Early Spring

It's been quite warm recently and with the unusual high temperatures many buds decided to bloom early. The cherry trees around JIU are already beautiful and they will look even nicer next week. I forgot what this tree is called, but it was in full bloom at the Namekis' the other day. 

A day with Zozo's mother

Zozo's mother came all the way from Hungary to attend his graduation ceremony on Friday. I tried to show her some of my favorite places in the Togane area. We had lunch at Takemi and then went to Kujukuri after that. I wanted her to experience making a glass at Sugahara but they are no longer teaching on Saturdays. We went to the beach instead. It was great walking on the beach. After that we went strawberry picking in Togane and after a quick stop at the 100-yen shop we went for sushi at Ichiriki. I needed a break for myself so it was a relaxing day for me as well. 

LOTS and LOTS of strawberries.

Yuto joined us--it was fun.

We'll enjoy the Tokaji wine we got and remember this day.

Commencement on March 15, 2012

Congratulations!!

Heavy?!?

A beautiful farewell song from the 3rd year students.

Barbacoa again?!?

Not everyone was able to go to Barbacoa in February, so I decided to go with them again yesterday. Moet was in Canada and Go was in India. They are both graduating and we didn't want to miss this opportunity.

Moo Moo

A feast with the Taniguchis

The Taniguchis invited us to dinner on Sunday and prepared a great meal! We celebrated Mei's graduation and toasted to her success. 

Bandung Institute of Technology (Indonesia)

Prof. Akhmaloka, Rector of Bandung Institute of Technology of Indonesia and Professor Kardena (Director of Partnership and International Relations) visited our Tokyo Kioicho Campus on Thursday in order to sign an agreement with us. 

A Japanese meal in Kojimachi.

Koei?! What a surprise!!

Koei surprised me with big news and with a sudden visit to my office on Saturday. I don't know if I can share the news here so I'll just say that he is getting ma.....!!  Some of us ended up going for Indian food in the evening. 

Naho was with us, too, but I don't have a photo of her.

Sho soon in Cambodia

I was happy and sad to see Sho on Friday. He won't be able to attend his own graduation ceremony on Friday as he had to depart for Cambodia on Sunday. He's been hired by a university to start establish their Japanese language program. He'll be teaching a large number of classes and will certainly be very busy, but I'm sure his colleagues will be pleased with his work and his students are going to love him. I'll miss seeing him in my office on Fridays. Sho: Congratulations and my very best wishes to you. I'm sure you'll have a great career and will love teaching. 

A surprise farewell lunch with Dale

Unfortunately Dale will be leaving JIU and Japan this month. We decided to surprise him with a pot-luck lunch on Friday. No one wants him to leave and especially not saying a proper good-bye.  We'll miss him!

Guests from the Czech Republic

We are now sister universities with the University of Economics, Prague and two professors visited met with our Chancellor in Tokyo and then visited our Togane campus on Tuesday, March 5. We hope to receive their students from September and also hope that students from JIU will start going to Prague in the near future. We'll be teaching the language from the next academic year. 

Meeting with some of our students.