Day One at Camosun College: walking tour

Hanako trying to hug the big totem pole.

Happy Naho in front ot the orca whales (mother and cub) by the Empress Hotel.

Sitting with the moose in the shopping district.

The old and beautiful Empress Hotel.

The flowers in town are simply beautiful.

Day One at Camosun College: orientation and welcome lunch

Orientation started at 9 AM.

A campus tour followed.

There was a nice welcome lunch downtown. You can see Glen, the organizer of this program, seated in between Haga-sensei and me, and also Fukushima-sensei who is in charge of the Japanese language program at Camosun.

We all ordered different food and they were all good. This is what Glen had: ginger teriyaki chicken.

Once we arrived at the Vancouver International Airport, we went to a mall in Richmond for lunch and then went to the ferry terminal.

On the bus to the ferry terminal in Vancouver.

Everybody: Say "bus."

Eating lots of popcorn on the ferry to avoid getting sea sick. It worked!

Some people enjoyed the beautiful view from the ferry.

Leaving Narita

We left Narita on Monday and had a very short and safe flight to Vancouver. We are going to be in Canada for 13 days on a language and culture program at Camosun College in Victoria and at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Artichokes in California

I forgot to share this photo with you the other day. For those who have never seen fresh artichokes, here they are! These a big ones and they can be found at good grocery stores in California. Unfortunately it's not so easy to find them where I live in Japan....

A day in Riverside with my brother

I was finally able to see my brother! He lives in England and our academic schedules are just too different. He spent the month of August doing a research project at the University of California, Irvine and we were finally able to spend some time together. We visited with some of my friends and also enjoyed some great food together. He used to live in California, too, and we both missed good Mexican food.

We had the honor to spend time with Sheila and Ed who prepared this fantastic high tea for us. I had never had anything like that in Riverside. Everything, everything tasted great, but I have to say that the artichokes with the mushrooms and cheese were my favorite. Many thanks, Ed!

We then went for Mexican food with Sharon and John, and I had this great beef tostada. It was really good and I ate it all after the high tea--really hard to believe?!?

The day didn't end there....We went for dessert and drinks at Mario's and look at their ginger creme brulee--my favorite in the world! I love it but I had to share it with my brother--I would not be able to walk to the car otherwise.

Summer vacation in Brazil

My stay in Brazil this year was really short--probably the shortest ever--and there was only time to get over jet lag and then fly out to the States. It was good to see my family and friends and especially meet my only niece!

My cute 11-month-old niece playing on the table.

It's extremely difficult not to gain weight in Brazil when your friends come visit and bring delicious desserts like this....

With my four-year-old nephew who now can talk non-stop!

A view from our porch.

Flying to Brazil

Next time you hear from me I'll be writing about Brazil. I'll be visiting my family for about two weeks.

Congratulations!!

It was grade report day today for students who are planning to graduate in September. Six of my seminar students are graduating. Unfortunately I won't be in Japan the day of commencement (September 3), so I decided to invite them all to lunch in order to celebrate. We had lunch at Takedaya where Dan-san, one of my students from Xi'An University of Foreign Languages, worked for a while. Three of the students are applying for graduate school. Congratulations, everyone. I am very proud of you and I'm sure you'll have a bright future ahead of you.

Lots of peaches

Shuko's parents sent us lots of peaches and about ten of us ate the whole box in my office Thursday afternoon. Shuko is not in the photo as she was kindly peeling them all in the kitchen. Many thanks, Shuko! We all loved it.

"Otsukaresama" Ko-sensei

Ko-sensei left Japan on Friday after working as a visiting professor at JIU for a year. We had a nice Japanese meal Thursday night. Notice how the chef cleaned the tiny fish and put four of them on this piece of sushi. How patient and skillful he is!

Taniguchis

The Taniguchis visited us at JIU on Thursday.

Japanese Dinner

We went to the restaurant where Hikari works hoping to see her, but she was not working last night. She was probably studying for her final exams. We enjoyed our meal and I enjoyed the company of Bessho-san for the first time.