2008 December 28 Sunday and December 29 Monday.

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.

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2008 December 26 Friday and December 27 Saturday.

Finally!!! The Big Snow!!!

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

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.

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2008 December 24 Wednesday.

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　

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2008 December 23 Tuesday.

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. 

The 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 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.

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2008 December 15 Monday thru December 22 Monday.

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.

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2008 December 8 Monday thru December 14 Sunday.

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.

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2008 December 1 Monday thru December 7 Sunday.

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.

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2008 November 17 Monday thru November 30 Sunday.

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.

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.

 

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.

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2008 November 11 Tuesday thru November 16 Sunday.

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.

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2008 November 6 Thursday thru November 10 Monday.

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.

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2008 November 1 Saturday thru November 5 Wednesday.

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。

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2008 October 27 Monday thru October 31 Friday.

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.

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2008 October 20 Monday thru October 26 Sunday.

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.

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2008 October 14 Tuesday thru October 19 Sunday.

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.

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2008 October 6 Monday thru October 13 Monday.

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!

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Online Shopping for Everythig Japanese and more …

ワルツ・フォー・ティボー アーティスト：パロシクス 販売元：PIRKA MUSIC 発売日：2002/04/22 Amazon.co.jpで詳細を確認する

ゆるふわRelax アーティスト：パロシクス 販売元：PIRKA MUSIC 発売日：2008/07/11 Amazon.co.jpで詳細を確認する

2008 October 1 Wednesday thru October 5 Sunday.

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!

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2008 September 25 Thursday thru September 29 Monday.

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.

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2008 September 24 Wednesday.

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!

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2008 September 23 Tuesday.

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.

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2008 September 16 Tuesday thru September 22 Monday.

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.

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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 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.

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2008 September 1 Monday thru September 7 Sunday.

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.

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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 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.

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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 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.

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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.   

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!!!

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2008 July 29 Tuesday.

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!　

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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 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.

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2008 July 22 Tuesday thru July 24 Thursday.

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.

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2008 July 20 Sunday and 21 Monday.

Umi No Hi, 海の日 or as I like to call it, Marine Day, is a National Holiday in Japan.   

Ikuko and I were planning to go to Sapporo and stay overnight on Sunday, but I backed out of the deal at the last moment because I had an awesome stomach ache.   

No thank you, to riding the train for 3 hours and walking around a big city, far away from toilets, all day long.   

I stayed home.  So, Ikuko went with her mother instead.   

Her younger sister lives in Sapporo now, so they all had a merry time as a happy trio.   

While they were swilling it up at the Sapporo Beer Garden Genghis Khan BBQ beer hall, I was sitting at home, eating brown rice and natto.    

After that, I had a midnight snack of hot buttered popcorn.   

Thanks to Charles Hamel, I can once again enjoy the smoky flavor of fresh popped popcorn, right here in my own home.   

He brought it with him from Houston Texas USA, when he and his family made their big move to Hokkaido.   

What a treat and a much appreciated and often used gift.   

Thanx again.    Ikuko came back from Sapporo at about 12 noon on Monday morning, and showed me all of the photos she had taken on her mobile phone camera.   

Looks like everybody had a really good time.   

Me too, in a lonely sort of way.    Starting tomorrow is the last week of classes before the start of a three week summer vacation.   

I'm giving a final exam tomorrow at AU, making use of the internet to get the job done.   

Being able to find the information you want on the web quickly and easily, is an important job skill in this day and age.   

College kids need to learn this as fast as possible.   

Some of them will.    Others won't.   

It's an individual choice.　

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2008 July 19 Saturday.

The smart little girl who comes to my classroom every Saturday morning, couldn't come today because she had a bad headache.   

I hope she feels better soon.   

With my morning lesson canceled, I had the perfect opportunity to get back to basics on the electric bass guitar. 

I am all the way up to track 20 on a 65 track instructional CD that came with the textbook entitled; EASY BASS.   

Yeah, that's right up my alley.   ABC 123.   

After about 90 minutes of practice, I had to change clothes and get ready to go the the Grand Hotel by 14:00 for the celebration of the 45th Anniversary of Asahikawa Women's Junior College, 40th Anniversary of Asahikawa University etc.   

It was a huge event, with the likes of who is who in Hokkaido, all in attendance.   

Even the Mayor of Asahikawa, Mr. Nishikawa himself, found the time in his busy schedule, to show up and make a speech.   

See the photo above/left for details.   

After about one hour of speeches and awards presentations, everyone of the more than 220 people who came today, went into the room next door for food and drinks.   

We were also treated to an excellent performance of some very complicated music by the 旭川大学高等学校吹奏楽部　Asahikawa University High School Brass Band.   

They were really good!   

They must practice almost every day, in order to pull off a perfect performance like the one they did today.   

Another delightful treat for today, was to discover that the elderly gentleman seated to my left at the banquet table, and who teaches information processing on Tuesday mornings, is in fact distantly related to my wife's family!    

To keep it short, he is the husband of the sister of the mother of the the husband of my wife's older sister.   

Therefore we have the same two nephews, in common!   

Did you follow that?    OK, here it is again in reverse order.   

My wife has two sisters.   One older sister and one younger sister.   

My wife's older sister, is married to a man.   

That man's mother also has a sister.   

That sister is married to the elderly gentleman who sat next to me today at the banquet table.   

Yeah, I know.   It's a long and winding road, but all of us are connected in some way.   

Whether we know it or not.

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2008 July 14 Monday thru July 18 Friday.

 

I was not as hot this week, as it was last week, and I didn't need to turn on the cooling system.   

About a month ago, my wife received a used digital camera from her younger sister.   

It is a RICHO Caplio R2 5.0 Mega Pixel unit, and you can see it in the photo above/left.  Ikuko almost never uses a camera, so I have developed the custom of taking this camera with me where ever I go.   

It is by far, smaller than any other camera that I have, and it takes very good photos.   

Now, I will never miss another photo opportunity because I didn't have a camera with me.   

Thanks Yuki!    This camera will be well used by me.   

Not only does this camera take still photos, but it also takes motion video as well.   

Plus, it can also be used as a voice recorder for sound only.   

Isn't it amazing what electricity and magnetism can do.   

On Monday, I had my last lesson with an 8 year old girl who has been coming to my classroom for about 5 years.   

She and her family will be moving to Chitose because of her father's job.   

I hope they can find a good English classroom in that city so that she can continue her studies there. 

On Thursday at about 20:30 while I was walking the aisles at the next door supermarket, a beautiful young woman runs up to me saying; "ノーマン先生、ノーマン先生！" 

She came right up to me and we looked at each other face to face.   

I could not remember who she was, until she said; "I am Haruka".   

As soon as I heard that, I knew exactly who she was.   

I haven't seen her in about 3 years, but she and her brother who are fraternal twins  一卵性双生児, used to come to my classroom during their elementary school and junior high school days.   

Now they are both 23 years old and attending universities in California USA.   

How's that for a job well done, by all hands on deck.   

It's a small world after all.   

Be kind to your neighbors.

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2008 July 12 Saturday and July 13 Sunday.

At about 18:00 on Saturday, I went over the hill and down into TomiSawa to attend a private BBQ party being held for an American guy, how used to live in Asahikawa for a long time, but now lives in Atlanta Georgia.   

I haven't seen this guy for about 8 or 9 years, but when I saw him again today, it was like we had never been apart.   

