2008 September 8 Monday thru September 15 Monday.

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 fr...

2008 August 25 Monday thru August 31 Sunday.

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 ca...

2008 August 18 Monday and 19 Tuesday.

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 Mon...

2008 July 30 Wednesday and July 31 Thursday.

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....

2008 July 25 Friday thru July 28 Monday.

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 ki...

2008 July 20 Sunday and 21 Monday.

Umi No Hi, 海の日 or as I like to call it, Marine Day, is a National Holiday in Japan.    Ikuko and I were planning to go to Sapporo and stay overnight on Sunday, but I backed out of the deal at the last moment because I had an awesome stomach ache.    No thank you, to riding the train for 3 hours and walking around a big city, far away from toilets, all day long.  ...

2008 July 12 Saturday and July 13 Sunday.

At about 18:00 on Saturday, I went over the hill and down into TomiSawa to attend a private BBQ party being held for an American guy, how used to live in Asahikawa for a long time, but now lives in Atlanta Georgia.    I haven't seen this guy for about 8 or 9 years, but when I saw him again today, it was like we had never been apart.    Some people just don't change no ...

2008 July 5 Saturday and July 6 Sunday.

Saturday morning starting at 10:30, was my private lesson with the 8 year old girl, who really tries to speak English at every moment during her lessons.    What a pleasure this is for her, and me as well.   Today, we used some hand written cards that I made many years ago, to learn words of opposite meaning, ANTONYMS 反意語.    Words such as HOT and COLD, LON...

2008 June 30 Monday.

The last day of June and heading into summer full steam ahead.    I will be closing my little classroom for about 3 weeks from July 27 until August 17 so that I can relax Spread Eagle Style in the great outdoors of Hokkaido.    The photo you can see in today's blog is of Oregano Flowering Plants that are located just outside my window along the sidewalk.    I...

2008 June 23 Monday thru June 25 Wednesday.

Monday morning at 10:00 I had my first gig of this year at the Chestnut Tree Kindergarten くりの木幼稚園.    You can see a photo of the chipmunk who guards the front door of the building, above/left.    This kindergarten has about 220 students and they all assemble at the same time in the big hall for my performance, so it is almost impossible to talk face to face wit...