kinds.

The internet included. Anyway, after the general business meeting was finished at about 17:00, we all moved over to the room next door for a dinner party that lasted for about 90 minutes until 20:30.

At the end of the dinner party, one of the other teachers, a retired physics professor, invited me to walk into town with him, and go to a Karaoke Bar. I said; "Yes!", and so we went there.

I haven't been out to sing Karaoke in about,... let's see when was that last time,.....????

Oh, yeah!

It was exactly one year ago and with this same professor, last year at this same time.

Wow, I am really becoming a stay at home type of guy.

Anyway, we both had a great time singing lots of songs in Japanese until about 3:00 in the morning hours.

I used to do this type of thing a lot, but not much any more.

Sometimes it is a good thing to do something totally different, and break you usual daily routine.

Sometimes.

2008 March 31 Monday.

2008-04-12T16:07:00.009+09:00

Brrrrrr..... It was cold today.

Not just after the sun went down, but even during the day when it was mostly clear and sunny.

It might say that spring is here on the calendar, but the folks with boots on the ground, know different.

Today is my younger sister's birthday. Maybe I should say little sister, instead. She is younger that me, but she is the same age as my lovely wife, which is not all that young when viewed from the standpoint of a high school student.

Yeah, little is a better word because she is as skinny as a toothpick, without its wrapper.
I thought that I sent her a Happy Birthday Post Card, like the one shown in the photo above/left, on or about March 20, but I haven't received any email from her yet, telling me that she received the card.

She always sends an email when she gets my card each and
every year.

Unless,..... I forgot to send the card by snail mail, and she never got it.

I don't know for sure. Did I really send the card, or was it just a brain fart, I had during a dream.

Maybe I have Alzheimer's Disease like Ronald Reagan had.

Gawd, I hope not. Oh! That reminds me of an American Joke that I heard on the internet a few years ago.

I t goes
something like this: An elderly person was feeling bad, so they went to see their doctor.

The patient said to the doctor: "Doc, I'm not feeling so well. Could you please give me a complete physical exam and see if there is anything wrong with me?"

The doctor said; "Sure, I'd be happy to. Please
come with me into the examination room."

In the examination room all manner of tests were done, and sent to the hospital laboratory for further analysis.

About one week later, the patient came back to see the doctor and asked about the test results.

The doctor said to the patient; "I have some bad news. You have cancer."

The patient cried out; "Oh my Gawd! How long do I have to
live?"

The doctor replied; "Only about one more year. But, that is not all.
You also have Alzheimer's Disease."

The patient again replied in a worried voice; "Did you say that I have Alzheimer's Disease???"

The doctor answered; "Yes, that's right." The patient suddenly became silent and looked down at the floor.

Then, he quickly looked up at the doctor with a big smile on his face and said; "Well, Thank Gawd I don't have cancer!!!"

Have you ever heard this joke before, and do you understood why it might make an optimistic person laugh?

I have tried telling this joke to almost all of my adult students from time to time, and I always get the same reaction.

Glassy-eyed silence. They don't get the punch line 落ち.

Japanese humor and American humor are worlds apart, but they are both equally amusing, in and of their own right.

For those of you out there, who are reading this blog, let me try and summarize why this joke is funny to the Average American English Speaking Male.

When the guy goes into the doctor's office for the
second time one week after his examination.

The doctor FIRST tells the patient that he has cancer.

Then, a few moments later, the doctor tells the patient SECONDLY, that he has ALZHEIMER'S disease.

When the patient hears this, he initially feels depressed, and looks at the floor.

However, after a momentary self-reflection, the patient realizes that he is lucky to NOT HAVE cancer.

You see, the funny part is, that the patient HAS ALREADY FORGOTTEN that the doctor told him less than one minute ago, that the patient had cancer AND Alzheimer's disease.

That IS the punch line. Enough talk about THAT.

Words have meaning, thoughts are things. MAGNETIZE your THOUGHTS in a POSITIVE manner at all times.

