Long time no see

I hadn't seen Yuto and Masaaki together for years. They visited on Tuesday and we ended up eating where they wanted to go--Yutaka.

"Long time no bowling"

I went bowling with some of my seminar students on Thursday. It was fun but my fingers "complained" the following day after all I hadn't gone bowling for quite a long time. 

Our champion Mari getting ready to get a strike. 

Australian students on campus

Twenty high school students visited our campus on Tuesday, April 23. I invited my international students in the International Communication course to join me in hosting a welcome lunch for them. After that our guests made a brief stop in my 3rd period class where they met many of our first-year students. These students are studying at Togane High School and local families are hosting them. 

Conversation over sandwiches and "karaage made in Togane. 

Visiting the first-year class.

Greg Armstrong, the head teacher.

Nisho Gakusha Daigaku Fuzoku Kashiwa High

More than 300 first year students from Nisho Gakusha Daigaku Fuzoku Kashiwa High School visited our Togane Campus on Saturday, April 20. The ones interested in English attended our session in the Presentation Hall and they had the opportunity to meet Aliz from Hungary, Cinthia from Brazil, Argel and Cameron from the States, Magnus from Norway and Laura from Spain. 

Contrast

Japan is full of gorgeous flowers now. I wish I had a garden--that would have beautiful flowers without my having to clean up or work hard with the dirt--but as I don't have one, I have to be content with the ones I buy from my kind florist. Yesterday I stopped by the Namekis to return something. Take a look at their flowers!

Home

0.1% of the Namekis' garden.

Freshman Seminar on April 6 and 7

Dinner on Saturday.

My advisees.

Learning the JIU song with Dean Tokoku.

Special thanks to our volunteers.

Rangsit University

A delegation from Rangsit University in Thailand including the dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Dr. Wirut Inchuran, visited JIU on Friday April 5. We have signed an MOU with them and hope to be able to host their students in the near future.  

Enjoying some local strawberries. 

Opening of Building 3

I attended the inauguration ceremony of the 3rd building on our Tokyo Kioicho campus on Friday, April 12. The Oishi Fossil Gallery is now open to the public. I strongly suggest you make time to enjoy the Brazilian fossils next time you are in that area. They have a rare alligator fossil on display.

Nice meeting you!

I met the nicest children (and teenagers) in my office yesterday! They are the children of a new faculty member and luckily we live in the same neighborhood. They are bilingual but for some reason we spoke only in English. 

We went to Yutaka for dinner.

Opening Ceremony on April 2, 2013

JIU welcomed almost 1500 new students on April 2. We also celebrated the opening of the new course in graduate school: Master's in Global Communication. I am especially pleased with the fact that Miyuki is returning to JIU to enroll in that course. She graduated nine years ago and I'm sure she won't regret her decision to change careers. She'll be a great teacher in the future!

Miyuki and her parents.

We had a large number of guests at the opening ceremony including faculty from sister universities around the world. The photo below is of Director Nordin from INTEC in Malaysia giving Chancellor Mizuta a gift. 

Guests from Dalian University of Foreign Languages

Dean Jiang Xiuwen from the Dalian University of Foreign Languages visited us last month. I had heard a lot about her and was very much looking forward to meeting her. We have a large number of students from her institution here at JIU. 

Great talk over great Japanese steak.

Good-bye to our Chinese teachers

Hard to believe they already left Japan. It felt as if I just met them the other day, but they came to say good bye and returned to Tianjin last week.