Some people just don't change no matter how long you know them.   

This party was rather unusual for me, because there were no Japanese people at it.   

Only non-Japanese.   There were people from Canada, England, Holland, Sri Lanka and of course, the USA.   

As such, the common language was English.   

One thing I noticed, is that these people like to talk about other people a lot.   

In other words, GOSSIP.    Gossip is something which I don't like much and almost never do myself, so today I heard a lot of strange stories about some of the people who were at the party, and some other people who weren't at the party. 

Stories I had never heard before, even though the events being described happened both recently, and many years ago.   

As a result, I grew rather bored with most of the conversations, and went inside the house to play my bass guitar which I had brought along with me.   

Fortunately, the owner of the house also likes to play live music so he soon joined me with his guitar and microphone, and we started making some groovy sounds.   

The photo in today's blog shows one of my bass guitars and one of my six string electric guitars, sitting in my classroom, after being prepared for transport to the party.   

I needed to do an equipment check before I left, and also put all new strings on the stratocaster.   

The guy from Holland who was at the party, was also a very good guitar player and singer, and he knew a lot of good songs from memory. 

So, I played along with him too on the bass guitar.   

The party ended about midnight.   

Because I was driving that day, I drank no alcohol at the party but I had a few beers when I got home.   

I continued to play the bass guitar at very low volume, practicing the basics over and over again, until about 5:00 Sunday morning.   

Music and languages are my specialty, and what I like to do most.

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2008 July 7 Monday thru July 11 Friday.

The WORLD comes to Hokkaido.   

What a nightmare for the traffic cops.   

I stayed far away from all of the hoop-la, and didn't leave Asahikawa.   

I had already scoped out the Windsor Hotel Lake Toya, during Golden Week of 2007 on May 12.   

Click here to read the details. 

Unfortunately for the World Leaders and their entourages, the weather at Lake Toya this year on July 7, 8 and 9, was not the best.   

From Live News Broadcasts, I could see that it was very overcast and dark.   

Not the best way to remember this beautiful island of Hokkaido.   

When it is clear and sunny, Lake Toya is absolutely stunning in its own natural beauty.   

The Windsor Hotel has the best view, because it is located on the highest hill, that surrounds the lake itself.   

A Magnificent View from the top.   

Will this 34th G8 Summit be remembered as the 3 days which rocked Hokkaido?   

Hmmmm,... I wonder.    I will be here as usual, 365/24/7  waiting for yet another sunny day, and visiting  the Windsor Hotel again, in the very near future.    

By the way, a word about the Annual G8 Summits, in general.   

Every year, this is a big media event, and that is about all that it is.   

Nothing of real importance is decided at the G8 Summits.   

All of the really serious issues about how the world will be managed in the near and not so distant future, is decided at the Annual Bilderberg  Summit that is held every year BEFORE the G8 Summit.   

What does that tell you?   

Exactly!    Everything that is really really really important, has already been decided before the annual G8 summit even starts.   

Therefore, the top of the top in the Governments of the BIG 8, can relax and talk about family and friends and favorite memories and, etc.    

Consider the G8 Summit to be a very short summer vacation in some far and distant land for all the government leaders of the first world countries.   

The only disappointment I have about the whole affair this year, was the lousy weather that G. W. Bush and Family, had to suffer through during their very brief visit to Hokkaido.   

They arrived in Hokkaido, and left from Hokkaido aboard Air Force One, at Chitose Air Base.   

I know that somebody somewhere in Hokkaido, was there on those days to take photos of Air Force One coming into and going out of Chitose Air Base.   

I wish I could see those photos.   

That would be an excellent adventure, in and of itself. 

If you have some, please e-mail me at snowmanjapan@live.jp    

Thanx again!!!

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2008 July 5 Saturday and July 6 Sunday.

Saturday morning starting at 10:30, was my private lesson with the 8 year old girl, who really tries to speak English at every moment during her lessons.   

What a pleasure this is for her, and me as well.   Today, we used some hand written cards that I made many years ago, to learn words of opposite meaning, ANTONYMS 反意語.   

Words such as HOT and COLD, LONG and SHORT, DEEP and SHALLOW, etc.   Not only did she learn all of the words, but she used her imagination in coming up with short sentences, that use both words in a meaningful way.   

For example, The ocean is DEEP but small rivers are SHALLOW.   

Girls have LONG hair, but boys have SHORT hair (not always). 

Summer is HOT and WINTER is cold in Hokkaido.   

And so on and so forth.   

It was a very interesting lesson for both her and myself, and when her mother came by my classroom at 11:30 to pick her daughter up, the eight years old girl was surprised to see that ONE HOUR had already passed by, like it was just one wrinkle in time.   

The rest of the day I spent watching some interesting BBC documentaries on YOU TUBE, and also playing my black Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar, UNPLUGGED while listening to some of my favorite POP ROCK CDs on the music player.   

It is overcast and rainy today, and not a nice day to be out and around, unless you absolutely have to be.

On Sunday morning, I woke up at about 07:00 and noticed immediately, that it was going to be very hot and humid today.   

Yesterday's rain and today's sunny weather were combining to create that heavy, sticky and hot air, which really takes the fight out of me.   

Time to close off all the windows, and turn on the cooler. 

I have a big job to do today, and you can see what that job was in today's blog photo.   

Yep!  That's right, A3 sized full color laminated presentation cards, designed to go along with that very well known CHILDREN'S SONG; Mary had a Little Lamb.   

What a classic!    And so easy for even 3 year olds to understand.   

Not only do the words of the song appear on the back of each picture card in both English and Japanese, but I also made three A4 sized handouts, which the kindergarten teachers can use to teach the kids the lyrics, in both English and Japanese.   

The entire job took me about 5 hours to complete.   

Well worth the effort as I will be using these cards and my acoustic guitar tomorrow morning at めばえ幼稚園 and many more times after that, at various gigs.   

FUN FOR HIRE!!!   

Have Car and Guitar.   

Will Travel.

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2008 June 26 Thursday thru June 29 Sunday.

The warm and sunny weather continues, but on some days, it can be a bit cold at night.   

On Thursday, Ikuko wanted to go to the Korean BBQ Restaurant KinKaRo 金花郎 because they have an all you can eat plan on Thursday's only.   

There are two KinKaRo Korean BBQ that I know of.   

The closest one to our house is on 1 Jodori at about 5 Chome.   

It is a short easy walk from our place, but we took a longer detour along the cycling road of the Chubetsu River in order to get some much needed exercise.   

When we got there, we we happy to see that there would be no waiting for a table, which is rather unusual because this place is always packed full of hungry people.   

We got a nice private booth and started looking at the menu.   The all-you-can-eat plan 食べ放題 is 2,700 yen per person, plus drinks.   

The all-you-can-drink plan 飲み放題 is  1,290 per person, plus food.   Hmmmm,....    What to do?   

Easy choice, get the all-you-can-drink option and then order food as we see fit.   

So, that's what we did.   While we were there, I recognized one of the waitresses as a former student at my classroom.   

She is now about 22 years old, and is going to a technical school in Eniwa, so she can become a Certified Nutritionist. 

It was very pleasant to see her again, and she was doing a very good job as a waitress on this evening.   

The service was prompt, the food was delicious and the beer was ice cold.   Total cost for the evening meal, a little over 7,000 yen.   

