Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Welcome/Welcome Back/Farewell Party

That same day we had a small tea party to welcome Sylwia to the Togane Campus. Fortunately it was the day that Mikako was visiting from China and the day that Greg was leaving for the States. It was a "mixed party" and it was fun. 



Strawberry Picking

Sylwia, Natallia and I went strawberry picking on February 7. We ate lots of "mono ichigo." Sylwia was here in Japan representing Poland in the V4 Student Conference at JIU that week. Unfortunately she ended up experiencing days of bad weather towards the end of her stay in Japan. I hope she will come back though. 

Cinthia got her UCR Certificate

Cinthia received her transcript and her Certificate in Hospitality Management (Disney Internship) from UCR two days ago. She seemed to be really thrilled--which surprised me because I thought she was sure she had passed all courses.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Masayo-san's pottery

I was finally able to drive to Yamanashi on February 1. I really wanted to visit the Kumura's and enjoy Masayo-san's pottery. She's one of my favorite potters and I hadn't been to her place for probably more than five years.

With her parents.

Special tempura served on a plate made by Masayo-san.

Masayo-san.

ANA Internship at Chubu International Airport (Nagoya)

Learning about the check-in program.

Briefing by the aircraft door.

Bowing to customers at the passenger bridge.

Practicing at the check-in counter.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hi, everyone. I'm sorry I wasn't able to write for a LONG time. I hope you all had a good Valentine's Day. Here in Chiba we've had incredibly cold and snowy days. For the first time in my life I had to shovel lots of snow near my parking space for about two hours on February 10. My whole body ached the following day. To my big shock it snowed again on February 11! I was away for three days and when I flew back into Narita Airport on Friday I had a nice surprise: lots of snow again. When I left the airport it wasn't snowing yet, but half way everything turned white. The driver asked me what he should do and of course my only answer was "Please take me home!" I thought we were not going to be able to drive for a while--I don't have special tires--but there was a storm during the night and when we got up Saturday morning most of the snow had been washed away. According to the news, it hadn't snowed this much for many many years. I drove into Tokyo on Sunday and the Chuo Highway was still closed off after Takaido. It seems like it's going to snow again tomorrow....
My balcony when it started snowing 2/8.