All the while, noticing the absurdities and contradictions, that we all encounter in our daily lives.

Laugh as much as possible.

IT IS the BEST MEDICINE.

2008 March 30 Sunday.

2008-04-11T23:36:00.002+09:00

Oh what a beautiful sunny day.

By that I mean, the sky was so clear that I could vividly see the Taisetsu Mountain Range from my balcony window.

On days like this, a drive towards the mountains is a must, if I have the time.
And today, I had all the time in the world.

Just a few minutes after 12:00 noon, I got a telephone call from Charles Hamel asking me if I had enough time to drive over to Shibinai and visit for a while.

Of course I did, and I arrived there at about 14:15.

Even though they do not yet have a telephone line nor internet service, they have just about everything else they need to live comfortably at their new home, thanks to all of the nice people who live nearby.

Their kids were outside, playing with the neighbor's kids and having a wonderful time.

We adults sat around the kitchen table talking about various things for about 40 minutes or so when I finally said; "Hey Charlie.

We should all take a drive up towards the mountains, because the weather today is absolutely perfect for just such a drive."

Charlie agreed and told me that his children had never seen snow before they came to Hokkaido.

Even though there is still some snow on the ground around their house, as you can see from the photo above/left, the really deep snow can only be seen near the base of the mountains during this time of year.

So, we all hopped into my Road Meister Toyota Noah mini van, and drove straight towards the mountains, passing by Chubetsu Dam and Chubetsu Lake along the way.

First destination was Tenninkyo Hot Springs 天人峡温泉.

We went as far as the road would take us and ended up at the parking lot of the Hotel 天人閣.

We all got out and looked around as much as we could, but the hiking trail to the waterfalls was still full of snow and not passable.

Next, we drove back down the hill until we got to the "Y" in the road that leads up to the Asahidake Hot Springs 旭岳温泉.

We turned right and drove back up the hill until we got to the ropeway at Asahidake, but we didn't get out of the car there.

We just drove slowly around the area, enjoying the beautiful sights.

After that, we drove back down the hill and on into Shibinai, with plenty of daylight left.

On the way up to the mountains, we stopped along the road where there is a clear view of Lake Chubetsu, and the kids had some fun walking around on the top of the deep snow, and even making and throwing some snowballs, for the first time in their lives.

Yeah, it's cold isn't it.

The Hamel Family members were all smart enough to wear long rubber boots, but I was crazy as usual wearing only sandals without socks.

I did not climb around on the snow, for obvious reasons.

Even so, the time I did spend out of the car walking around, was a bit cold for my feet.

It will be getting warmer day by day from now on so, I won't be wearing any socks or shoes for many months.

Simple is best.
　

2008 March 28 Friday and March 29 Saturday.

2008-04-07T22:33:00.002+09:00

Beautiful sunny weather for the most part.

On Saturday after a private lesson in the late morning, and a lunch of Natto and brown rice 納豆と玄米 in the early afternoon, I found myself to be very sleepy.

I had originally planned to take a drive out to Shibinai to see how Charles Hamel and Family were getting along in their new home.

Unfortunately, I was too sleepy to drive, so I laid down at about 15:00 to take a nap.

When I woke up, it was already 19:30.

Not only would I not be driving out to Shibinai, but I was also an hour late for a Jazz Concert at the Taisetsu Crystal Hall.

Yikes! I got dressed quickly and walked on over to the concert hall.

I got there at 20:00, and it was too late to buy a ticket, so I sat in the lobby and watched the stage on a TV screen.

I couldn't hear the music all that well, but it was better than nothing.

The good news is that I got there in time to listen to the segment where one of my students, who plays the saxophone, was performing.

This was the main reason I wanted to go to this concert in the first place.

The almost 3 hours long concert was called STEP TO ASIA Creative Concert and had at least four separate stages consisting of professional, semi-professional and amateur musicians.

Overall, it sounded very nice.