Not a low price but a fair price.   Remember, both locations of this restaurant are almost always full, with people standing in line outside the shop waiting for it to open at 17:00 on weekdays and 16:00 on weekends.   

Another excellent example, of a very well run small business that makes money hand over fist.   

Ikuko and I,  will certainly go there again and again.   

My Friday morning class at the Dokan Nusring School  was a lot of fun as usual.   

Today we enacted a skit about buying some sunglasses and asking for a discount and then a bigger discount.   

I was the shop owner and the students played the part of the customer.   

I call each and every student by name, and they have to do the skit either once, twice or thrice until they have completely memorized, all of their lines.   

I gave them the script about two weeks ago, so most of them got it right on their first try.   

Sometimes, I will attempt to throw the students off of their mental balance by saying something that is not written in the script.   

For example, the first line in the skit is the shop owner saying;  "Welcome! How may I help you today?"   

But sometimes I say it in Korean as; "O So O Se Yo!"   

The idea here, is to get the student to stop and think and hopefully respond with;  "Do you speak English?"   

To which I say; "Yes, I do.  May I help you?"  and then the skit continues.   

Of course, some of the students speak English better than other students, and they will Ad Lib during the skit, making it much more interesting and enjoyable for everyone.    

On Saturday at about noon, I received a telephone call from an old friend, inviting Ikuko and myself to an outdoor BBQ party at his house.   

Ikuko already had plans to go to Sapporo and attend some type of seminar about making money as an internet affiliate website, so I went to the BBQ party by myself.   

The person who invited me and Ikuko to come over to his house today, is a long time restaurant owner in Asahikawa, and he always has the best ingredients for his BBQ parties.   

Again, this location is within easy walking distance from my home, so I took a stroll in the very warm afternoon sun.   

I even was able to stop at an old time Rice Wine Shop and pick up 2 bottles of 男山笹おり all malt rice wine at a premium price, and bring it with me to the party.   

Mr. Baba has two grandchildren, both of whom I have not met in about 2 years.   Kids grow up fast.   

The granddaughter was especially looking bigger and more like a girl, than a baby.   

She and I spent most of the party time feeding watermelon rinds to the many black ants walking around on the asphalt, and later hide and seek with her inside the house running from window to window on the first floor, and I trying to locate her with my eyes, as I sat next to her mother and the other guests outside, drinking the best nectar and eating the best foods, while they talked about things of which I know not, and while I played at a distance with a very cute and lively girl.   

Human Relations.   You don't need a PhD to figure it out.   

After the party was winding down at whatever time it was, I walked back home across the bridge and went to bed, almost immediately.   

Ikuko wasn't home yet, because she took the last train from Sapporo to Asahikawa.   

I went to bed and slept quite well, thank you.   

I didn't get out of bed on Sunday until about 10:30, and didn't get around to checking my email until about 13:00, because I was very dug in at my Private Hokkaido.   

When I did check my email, I discovered that Charlie Hamel had sent me a message about a Festival in HigashiKawa Town.   

I didn't know anything about this event, so I called Charlie and left a message on his answering machine.   

It turns out that there is a festival with fireworks at the the HigashiKawa Forest Park 東神楽森林公園 during most of Sunday.   

Ikuko and I both had risen early, and gone to bed late on Saturday, so we had to decline the Hamel Family's generous invitation, and stay at home tonight.   Summer has just only begun.

There will be many more opportunities to get out and enjoy the warm weather, during the next several months.   

I Can't Wait to see what happens next.

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2008 June 23 Monday thru June 25 Wednesday.

Monday morning at 10:00 I had my first gig of this year at the Chestnut Tree Kindergarten くりの木幼稚園.   

You can see a photo of the chipmunk who guards the front door of the building, above/left.   

This kindergarten has about 220 students and they all assemble at the same time in the big hall for my performance, so it is almost impossible to talk face to face with any one student at a time.   

Therefore, I bring my guitar along with me, plus a lot of big colorful laminated flash cards, that are related to the songs, and the kids and I spend most of the hour singing songs together.   

What else can I do in such a situation?   

Kids just naturally respond to music and in fact understand it better than spoken language at this point in their lives.   

After that was finished at about 11:10, I took my sweet time driving back to my place, because the weather was so beautiful today.   

At 13:00 I had my usual 90 minute class at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会.   

One of the students, the longest attending member of this class, told us about a 3 day trip she and her husband had recently taken to the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.   

She described many interesting things about her trip, including the fact that they had visited the YASUKUNI SHRINE   靖国神社.   

When she told all of us the reason for their visit to the shrine, it literally blew my mind.   

It turns out that her husband's father was killed on the tiny island of Iwo Jima, in 1945 during the Pacific War!!!   

I almost fell out of my chair.   I myself have also lived on the island of Iwo Jima for about one year in 1976 as a member of the United States Coast Guard.   

In fact, that is where I first started learning the Japanese Language.   

Another amazing fact about this lady, is that she is the ONLY original member of this group that is still in attendance, after 12 years of continuous classes!!!   

Is this a coincidence???   Or, is it synchronicity.   

You decide.   I already KNOW what IT is.   

By the way, a word about Yasukuni Shrine.   

In my opinion, visiting Yasukuni Shrine by any Japanese person, be it the Prime Minister of Japan or the garbage man of Shinjuku, is a TOTALLY PRIVATE matter for that person. 

Anybody who criticizes someone for visiting the shrine, is out of line.   

In the newspapers, on TV and other media, I often see China or Korea or some other country making a big fuss over the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.   

It is none of their phucking business!   The only difference between a WAR HERO and a WAR CRIMINAL, is the fact that the war hero's country WON THE WAR, and the war criminal's country LOST THE WAR.   

That is all.    WAR IS ATROCITIES!!!   

We never hear anybody criticizing the President of the USA for laying a big flower wreath at the ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, do we.   

Use your phuckin' brains and get a clue.  WAR IS ATROCITIES and Yasukuni Shrine is an issue for the Japanese People, and the Japanese People ONLY!   

The rest of you can all go jump into the Pacific Ocean.   

The TRUTH between RED blood and GOLD medals is ORANGE goo.

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2008 June 14 Saturday and June 15 Sunday.

I had a private lesson with the 9 year old elementary school girl as usual on Saturday morning, but today her mother told me that her daughter has a headache, and also she slightly injured her right leg during some kind of sports activity, so they wanted a 30 minute lesson, instead of the full 50 - 60 minutes, which we have every week.   

The young girl's lack of concentration today was rather obvious, but I tried my best to make her feel better and extend the time to 50 minutes or more.   

I was only able to coax 40 minutes out of her today, but that is much better than nothing.   

Either way, I get paid the same so it's not about money for me, but rather about student SATISFACTION with my job performance.   

I take that more seriously than anything else, in every teaching job that I do.   

I am there FOR THE STUDENT.   The student is NOT there for me.   

In Japanese they have a well known saying that goes like this;  お客様は神様です.   Meaning; The Customer is GOD.   

If you are an entrepreneur who owns and runs a small business, of any kind, you know exactly what I am talking about.   

Even if you live in the Western World, some people STILL GET IT.   

It's about a WIN=WIN situation.   

There need not be any losers, in the game of LIFE.   

Ya see, the IDEAL is total co-operation.   

Helping yourself BY helping each other.   

How simple is that?   

