Kendo Tournament

High school students from all over Japan and from Korea took part in the Kendo Tournament at JIU on Sunday. The JIU coach, captain and manager stopped by my office yesterday and showed me what they gave to the Korean participants as a souvenir from the tournament and from Japan. I was lucky and got a gift myself!!

Chiho and Yuko: what a surprise!

Look at who showed up in my office at 3 today: Yuko and Chiho. They didn't come together--it was a coincidence, a nice one.

Getting ready to depart Japan

The students departing Japan this spring met on Saturday. Their parents also came to JIU for an orientation session. I was very happy to see a larger group of female students going to Korea. We are also sending our first students to Tainjin University of Foreign Studies and to Beijing University of Foreign Languages in China. Mari (photo) is going to spend two quarters at the University of California, Riverside.

"Mame Maki?!?"

No "mame maki" but lots of "eho maki" in the Center on Friday!

Soccer Field at JIU

A ceremony was held on Thursday to mark the initial stage of the construction of a soccer field and an "international lounge" (I'm sorry I'm not sure what the official name for the building is yet) at JIU. The photo above is of the construction site which is located across from the main gate of the Togane campus. Josai University Educational Corporation is also starting construction of Building 3 of our Kioicho campus. I haven't been to the site yet, but I've heard it's very close to the present headquarters. As most of you know, the building for the new Nursing School will be completed in March. People in the H-building are relieved as we had to deal with the noise this semester. I was personally impressed though to see the floors go up so quickly!

Udon at a soba restaurant

Naho and Han-sensei ordered "udon" noodles at Kagetsuan, a great "soba" place where the owner prepares the noodles from scratch. I'm sure he didn't mind our order as three of us enjoyed his delicious buckwheat noodles. I had never heard about soba allergies until I came to Japan, but while in Victoria I was also surprised to hear that many children in Canada are allergic to peanuts. In any case, I think mine is probably a more unique case as most people are surprised when I say I'm allergic to pork!

Kokusai Koryu Kenshu in California

Twenty two students are going to take part in the 国際交流研修 in California in February. Our pre-departure classes started this week. On Friday we practiced Japanese sign language so that we can teach some Japanese to the students at the California School for the Deaf on February 22.

Monday night: thunder, earthquake and snow

What happened Monday night? The thunder was quite scary and then I started feeling the shakes--not big but small and long--and after that the snow! This region is not prepared for the snow and of course there were train delays and traffic problems. I ended up taking a taxi to JIU today but I had to wait two hours for one.

Chancellor Shu Go

Chancellor Mizuta with Chancellor Shu Go from Tianjin University of Foreign Studies in Tokyo on Friday. We had the opportunity to see him and Professor Li.

Friday morning: Coconut time

Another coincidence: coconut. In my last communication class on Friday, I invited students to have tea and some sweets in my office and coincidentally I had lots of coconut sweets from various countries there. We enjoyed food from the Vietnam, Singapore, the US and Brazil. That doesn't happen that often but for some reason different people gave me different souvenirs last week and four of them were made of coconut. I LOVE coconut, so it was a very pleasant time for me and a good opportunity to introduce coconut to students who are not used to the taste.