I just wish I hadn't slept in, and missed the first 90 minutes of the show.

2008-04-04T15:22:00.003+09:00

Another milestone in the continuing story of Snowman Bei Kaiwa.

This young gentleman with me in the photograph above/left, has been coming to my classroom off and on, since he was 8 years old.

You can see what he looked like at that time in the smaller photo in the lower right corner.

Today was his last lesson at my school.

On April 1, he will be flying to Australia and start attending an English speaking high school there.

He is planning to spend 3 years in Australia and graduate from high school there.

His main goal in life is to become a professional golfer, and I know for sure that he can do it.

He first started playing golf when he and his family lived in Houston Texas for about 6 months, when he was just 7 years old.

He is now 15 years old and has been practicing golf every day of his life since he was 7.

That's what it takes to become a professional, in any field.

Unswerving dedication and constant practice of the BASICS.

Look at Tiger Woods or ICHIRO, and you can see what I mean.

Remember this young man's face, because you will be seeing him on TV in professional golf tournaments, in the not too distant future.

He will probably be on the same tour with Greg Norman of Australia, some day.

His real name is Nanase, but I just call him Tiger Yoshida.

Have a safe flight to the big down under, and come back and see me again during your Christmas Holiday.

Life can be so sweet, when you have a specific objective in mind. Rock on my friend.

2008 March 26 Wednesday.

2008-04-01T17:54:00.009+09:00

Wow! What an exciting day. Not just for me, but also for many other people as well, including the Charles Hamel Family.

They arrived at the Asahikawa International Airport about 45 minutes late, on a JAL flight from Tokyo.

I didn't mind the extra waiting time at all.

In fact, I enjoyed looking into every nook and cranny of the Terminal Building, that I was allowed to go into.

I was a bit surprised to see so many people at the airport today.

I heard many people speaking Chinese and Korean as well.

A good sign that the rest of Asia, and the world, is waking up to the natural beauty that IS this island paradise, HOKKAIDO.

I also saw several groups of high school students, some of whom were wearing their school uniforms, and waiting to board an airplane bound for Korea.

They must be going on some kind of exchange/friendship program.

I was happy to see it.

Hopefully, they will take some interest in the Korean Language, and realize that the cultural and linguistic differences between the two countries, is very small indeed.

The Asahikawa International Airport, has really improved its image within the past several years.

The gift shops were all very busy, and there were several locations around the terminal building, where big flat screen TVs, were playing DVDs of the Asahiyama Zoo, and various other festivals held annually throughout Hokkaido.

I was impressed by the picture quality of the moving pictures, and also the fact that there were subtitles in English, Korean and Chinese too.

Yeah, the people who put these things together, really get it.

What's good for Hokkaido, is having more and more people, who are adventurous and ambitious, coming here to live and work, on a long term basis.

Japan needs more children and Hokkaido is no exception.

I have known about the Charles Hamel Family since August of 2006, but I have never met them face to face, until today.

What an interesting experience it was! In July 2006, the family began making plans to move to Japan, to live and work on a long term basis.

In August, they found my website while doing research on the internet.

At that time, I did not have any email address displayed anywhere on my website, and I never check the ADMIN account which is a part of every website.

So, Charles Hamel made a long distance call from Houston Texas and left a message on my answering machine which included his email address.

The next day I sent him an email saying that I would be willing to answer any and all questions they might have about living and working in Hokkaido, and that was the start of a long correspondence between me and him.

In the meantime he started several websites of his own, and I would read his posts, and he would read my blog, and we would send emails back and forth, about various things.

Today, he and his family arrived at Asahikawa International Airport, and I and several other people were there to greet them.

Welcome to Hokkaido my friends.

I know you will enjoy living here as much as I do. Maybe even more!

The best part of the year is just getting started, and there are many places to go and lots of things to see.

It's a whole new world, starting again and again.

All of your hard work in preparing to make this big move has just started to pay off. You're gonna love it here.