As you all know, I have been an inhabitant of HOKKAIDO for more than 18 years NOW.   

When I first arrived here on March 12, 1990,.....   I immediately had a good feeling about this place.    

So did Charlie Hamel and family, when they first set down, BOOTS ON THE GROUND at the Asahikawa International Airport, on 2008 March 26.   

I have been corresponding with Charlie for more than about 2 years via the internet, but I only just recently, met him and his family, face to face for the first time, on that March afternoon.   

Since that time, Charlie has been publishing a Private Blog for family and friends only, the URL of which I will not make public.   

As I have been reading his blog everyday since it was begun, I have come to realize that Charlie and Me, have a lot of things in common, when it comes to living in JAPAN, especially HOKKAIDO.   

This little old island has a lot to offer.   It is easily visible on a world map.   

In the big city of Sapporo and some districts of small city Asahikawa, land prices are very expensive.   

In other locations around Hokkaido, you can get LAND FOR FREE.   

If you are willing to,...... etc.      

I am not making this up.   There really is FREE LAND IN HOKKAIDO.   

I have even see a big sign by a rest stop that was inviting people to move to the village in exchange for free land.   

I may have even taken a photo of it.   I'll look for it later.   

By the way, the photo in today's blog shows what I did for the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday.   

I made a new series of 105 Conversation Topic Cards, for use with mostly adult students.   

The small stack of black and white cards that you can see at the top of the photo, are the ones that I made about 12 years ago.   

At that time, we only had a simple word-processor, cardboard sheets, glue and wide cellophane tape.   

They have worked well over the years, but it's time to reinvent the wheel, an totally remake and expand this set of teaching/learning materials.   

Now that I have a PC with graphics software, a color ink-jet printer and a laminating machine, I can make much more professional looking flash cards, and so on.   

The entire job took me about 12 hours over several days to complete.   

I will make more later.    Time to go take a walk.

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2008 June 10 Tuesday thru June 13 Friday.

And the beat goes on.   

The photo above/left is of our favorite Grilled Chicken やきとり restaurant.   

It is known as ToriSen とりせん  and you can get a feel for the place by viewing the photo in today's blog.   

The shop has been around for a long time, ever since I first came to this town 18 years ago, and most likely much longer than before that time.   

The entire staff is female, except for one older guy, who is the main chef. 

They make a unique type of サンギ which is a Hokkaido word for deep fried chicken nuggets, except at this place, they make it with the bones still inside.   

Sort of similar to Southern Fried Chicken.   

It's crispy on the outside, and juicy on the inside.   

On Wednesday, I had a class with the first year students at the Kosei Nursing school as usual.   

Every year, at least one of the new first year students, has already graduated from a junior college and has some employment experience, before enrolling in this nursing school.   

As such, they already have enough credits for English, in order to graduate from this school.   

Therefore, I sign a piece of paper saying that I acknowledge this fact, and do not require them to attend my English class.   

Each time I do this, the student will stop coming to my class.   

Except for this year.   The young woman told me that she enjoyed my class so much that she wanted to attend, even though she is not required to do so.   

I told her how happy I was that she enjoyed my class and thanked her for continuing to attend.   

That made both of us feel pretty good.   

The rest of my classes for the week went pretty much as usual, both at home and away.   

The weather has been overcast, rainy and a bit cold this entire week. 

I hope it gets sunny and warm on this weekend.   

Summer officially starts next weekend.

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2008 June 9 Monday.

Happy 12th Anniversary to the only child, that me and my wife have given birth to, together.   

The child's name is; Snowman's American English Family Classroom.   

Has it really been that long?   

Yes, it has.  But, that is not the whole story.   

The idea for having my own Language Learning/Language Teaching Classroom, started more than 30 years ago.   

That is the time, when I first visited Japan as a member of the USCG.   

After one week at Yokota Air Base, I was flown to the tiny island of Iwo Jima 硫黄島, for a 12 month tour of duty.   

It was at that time, and on that island, that I first began to learn the Japanese Language.   

I really liked this new challenge, and I spent every spare moment learning how to speak, read and write this most beautiful of all pentatonic scale spoken languages.   

A pentatonic scale, has only 5 notes in the octave.   

Likewise, Japanese has only 5 vowel sounds あ　い　う　え　お  in the ENTIRE LANGUAGE!   Is this unusual?    

Yes, very.    I can think of only one other modern language, that is spoken by enough people on this planet today, to rank in the TOP TEN INTERNET LANGUAGES, that has 5 or less vowel sounds.   

That language is Spanish.   

Anyway, since that time, I have spent countless hours learning the Japanese Language.   

Now, it is a very useful tool in my daily life.   

Not only that, but I know exactly what it is like for someone else to begin learning a totally new, and completely different foreign language, from the ground up.   

If learning languages is interesting, wouldn't teaching them to other people be just the same, or even more interesting?   

Yes, it would be.   

And it certainly has been.   

And it will continue to BE.   

If you can make your most interesting hobby, into your life's work, you have a job in paradise.   

A paradise that welcomes each and everyone, who is WILLING to put forth the EFFORT required to make it happen.   

ABC is really C B A.   

Conceive, Believe, Achieve.   

How simple is that?    ABC, 123.   

Back to basics, and a lifestyle that makes sense, in all aspects of that lifestyle. 

If you really hate your present job, do yourself a big favor, and ask yourself this simple question.   

"Did I, myself, go to this company and apply for a job, OR did the company come to my house, and force me at gun-point, to work long hours for little pay."   

Which is it?   

I think we all know the answer to that question.

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2008 February 12 Tuesday thru February 13 Wednesday.

The Asahikawa Winter Festival may be over, but winter is most certainly not finished with us yet.   

See the photo above/left for details. 

After several days of clear skies and higher temperatures, the white stuff is coming down again, with a vengeance.   

In the English language, this type of weather condition is commonly called a WHITE OUT.   

A person can see a lot of white, and not much else.   

Especially if you are driving your car at night.   

The headlights create a sort of dancing crowd of white fairies that must be wiped away, with wiper blades on at full speed.   

Of course, reducing the rolling speed of the automobile is also a must.   

In the city, there are still street lights and traffic lights and other car lights to help you find your way.   

But, if you are out on a country road somewhere, all alone, and this type of blizzard comes upon you, a person can easily become disoriented and end up in a ditch, alongside of the road.   

This is no laughing matter.   

Hokkaido is both beautiful and dangerous at the same time, during certain seasons and weather conditions.   

Approach it with respect, and drive slowly.   

Very slowly.

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ネコしまじろうの悲劇

韓国のYahoo!で面白い写真を、見つけました。

うちにも犬がいたのですが、私の靴が家族の中で一番愛されていました

まさに、このネコちゃんのように、私の靴の匂い（臭い？）をかんでいました（；＾－＾；）
やっぱり、くさっ！ってことなんでしょうかねぇ…（￣〓￣;;　Shock！！

　ネコ　しまじろう　の　悲劇　（；＾－＾；）

参りました！状態のしまじろう　↑

うちの犬は、脱いだばかりの私の靴が好きだったようです～～（／O＼)

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2007 December 23 Sunday.

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. 

The 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 2 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.　

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2007 November 29 Thursday.

Another BIG DUMP OF SNOW on Asahikawa.   

See the photo above/left for details.

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2007 September 22 Saturday.

A PERFECT Indian Summer Day. 

