Congratulations!!

We celebrated her success in finding a job in Japan with good steak.

Noro-kun visited us on Sunday

Noro-kun from Fukuoka came to JIU on Sunday and met with his seniors who are at JIU now. Daiki drove him to Narita Airport in the afternoon.

28th Speech Contest

The 28th Speech Contest for Commercial High Schools in Chiba was held at JIU on Thursday. The students did very well and I wish good luck to the ones who will be representing Chiba Prefecture in the nationals in January.

The champions.

Participants interacting with JIU students and faculty members after the contest in the Center for Language Education.

Ryuto came visit!

It was nice seeing how Ryuto is growing so fast and so healthy! Unfortunately Mikuni-san is moving to Ibaraki so we won't be able to see each other that often anymore, but I was so happy the whole family came to say good bye.

Typhoon #15

Wow! The wind, the strong wind! All classes were canceled today because of the powerful typhoon that went through this area--more specifically all over Japan. It is still very, very noisy outside and I was sad to hear some people have died.

Dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant with my Taiwanese students

I was wondering where I should take my students from Taiwan for dinner and decided to go to Yutaka especially because I thought when the girls tell people they are from Taiwan, they'll be asked if they've been to Yutaka--one of the most popular restaurants in town. I think they enjoyed the meal.

Tsukasa made me two shirts

Tsukasa made me two shirts that I plan to wear when the temperatures go down a bit. They are very stylish and I love them!

Back in Japan

Life has been pretty hectic since I returned to Japan. Besides dealing with jet lag, I had to manage the very little time I had to prepare for the start of the semester. Our fall matriculation ceremony was held on Thursday and classes started Friday morning. We do not have as many international students as we did last year, but we welcomed almost 300 new students from our sister universities from all over the world. There was a party to celebrate the start of a new "gakuyukai" for the Norwegian students on Thursday.

On Wednesday I met my very first student from Takao, Taiwan (photo/left). She lived in South Africa for a number of years and she is joining the All-English Program in my department. She is a good speaker of Japanese and I hope she'll have a great year here. To my surprise I found out her hobby is photography and she has a Canon G12! (I have a G11.)

Professor John Howes

UBC and Chinatown on Saturday

Dining in Vancouver

On Thursday we went out for Mongolian food at night--first experience for most people. We ate a lot!

Last night we went to this Greek restaurant across the street. My chicken was terrible, but the calamari pretty good!

UBC: Campus Tour

Lunch with UBC students in the Asian Studies Department.

Opportunity to see their wonderful collection of Japanese maps.

A beautiful garden on campus.

University of British Columbia

UBC Bookstore?!?!

Japanese Class

First day in Vancouver

Farewell Tea at James Bay

Certificate Ceremony

The order of events here is wrong. Forgive me for that. We had a certificate ceremony on Wednesday.

All students said a few words.

They each received a certificate and a gift.

Leaving Victoria

Abkhazi Garden

We went to this beautiful garden that was the home of Georgian Prince Nicholas Abkhazi and his wife Peggy Pemberton-Carter. They moved there in 1946. Jeff de Jong told us about how the couple met and about the whole garden. If you come to Victoria, please come enjoy this beautiful garden.

Georgie doing yoga.

Jeff de Jong inspiring us all.

Lawn Bowling for the very first time

My partner trying hard to learn how to lawn bowl. Our coach was excellent, but we lost to Sara and Arisa.

The champion! Look at how close she got to the jack. Yes, in this game the person who gets closest to the jack (the white ball) wins.

Busy Day: Arisa's birthday

We celebrated Arisa's birthday today. She just turned 19! Wow, it seems like I was that age 100 years ago....

Afternoon Tea at the Empress Hotel

I enjoyed some good tea and scones at the Empress Hotel this afternoon. The best of it all was the cream! I could eat it every day!

An afternoon with Fumi

Fumi and I met for brunch at Pagliacci's and after that went for dessert at Murchie's. We thought we needed to burn some calories and went for a walk by the Royal BC Museum. She hadn't seen the Yellow Submarine yet so that was a good opportunity. I'll probably see her only when she gets back to Japan next May. I'm sure she'll have a good time here and will study hard.

Blue Fox

Tom invited me to this cute breakfast/lunch place where they serve great quesadilla. My Moroccan one with chicken and curry was excellent. Thanks, Tom!

Dragon Boating

Getting on the boat.

Lunch with Manuela and Glen on Friday

I had to try their artichoke pizza at Glo. It was very good.

We also had some calamari with artichokes. Having just met me, I'm sure Glen and Manuela were probably wondering why I ordered so much artichoke....