Christmas Day

We celebrated Christmas and also Taniguchi-san's 60th birthday here in our apartment on the 25th. 

Another party on December 19

The students in the day-time extension course prepared this excellent lunch and it was a real feast. I ate way too much for three consecutive days. 

Marta visits us on December 18

Marta was a student at JIU about 10 years ago and now she works as a translator in Barcelona. She helped me a lot when I was there in February and it was so good to see how her studies in Japan really helped her choose the path of a professional translator. She was in Japan on business for about two weeks and I was so happy she made time to come over for dinner on the 18th. 

Last party of the day

I had a dinner party with the people taking my evening Extension class from 7 PM on the 17th. It was the third party of the day and I received my third gift! Coincidentally I received two gifts from Marimeko and I also gave Mayumi-san a handkerchief from the same designer in the evening. We went to a quiet restaurant in Kujukuri and it was a very pleasant evening. 

Another party on December 17

The senior students also had a party on December 17. They also exchanged gifts but there was no pot luck. We had cheese and vegetable fondue and also some fruit dessert. 

Party with 3rd-year students on December 17

This was a kind of pot luck party but it was special in the sense that different groups got together and cooked food from four different countries: India, Japan, China, Brazil and the United States. 

Indian food group: great samosa!

Gift exchange

Performance at the Minori no Sato Togane

Some of our students from the Philippines, Hungary, Poland, China, Slovakia and Japan performed at Minori no Sato in Togane yesterday. In the afternoon they performed songs various traditional songs and also danced. In the morning there were short presentations on language and holidays customs in Germany, Poland and Hungary. 

End-of-year get togethers

It's hard to believe we are so close to the holidays and that we are already having end-of-year parties. This scares me a bit as I have a lot to get done before December 20!!

Churrasco with students taking Portuguese.

Dinner with junior and senior seminar leaders.

Churrasco with my 4th-year students.

"Otsukaresama!"

Some of the juniors and seniors got together to celebrate the end of the JIU Festival. 

Cocoa?!? Italian food?!?

Traditional Japanese Food Night

We ate LOTS of "osekihan" on November 15.

We also ate sweet potatoes grown here in Togane.