It doesn't get any better than this. 

At about 14:00, I left my classroom and walked slowly towards the center of Asahikawa City, across the Chubetsu Bridge, and then towards the back entrance of the Chuo Bus Station.   

Right next door was my first objective.   

I stopped in at the Matsui Jewelry Shop, to pick up my chunky 27 stone turquoise necklace, that needed a new chain and monster clasp.   

It was ready as promised and I promptly put it on, and continued my leisurely walk in the warm autumn sun, with a slow cool breeze to make it absolutely excellent.   

I walked thru Kaimono Koen to Tokiwa Park.   

It was in Tokiwa Park that I took the photos in today's blog.   

The light was just perfect, for some very bright pix of the GOLDEN CARP.

I haven't done any alterations on these photos except for a tweek on brightness and contrast, on the first 2 photos only.   

The other three are printed as taken.   

I lingered around this area for about 20 minutes or so.   

There was so much to observe, here.Is that the most amazing looking carp you have ever seen, or what.   

This is only the second time I have seen one of this 99.9% pure gold color.   

They seem to be something of a rarity.   

I continued walking along the Ishikari River line, passing over several bridges, and walking for a total of about 3 hours.   

Who knows when the weather will be this good again.    

You've got the time, step out NOW.

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2007 July 19 Thursday.

A walk through the forest.   

In Japanese we call it   森林浴  Forest Bathing.   

In other words, total immersion in the element, be it water or air.   

What's the difference anyway?    

If you can swim, you can fly. 

It's all about vibrations, it's all about light.   

Find your own path and walk it right.

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2007 June 24 Sunday.

ROAM if you want to, all around the world. 

Roam if you want to, without wings without wheels,.....   

MUSIC FOR THE ROAD by the B52s.　

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2007 June 23 Saturday.

No time to write today, I'm outta here and on another プチ vision quest.

Have flute, will walk anywhere.　

Walk with the wind. 

The wind can fly.

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2007 June 19 Tuesday.

Today I went to Asahikawa University as usual for a class with the freshman and repeaters starting at 10:40.   

When that class was all wrapped up at 12:10, and while I was walking out the front door of the university, one of the junior professors called out to me, and asked me if I had time to meet some foreign exchange students from Inner Mongolia.   

I said;  "Sure, I'd be happy to."   

We walked back into the main entrance and turned to the left, where a new room had been set up.   

The sign above the door said; Foreign Exchange Students Meeting Room, or something like that.   

When the professor and I had entered the room, I saw three young ladies, one of whom is in the English class that I had just finished teaching.   

The other two I have never met before.   

All five of us sat down and talked in English, Japanese and a tiny bit of Chinese, until about 13:00.   

Damn!   

I have forgotten how to speak Chinese!   

Xit!  Here is a big opportunity to learn it again!   

I was invited to come back again next week, and I most certainly will do so.   

Time to listen to those basic conversation CDs again.

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2007 June 18 Monday.

My first gig of today was a 90 minute "class" at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会。

Today, I brought along three new plastic vertical flutes with me, that I had just purchased at the Kagura Daiso at about 13:00 yesterday afternoon.   

Three colors;  Pink, Yellow, Blue.   

I picked up the blue one and played a simple major scale and mentioned how I have been enjoying playing the flute either at home, or down by the riverside.   

I encouraged anyone in the group who so desired, to take a blow on one of the flutes and play a simple song or two.   

Only one person, accepted my invitation, although I am sure that most of the members of this group can play a scale or two.   

My next topic of the day, was Medical Health Insurance issues with a focus on the different systems used in Japan and the USA.   

I specifically brought up the situation of Charles Hamel and Family, and asked the members of the group;  "How much do you think it cost him to go to the hospital for 3 days and pass kidney stones."   

Most people came up with an estimate of $500 or $600  dollars, to be paid by the patient.   

When I wrote the number $4,100 on the blackboard, everybody's jaw dropped to their knees, and they had a totally blank look on their faces.   Yeah, in a nutshell; they couldn't phuckin' believe it.   

I could, but then again,...    

I lived in the USA for about 33 years.   

I know what it's like to live there as a hard working middle class kind of guy.   

Because the USA has no Universal Health Care Plan for all of its Citizens, regardless of income level, a person who suddenly finds themselves unemployed for any reason, may suddenly have no more health insurance.   

That's the real bottom line.   

One thoughtful member of our group asked me the probing question;  "What happens if an uninsured person gets sick?"    

I looked at her straight in the eyes, smiled in an evil sort of way and answered;  "They must either heal themselves, or die."  

Everyone looked shocked.   

Another person made the comment that roughly translates into;   "What a heartless society."    

You can say that again my friend.   

I've been there and seen that.   

I choose a different world, a CIVILIZED WORLD, where   WA   和 is the name of the game.    

After that gig was finished at 14:30, I walked back to my classroom for straight lessons from 15:00 until 20:00. 

When all of my lessons were finished for the day, I sat down to check my email, and several other websites including HOKKAIDO BOUND.   

What I saw in the blog for this very same day, Monday June 18 TEXAS TIME was an update on the real COST of a SCREWBALL health care system that always puts the  BEAN COUNTERS  first.   

If you have a huge appetite for bullshit, click here to see the gory details.    

Xrist!    JeeeeezUS!   

How much does it take!!!   to get out of this place?   

Whatever it takes to get off the ground, and start flying, pay it forward and make your move NOW.   

I can't phuckin' believe it.   

Life DOES NOT suck. 

Living in a house of cards is what sucks.   

And so does an old vacuum cleaner that doesn't suck anymore.   

Useless things MUST be thrown away.   

Useful TOOLS must be retained, and carried with oneself at all times.   

Certain knowledge, and a vertical flute are an easy,....     and enjoyable way to get started.      

A vision quest can happen at anytime and anywhere, but only if you can visualize nature as you have already observed it,....   

COUNTLESS TIMES BEFORE.

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2007 June 17 Sunday.

The photo you can see in yesterday's blog and the one in today's blog, were both taken during today, Sunday June 17.   

The weather today was so perfect, in every way, that I wasn't even aware of my physical body for most of my journey today.   

The air temperature was just to the point that,  I didn't even notice it.   

There was no wind.   None at all.   

The sunshine was hot, but not too hot.   

Everything was perfect for a walk down to one of my favorite hidden beaches along the Biei River, less than one kilometer from my home. 

I won't tell you exactly where it is, but if you are one of the gentle persons who comes to my little old classroom on a regular basis, I will draw you a BIG MAP to this very location on the white board.   

It is very easy to find, and this area will soon be connected to the center of town, by a brand new bridge!   

Oh, No!     I've already said too much.   

Please don't invade my Private Hokkaido.   

But then again, there are unlimited, Private Hokkaido launch pads on this island.    

Anyway, this tiny beach is right behind a very famous sightseeing spot right here in Kagura, and there is a walking trail through a small forest right above this private beach, so I was not totally isolated from other humans in the physical sense of the word.   

I came to this location at about 13:00 today, and I stayed until about 16:30.   

Somewhere close to 3 and one half hours, at this same location.   

As you can see from yesterday's blog photo, and also the one for today, I brought a vertical flute with me.   

I spent the entire time of nearly 4 hours, practicing the flute at full volume and observing everything about the local nature surrounding me, as I created original melodies out of thin air.   

