Winter vacation has started...

Merry Christmas! See you next year!

Marching band

This should make you smile! My students mostly know that I was in marching band in high school. We never did anything this cool though!

Check out this article from the Japan Times: Grab your bentō, mat and a prime spot: It's undōkai I go to these to see students sometimes. Do you have a favorite memory from having these as a child?

Summer Program - Success!

Here are some pics from our summer program. We had a ton of fun learning about nature and cooking lunch together! Check them out!

Interesting article...

From Yahoo! News:

Are Parents Setting Kids Up for Failure by Pushing Too Hard for Success?

What do you think? I know a lot of kids who seem pretty burned out, but on the other hand competition to get into good universities is tough.

Tanabata!

Our younger students made wishes and put them in the tree during July. Have a look!

Some highlights: "I want to go to America everyday" "I want to be big" "I want to be a squirrel" "I wish I could have a lot of money" "I wish I could run as fast as an ostrich"

Answers!

Answers to last month's quiz in our newsletter: エキス　extract ゴム　rubber ホッチキス　stapler ハンドルキーパー　designated driver プラスドライバー　Phillips-head (screwdriver) キャッチコピー　tagline コインランドリー　laundromat

Iced Coffee

It's too hot here... luckily I bought a coffee maker and I've been drinking a lot of iced coffee. They say coffee keeps your body temperature lower and keeps your brain working. The only problem is that it might also turn my teeth brown. Apparently iced coffee was popular in Japan before it got popular in the US. When I think back on my childhood, I never saw people drinking iced coffee. It's pretty big now though!

The Cosby Show

Here's the episode of The Cosby Show that is in the homework for some of you this week. Enjoy!

This is the video some of you watched for homework this week. I just thought it would be easier to find here! Margaret Cho is a very popular comedian now, although her normal act is quite a bit more "mature" than this show. Find her on youtube and watch at your own risk!

Hot!

It's a very hot day today... I'm wearing a cardigan now because I thought it would be cool out. My mistake!

Most of the cherry blossoms are gone now, but you can still see some if you hurry... just don't drink too much!

FAIR Festival 2012

We went to the Fujinomiya Association for International Relations festival last weekend. We were only there for a little bit (the parking lot was very crowded) but we got a few pictures of one of our students dancing on stage.



See if you can find her!

Exchange Rates

Now is a great time to travel to the US! One dollar is only about 77 yen. That's like a 23% discount on everything!

A small coffee at Starbucks is about $1.50. Given the exchange rate of yen to dollars, that's about 116 yen! I forgot how much a small coffee is at the Starbucks at Jusco, but it's a lot more than that!

Food is always cheaper in the US, but now, it's just ridiculous!