Celebrations

Two celebrations on Friday: Professor Schalow's official appointment as the Director of the All-English Program at JIU and Kawano-sensei's wedding. We wish them both all the best!

Happy Birthday!

Keynote Speech by President Yanagisawa Hakuo

Our President Yanagisawa Hakuo gave a speech to all the incoming students and guests at JIU Friday afternoon. With his life-long experience in the government of Japan including the Ministry of Finance, he shared his knowledge and his views on the past and future of the country. He encouraged students to construct a "real Japan"--a country where young people can live with hope.

Happy Birthday, Hara-sensei!

Hara-sensei turned ○○○ years old today. Some of her students and us colleagues were able to congratulate her yesterday.

Retirement Dinner for Professor Arboleda

Last night we gathered at a restaurant in Togane to celebrate Professor Arboleda's retirement. We all thanked him for being such a good leader, boss, colleague and friend the past 15 years.

Du-sensei at JIU

Ms Du from Tianjin Foreign Studies University arrived in Japan yesterday. She will be teaching Chinese on our Awa Campus this semester.

Surprise: Mr. Ishige live on TV

I was surprised to turn the TV on and see former baseball player Ishige live in Sunday Morning. He is a visiting professor at JIU and I have talked to him a few times, but I feel that our encounters have been a little unique. Once I was standing at the platform at Oami Station and saw someone inside the train waving towards me. It took a while to realized it was him. After that he came to our Café Ponte during the JIU Festival this year and I didn't realize he was there until he was about to leave.... A few minutes after seeing him on TV today, I also saw our President Yanagisawa in a different program.

Professor Ibrahim Samater

We had a special ceremony for Professor Ibrahim Samater Thursday evening here in Togane. There were warm farewell words from around the world. Ambassador Ahmed Araita Ali from the Republic of Djibouti also attended, and it was a sad but good opportunity for his family and friends to meet the people that Ibrahim worked with and taught.

Farewell to Professor Ibrahim Samater

It is with great sadness that I tell you that Professor Ibrahim Samater passed away the day that his wife arrived in Japan to spend two months with him. His family has decided to take him to his country where he wished to live after retirement. We are going to have a special ceremony for him in Togane tomorrow afternoon.

Shinnenkai

We did not have a chance to have an end-of-year party in December, but some faculty members from the Center for Language Education and from the Department of International Exchange Studies were able to get together tonight. It was our first day of classes this year, so it was a good day to meet. It seems like our resolutions are all related to our health and I do hope we'll all have a healthy and productive 2011 with time to read good books that will help and inspire us to be better educators.