Make no mistake about it, the animals within earshot of my "music" received it and responded to it.   

Yes, we had mutual communication.   

Especially with the crows and wild hawks.   They would fly low above me, to check me out while I was simultaneously observing them.   

I especially love the wild hawks which are known here as 鳶 and 鷹.   

They are the most beautiful of flying machines and they have a very high and somewhat shrill calling voice, that I tried to imitate on my flute, with mixed results.   T

he crows are mostly an annoyance to both me and the hawks.   

The crows regularly engage in airborne combat with the hawks, especially if the hawks are near the crows' nesting areas.   

When the crows start giving me a hard time, I blaze 'em with high pitched blasts of high decibel notes from my flute.   

It makes them stop and shut up for various lengths of time.   

Also during my  VISION QUEST  of this afternoon, an Akita Dog and its owner were walking along the opposite bank of the river heading upstream towards the southeast.   

The dog reacted very positively to my staccato flute riffs, and even tried briefly to jump into the river, with an intention to swim over to my side, but common sense soon got the better of him.   

The dog's owner, and elderly gentleman finally called the dog to come back over to him, and continue walking together.   

On my side of the river it was only me and the bubble of light that I was floating in.   

The only other humans that came down to my private beach were a medical doctor looking kind of guy, to whom I said; こんにちわ！　

And he in turn replied; こんにちわ！　End of conversation.   

I faced back towards the river and continued my broadcasting channel via the vertical flute.   

After about two or three or maybe even a few more minutes, the M.D. looking chap had already taken in enough during his very short look at the river and walked back up to the trail from which he had come, to continue his walk in the forest towards the west.    

About 55 minutes later, a married couple, first the man and then the woman, came down to my private Hokkaido beach, to take a look around for a bit longer than the previous humanoid. 

Again I greeted them one by one, but this time I said; こんばんわ both times, and both of them answered; こんにちわ.   

What time is it anyway?  It is daytime. 

In the afternoon to be exact.   

Soon it will become dark enough again,  to call it nighttime.   

Plus the limitless shades of light and dark,   color and light,  heat and cold,   in between.   

What time is it, indeed.    

It is the time of your life.       

It is always TODAY.

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2007 June 15 Friday.

The photo on the left is another one that I took yesterday, inside the Taisetsu Arena, at the annual Flower Festa.   

In my opinion, the small bush in a tray 盆栽 art form, is stunningly beautiful.   

I especially like the miniature pine trees, none of which were on display at this location.   

This morning starting at 9:00, I had a class with one half of the second year students at the Dokan Nursing School, right next door to the National Medical College and Hospital of Asahikawa.   

Today, we did pair work using page one of my original textbook entitled Word Associations, the 4th word.   

It contains 6 sets of 5 lines with three words each, such as;  red    yellow    green     __________.    

You fill in the fourth word with what ever word pops into your mind first.   

Some of the students were absent today, so I paired up with the only boy in this half of the second year students class.   

Also today, I brought along my Rubik's Cube as a fun prop, and also to see how many of the kids in the class could solve the puzzle.   

Remember, I myself cannot yet do it.   

I have only learned the 8 step solution, up to the end of the second step.   

I gave the cube to various people in the class, and one of them was able to completely solve the puzzle in under 10 minutes!   

I was amazed.   

Right across the hall from my classroom today, is a classroom of the 1st year students.   

The doors were open, and there was no teacher in the room during this class time, so I walked on over and said;  "Hi!  Can anyone in this class solve the Rubik's Cube?"   

One of the boys in the class said;  "Yes there is but, he is not in this room right now."   

So, I said;  "When he comes back to this room, please call me."   

The young gentleman said;  "OK.   I will."    

About 10 minutes later, the young guy and his classmate came on over to our second year students classroom, and I gave the new kid the Rubik's Cube, and said;  "Ready?   Start!".   

This kid too, knows the method and was twisting around methodically on the cube for only about 7 minutes before he also, completely solved the puzzle!!!   

I AM IMPRESSED.    

I too will learn how to solve the puzzle completely and in a timely manner, but right now, I am more into playing the vertical flute (recorder) while walking along the river banks at night, or during the day.   

I mean, the weather is just so nice this time of year, and if I don't get out and about as much as possible, I feel like I am missing a big window of opportunity, to get close with the limitless beauties of nature, that only appear during this season of no snow.   

IT IS HAPPENING NOW.   

Speaking of which, I am leaving for a walk with flute, right now.   

Talk to ya'all again TOMORROW.   

Tomorrow, I have a very important message for Charles Hamel and Family so please check back again, at that time. 

TULSA TIME.

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2007 June 13 Wednesday.

Still hot and sunny. 

Getting into the uncomfortable zone for us polar bears.   

Today I have a rather bizarre tale to tell, which is entirely true.   

In the photo on the left, you can see a stack of white plastic chairs.   

When I first started my classroom 11 years ago, I went to NITORI and bought 24 of these very useful and comfortable chairs.   

Over the years, three of them have become broken and unusable for various reasons.   

Last Wednesday, we made arrangements and paid a small fee of about 700 yen to have the three broken chairs carried away as Large Sized Garbage　壮大ゴミ.   

When a person in Asahikawa wants to throw away a big piece of junk such as an old sofa or table or some such thing, they must first call the garbage collection agency and make a reservation to do so.   

When they do so, they must also buy a sticker that proves they have paid the hauling fee, and paste it onto the garbage to be carried away.   

In my neighborhood of Kagura, the Large Sized Garbage day is on Wednesdays.   

So, before last Wednesday, we made all of the necessary arrangements, pasted the sticker onto the chair on top of the small stack of three chairs, and carried them out to the garbage collection station on Tuesday night, to await pick up the next morning.   

Ikuko and I both have morning jobs outside of our classroom on Wednesdays, and when we got back home in the early afternoon on that day, we were surprised to see a notice pasted on our door that said; "We came to pick up the 3 plastic chairs, but we could not find them. 

They were not at the garbage collection station, and they were not outside of your classroom door."   

SAY WHAT???    

We both looked outside at the garbage collection station, and sure enough, all three chairs were gone.   

If the garbage collection people didn't pick them up, WHO DID?   

Moreover, who in the world would want three broken and unusable plastic chairs???   

If you think this story is strange now, read on. 

It gets even stranger.   

Today again, being Wednesday, Ikuko and I both went to our outside jobs in the morning. 

When I got up at about 6:00 this morning, I looked out of my classroom window towards the garbage collection station, and what did I see???   

THE SAME THREE PLASTIC CHAIRS had been returned to the exact same location at which we had put them, exactly one week ago!!!   

What in the heck is going on here?   

Did someone steal the chairs, only to discover later that they are in fact broken and unusable, and then bring them back to the exact same location from which they had been stolen???   

I can't think of any other explanation, unless a UFO pulled them up along a beam of light, examined them, and then lowered them back down to where they had been beamed up from. 

WEIRD!!!   

Anyway, we called the Large Sized Garbage Collection Agency again today, and told them this bizarre story.   

Finally, they came by again, and took the chairs away.   

WOW!   I couldn't have written a better fictional story even if I had used the full extent of my imagination. 

This is a TRUE STORY.

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2007 June 12 Tuesday.

It is getting hotter again today. 

My first gig started off at 10:40 with a class of first year students at Asahikawa University in the computer lab. 

