JIU Festival: Day 2

Early dinner

Some of us went to Yutaka for dinner yesterday--despite the storm. I guess we ate around 4:30 or 5 as I was already asleep by 7....

JIU Festival Preparations

We were not able to sell food in our outside booth because of the bad weather. We did open our Café Ponte and sold queijadinhas, pururuca, guaraná, coffee, biscoito de polvilho and brigadeiros. We dance and sang as well.

Lucky day

I told people today that Tom is a really kind student as he brings AND arranges flowers in my office quite often. He then said that he does that only because he doesn't want to take them home.... Well, that might be true, but I still appreciate the fact that he brings them to my office.

Yuko at JIU

Yuko won't be able to come to the JIU Festival so she came see us today. I was so glad she came despite the terrible weather. It was a very cold and rainy day. We ended up having dinner at Yutaka, a place that brings good memories of her seminar group.

Delegation from North Karelia

We welcomed the delegation from North Karelia University of Applied Sciences to JIU today. The university is located in Joensuu, Finland. There of their students are studying on the Togane campus now. The photos were taken in the Japanese class they observed in the afternoon and also during the tea ceremony that was held by our students.

English Speech Contest

The English Speech Contest for Senior High School Students in the Sambu-Chosei District is being held here at JIU today. Two of our English teachers are the judges of the contest.

Halloween at JIU

There was a Halloween party at JIU tonight. I was not able to go because I had to teach, but some students stopped by and I was able to see their costumes.

Final Stage

We are getting really close to the opening day of the JIU Festival. This is a photo of the 4th-year students making final decisions in my office this afternoon.

JIU Festival Preparations

The JIU Festival is going to be this Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Despite the terrible weather forecast for the weekend, students are optimistic and have been really busy preparing for the big event. Two of my students were working on the poster for the Brazilian accessories they'll be selling (photo).

Busy Sunday

We had entrance exams at JIU on Sunday, so I was basically on campus all day. It was also the day of the "joshi ekiden" in Sendai and I tried to follow the marathon on TV whenever there was an opportunity. Unfortunately JIU got 7th place this time and JU got 4th.

Yukie's family at Yutaka

I had the pleasure of having dinner with Yukie, her mother and sister at Yutaka tonight. I hadn't seen them for a while and it was really nice spending time with them. I am very grateful to her mother for the warm hospitality when I was in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. I hear her sister will be working as a nurse at the same hospital where her mother works--also as a nurse--from next April. I'm really happy for them.

Surprise: Chiaki

Chiaki surprised me by showing up in my office around 6 PM today with a bag of scones from Afternoon Tea. What a great surprise! I am hardly ever in my office at that time on a Saturday, so I was very lucky today. I can't believe she graduated more than four years ago already.

Dinner with Cho-san

Cho-san from Konmei, China, is a new student in our graduate school and she is in Kurabayashi-sensei's seminar. She came to Japan in September and is trying to adjust to the new environment. She speaks Japanese and also English, so it won't be hard for her to make lots of friends in this international environment.

Graduate students in my office

All of them are my former students and they are now in graduate school. It's always good to see them and hear about their progress, hard work and aspirations.

A gift from Hungary

Kiraly-sensei brought me this beautiful Korondi pottery plate from Hungary. It's in my office now. He also showed us some popular (and cute!) stuffed toys from Hungary: Kockasfulunyul and Mazsola.

Mateus

Like aunt like nephew....

Karen in Tokyo

Karen from Riverside was in Japan on business for about a week and we were finally able to meet the last two days she was here. She is a good friend who helped me a lot when I was a graduate student at UCRiverside. We met in Tokyo Saturday and walked around the Omotesando and Ginza areas. One of the photos is of the Nissan showroom and the other was taken in the new Harrods shop at Ginza Mitsukoshi where we had superb tea and cake.

Jiro Plutschow at the City Lights Café

I have known Jiro Plutschow-sensei for a quite a while, but I saw him play for the first time on Friday. Hara-sensei and I invited visiting professor Ko from Xian to the performance. I was happy to see some students from my department enjoying some jazz there as well.

Dinner in Kujukuri

Look at the huge はまぐり(clams) we had for dinner in Kujukuri tonight. They were grilled in front of us on the table and tasted really, really great! The raw and fried いわし (sardine) were excellent as well. We are very lucky we are so close to Kujukuri and can go there for such fresh food any time.

Yuta

Yuta came visit today and we had lunch together and also talked about the past--and the future, of course. We took a look at the album he and his classmates gave me when they graduated. It brought good memories.

Yvette at JIU

Yvette from Disney College visited us yesterday. It was a very short visit--just time for dinner and breakfast today really--but it was a pleasure seeing her here again. She will be returning probably in April to interview applicants to the UCR/Disney Internship program.

PTA in Saitama City

We had a PTA meeting in Saitamy City today. The weather was terrible, but our meeting was great! I was able to meet and talk to the parents of some of my students for the first time (photo).

Busy in the office

It was quite busy in my office today with the TOEIC Lab assistants coming for a meeting, with students taking Fundamentals of English II coming to get new handouts, with faculty members coming to sign cards, with the pleasant visit of Patrik and Agnes (graduate school students) and with the visit of a visiting scholar from China. I also ended up taking a new student from China out to dinner. Cho-san is here for her graduate level studies.

Thank-you dinner at Yutaka

I invited Daiki, Yuki and Miku for dinner at Yutaka tonight. I wanted to thank them for the beautiful photo book they gave me right after we returned from California. Take a look at their favorite dish: 鶏肉とカシューナッツの炒め.

Indian Food: more photos

Indian Food

This was initially planned as a dinner for my first and second-year advisees and then the group got a little bigger after we decided to invite my new advisees from France and the States. It got even bigger when students who are not my advisees decided to join us, too--which was great. In the end we had a happy group of 31 people eating Indian food at Garam Masala here in Togane.

Open Campus & Yutaka

I had the pleasure of having the visit of Eri's mother in my office today. We then went to Yutaka for dinner. Don't they look alike?

It was Open Campus day and we had participants from various prefectures including Hokkaido, Nara, Okayama, Aomori, Nagano and Tokyo. It was nice meeting everyone.

Tokuyama Hairi

Hairi, a 4th-year student in our Department, performed "sanshin" at the City Lights Café today.