The nice thing about having a class in the computer lab is that the room is air conditioned. 

If feels so cool and comfortable.   

I do enjoy hot weather from time to time, but when the temperature gets up near 30 degrees C, I start to feel uncomfortable.   

Especially if the humidity is high.   

Today the humidity was low, so it was enjoyable.   

None the less, I do keep a tub of cold water ready for an instant polar bear bath, when the need arises.   

Today was just such a day.   

Oh, speaking of cold tubs, I was surprised to learn that one of my students, a 7 year old girl, also likes to sit in a tub of cool water, and even drink cold juice or eat ice cream, all at the same time!!!   

I don't eat or drink in my cold tub, but I do appreciate the calming effects of the cool water, just like she does.   

Polar Bears know about it all too well, what we two are talking about.   

Sometimes during the hot summer in Asahikawa, my wife Ikuko will say something like;  "Oh, it's so hot, I think I might die."   熱くて、死にそう。

Every time I hear this, I always tell her the same thing;   "Take a dip in the cool pool."   水風呂は如何ですか？   

She always refuses.   

I don't think she has ever tried it before.   It is her choice.   

As for me,  IT IS Simple answers to simple problems.   

Take the plunge.   

You might even grow to love it.     I did. 

You might learn to love it too.   

We are not alone.　

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2007 June 3 Sunday.

Today was a rather sad day in some ways.   

The very first English Conversation School in Asahikawa, which was started almost 30 years ago, closed it's doors for the last time today.   

I was invited to the good bye party. 

The school which was started in 1977 by an American man from Vermont and his Japanese wife from Tokyo, was originally called 旭川英会話 and was located on the 5th floor of the Hokkaido Bank Building in downtown Asahikawa.   

I worked there for 3 years from March of 1993 until March of 1996.   

In October of 1995, the owner and his wife sold the school to an American man from Niigata, and the whole family moved back to the Seattle area in the USA.   

The original owner offered to sell the school to me, and I seriously considered it for a while, but declined to buy it.   

Instead of paying a big chuck of money to buy an existing school, I decided to bet my entire life savings and start my own school at a different location.   

Eleven years later, I can say with certainty that I made the right choice. 

Anyway, the school which was renamed Asahikawa English Communication Services (A.E.C.S.) continued in business for another 11 years until Friday June 1 of this year. 

The final farewell party was held today from 14:00 until about 16:30.   

I saw many students there today that I haven't seen in more than 10 years.   

Everybody looked about the same. 

Except for me. 

I am much fatter now than I was at that time. 

Much fatter.  Of course everyone noticed it immediately.   

After eating some food and talking about the good old days for more than two hours, I said goodbye to everyone and walked on over to the Matsui Jewelry Store on the 2nd floor of the EXC Building, to get my silver Navaho bracelets cleaned by the owner, Kuni.   

Kuni is a big fan of American Country and Western Music, especially the Dixie Chicks.   

It was nice to talk to him again while he was making my sliver wrist accessories shine brightly.   

After that, I went outside onto the Kaimono Koen Pedestrian Mall and noticed the sound of a live band playing at the other end of the mall. 

Being a sometimes band member myself, I hurriedly walked down to the far end of the mall and got there just in time to hear the last 40 minutes of what had been a 5 hour event of free live music.   

Asahikawa truly is a music city.   A very nice place to live if you can find a job here.

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2007 June 2 Saturday.

Starting at about 12 noon today, the annual Hokkaido Musical Parade 北海道音楽大行進 was held as usual on the first Saturday of June. 

The weather was perfect. 

Warm sun, clear skies and a cool breeze to top it all off.   

Ikuko and I walked across the Chubetsu Bridge and into town at about 14:50 to do some shopping for books and to look at all of the people who were crowding around in the center of town, either participating in the event, or just watching it. 

It is at times like this event, when you remember that Asahikawa is in reality a rather large modern city.   

However, the wide open country living is ever present and not far away. 

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2007 April 30 Monday.

Speaking of new bridges, how's this one for a shocker?   

For details see the photo above/left.   

A few months ago, Mr. T.  who used to come on Tuesdays, but now comes on Wednesdays, told me about a new bridge that was going in across the Chubetsu River, connecting the center of the city, and the district of Kagura.   

I assumed that he was talking about the one that goes directly into the parking lot at the Ayako Miura Literature Museum.   

He said no, I'm talking about another one that will go from directly in front of this building, and Taisetsu Arena, that will be built also.   

I couldn't believe my ears. 

These two new bridges would be only about 1 kilometer far apart from each other along the river banks.   

Wow!   What a luxury.   

Today, I reconfirmed that information when I saw the billboard in front of this building. 

Proof positive that it will in fact happen.   

What a pleasant surprise.   

Today is also a national holiday and the weather is great.  I think I'll grab my camera and go for a very long walk in the warm afternoon sun. 

The sky is clear and the light is perfect. 

I mean, after all, photography is ALL ABOUT LIGHT. 

In fact the word itself literally means PHOTO light GRAPH drawing. 

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2007 April 29 Sunday.

The photo you can see above/left is looking across the Chubetsu River into the Kagura district of Asahikawa. 

Behind me is the Asahikawa JR train station and the city center.   

It is difficult to see it from this photograph, but at the end of this road in Kagura is the Ayako Miura Literature Museum.   

Most likely this is why a brand new bridge is being built right here.   

It will be easy for tour buses to come from the city center and right straight into the parking lot of the literature museum.   

I can't remember for sure, but I think the big construction info billboard says it it be finished by the end of this year.   

Or is it next year?   What ever.   

I also am very happy to see this new bridge being installed right here.   

It makes it easier for many of my students to get to my classroom.   

Our tax money at work.   

And for a good purpose.   

I am not only looking forward to the completion of this new facility, but also to seeing the remaining construction while it is in progress. 

A free lesson in Bridge Construction.   

I'll be sure to take lots of photos.   I could even use it as an eLearning lesson for English someday.

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2007 April 28 Saturday.

Whoopie!  The start of Golden Week. 

What do do?   Take a drive?

Maybe some other day. 

During the evening hours I took a walk alone along a different route than I usually do.   

I started out the same as usual, walking through Crystal Park. 

Stop by at Lawson. 

Continue on over to the asphalt paved cycling roads along the Chubetsu River heading southeast. 

Before the entrance to Kagura Oka Park, there are two bridges across the river. 

The older one is now part of the cycling road, and the cars and buses pass along overhead and off to the SE on the New Kagura Bridge.   

I walked over the Old Kagura Bridge and into the area on the other side of the river where a new park and more cycling roads are being built right at this moment.   

Well, not right now, it's dark, but during the days.   

It is coming along nicely.   

The reason this part of the river bank is important to beautify is because the  Science Museum SaiPal is right across the street.   

This place needs to look good for the tourists as well as the local folk. 

Me included.   

You can see the two bridges in the daylight photo above/left. 

It's a nice place to take a walk and soak up some sunshine.

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のびすく学ぼう♪

徐々に雪どけが始まっている旭川です。

今道路は、ほとんど地面が出てきて
運転しやすくなってきていますが
時々、雪が降りだして冬に逆戻りしてしまいます。

日当たりの良い道路など、雪が無くて
ようやく歩きやすくなっていますが
突然雪が降ると、最後まで雪が残る
日陰の道路などは、スケートリンク状態になって
午前中の仕事の日は何度も滑って転びそうになり
遅刻しそうでヒヤヒヤしました^_^;

春、桜の季節
本当に待ち遠しいです♪

今日は、スノーマン先生が非常勤講師として
お世話になっている、看護学校の卒業式がありました。

卒業生の皆様
ご卒業、おめでとうございますｏ(*'▽'*)/☆゜'・:*☆

さて、今日も15：00からスノーマン米会話では
レッスンがスタートしました。

今年から1年生になるRちゃんが、「Hello！」と
元気よく入ってきたのですが、挨拶して
机にスーッと真っすぐ向かって行きました。

そのまま机に背を向けたまま
こちらに来る気配はありません。

一生懸命何かをしているのようですが
私の方からは、後姿しか見えません。

ずっと無言です。

普段なら、キーボードで遊んだり
お友達がまだ来ていない時なら
私の座っている机にきて
机周りにある、ディズニーの人形など
飾っている人形や小物たち、事務用品の
スタンプなどに興味を示して話を
するのですが、今日は黙々と何かをやっていて
いつものRちゃんとは違う感じです。

後ろを振り向いたので
「Rちゃん、何やっているの～？」と聞くと
沈黙の笑みを浮かべています(*^_^*)

そこで、スノーマン先生がやってきました。
すると、Rちゃんは早口の英語でご挨拶した後
スノーマン先生にそれを見せて一生懸命
話をしています。

大人の私には、内緒だけど
スノーマン先生は、別のようです。

時々、子供達を見ていて思うのが
私には、お友達のお母さんや知り合いの大人に
対するような感じで接してきます。

スノーマン先生だと
英語を教えてくれる先生なので
子供達には、親しい存在でありますが
先生、大人、であるはずです。

でも子供達のスノーマン先生に対する
話の内容や接し方は、大人なんだけど
先生なんだけど、友達だ！という風な
印象を受けるんですよね。

だから、レッスン風景を見ても
友達のような先生と
とても自由にのびのびと会話し
英語を楽しんでいるように見えます。

楽しそうな声なので、遊んでいる？と
一瞬、耳をダンボにして聞いてみると
ちゃんと英語のレッスンになっています。

楽しいから、覚えられるのか
いつの間にか、子供は力をつけていっています。

受験勉強となると、一に頑張り、二に根性！
そんな感じで、理解していく喜びや自信も身につけて
いくのでしょうが、時には我慢も必要ですね。

出来れば、自由にのびのびと学ぶ時があり
その中で生まれていく自信や学ぶ喜びを
感じてもらいたいと思います。

私もそういう雰囲気で、英語を学んでいきたいなと
今でも願っています。

Rちゃんは、私には教えてもらえなかった
秘密をスノーマン先生には、話したようです。

子供の生徒さんは、友達であり
英語の先生でもあるスノーマン先生の
レッスンを楽しみに通ってくれています。

「え～、もうお終い？」
「まだ、やりた～い！もっとやろうよ！」
「楽しみに来たよ！」

実際、生徒さんの口から聞くこともありますし
お母さん達から、「子供が英語のレッスンを
すごく楽しみにしているんですよ」
「自分から英語の復習してました」という言葉を
聞いたりすることがあります。

側で見ていて、そういう自由な中で
英語を吸収していく姿を見ていると
私もすご～く嬉しくなります。

少し英語学習がおざなりになっていた
ここ最近の私ですが、生徒さんの熱心な姿に
触発される毎日です。

そんな、教室での様子をまた日記で
書いてみようなか？と思っています。

継続は力なり！
そう思って、毎日少しでも生徒さんと一緒に
コツコツと英語をやっていきたいと思います。

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2006 October 30 Monday.

Asahikawa has a new mayor.  No big surprise that it isn't me.   It's Mr. Nishikawa.   Nice to meet you sir.   How's it goin', eh?  I don't know for sure, but I think that I have not yet met Mr. Nishikawa in person.

Mr. Bandoh and Mr. Sugawara both, I have met on several occasions.  A mayor is a mayor is a mayor.   It's a job that carries a lot of responsibility along with it.   The headline closest to the photo of the new mayor says that at 37 years old, he is the youngest mayor in Hokkaido. 

He's only 37 years old, but that might be a good thing when looking at the situation from futuristic perspective.   Anyway sir, do your best.   For the people and the city.  Our City.  Asahikawa. 

After I looked at this morning's edition of the Hokkaido Newspaper, I made a strong pot of coffee, drank most of it, and got into a very hot bath to recharge my batteries for the teaching day ahead. 

When I first got up at about 9:00 I could feel the leftovers from last night's wild drinking party with Mr. T.   He is a retired high school English teacher.   I am a still working English teacher who must be back in the classroom by 13:00 today. 

I managed to get back into fighting shape before the first class at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会.   Again today, most of the members were present and we all talked about various things.  I mentioned the fact that I had seen the Iwo Jima movie yesterday, and that I had also made my own poster for the mayoral election.

Today, one of the fine ladies, Mrs. S.  to be exact, was wearing a very big and beautiful TURQUOISE NECKLACE.    I immediately recognized the high quality of the stones, so I asked her where she had purchased the necklace.   She replied that she had bought it in Turkey, when she was on a tour of that country. 

I thought about the small turquoise necklace that I had lost last night and thought to myself, "Some day.  Some where.  I too will find a much better turquoise necklace than the one I lost last night.   It is important to KEEP HOPE ALIVE.

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2006 October 28 Saturday.

Tomorrow is the election for Asahikawa City Mayor.   The five candidates can been seen in the photo on the left.   

The 6th poster, that I made of myself, never appeared on any of these poster boards.  In fact not only can I not run for mayor, I can't even vote in the election tomorrow, because I am not a Japanese citizen.  That's OK with me, but I did feel the need to make my own poster. 

It says "The Music Party  Tastukawa Kitao,  Music is 4 Everyone."  When my wife saw what I had made, she couldn't stop laughing.   I thought it was pretty funny myself.   

I took the photo of the poster board while I was out in the beautiful autumn sunshine taking a much needed walk.   

A walk that was interrupted several times by the very loud "sound cars" that the mayoral candidates have there staff members ride around in and shout a lot of meaningless slogans.

You can see a photo of one of them in yesterday's blog.   Today will be the last day that they can do this, and tomorrow will be the mayoral election.   I wonder who the winner will be.   I know it won't be me.

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2006 October 7 Saturday.

It seems that the wind and rain are coming this way.  I can see it in the sky, and also read about it in the Hokkaido Newspaper.  I don't think I will be doing much traveling around today. 

However, the wife and I went to her mother and auntie's house for a while after first visiting a very famous confectionary maker that is located in the KaguraOka district of this city.  It is a place called The Sun Kurodo and is very popular both among the local people, and tourists from overseas as well. 

You can see that the welcome sign in the photograph on the left is written in four different languages.  It appears to be five languages, but there are two different forms of Chinese written on the sign.   I am proud to say, that I can read all of the greetings.

This store is housed in a very large stone building that has a rather long history.   When I first came to Asahikawa about 16 years ago, it was a beer restaurant called Classic Hills. 

After they went out of business under rather strange circumstances, it sat empty for a while before becoming what it is today.  The snowman in the picture is, unfortunately, no relation to me or my school.

Maybe we should team up and start something new.  This snowman has met a lot of people from all over the world.  He has connections.

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