英会話プライベートレッスン

Hi there everyone, I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas! ?I say that knowing that everyone reading this probably had to go to work…At least I am sure everyone is getting ready with their New Year celebrations. ?I decided that I would take advantage of the Emperor’s birthday and the New Year holiday and give myself a nice vacation. ?That means a lot of sitting and relaxing. ?However, for the last three days I have been enjoying myself in Hokkaido! ?I went there as part of a teacher’s trip held every year by young teachers in the Isumi area of Chiba. ?It’s always an honor to go because they don’t usually invite foreigners and because, well, I don’t live in Isumi anymore! ?Even though it was only three days, it was pretty action-packed, so I will split this trip into a few entries.

But anyway, we all had to get to the airport bright and early for our 7:30 am flight. ?That meant I had to leave at 6…and my friends had to leave at 4am! There are definitely benefits to living in the big city! ?Thankfully the flight went smoothly and quickly. ?There were a couple courses we could choose from during the first day, and I chose a sightseeing course. ?We started off at a little resort called North Snowland. ?There we could do some cross country skiing, ride snowmobiles, go around on a horse, or do some inner tubing. ?Here is me posing on a horse.

From there we got to go to this beautiful ryokan with an amazing natural hot spring. ?We were treated to some amazing views while we ate some delicious Japanese food.

From there we got back on the bus and headed towards our last official stop of the day – the Kirin Beer Hall. ?All the teachers gathered here for a night of all you can drink beer and all you can eat lamb. ?I think I enjoyed both a little too much. ?But I enjoyed being with some old friends the most of all.

Next week I will tell you about my poor decision to try snowboarding…

Until then,

Anand

Hi everyone, I hope everyone is doing well. ?I am sure you have all heard of the tragedy that happened at an elementary school in Newton, Connecticut. ?As some who has taught and is currently teaching children and as a friend of someone who actually went to that school, it hit me extra hard. ?Keep the families of those who died in your thoughts, if only for a little while.

But I would rather talk about something a little happier. ?Some good news, at least for me. ?I got an unexpected gift in the mail! ?My new Kindle Paperwhite shipped early and is currently in my possession! ?I love to read, but it is hard to get a hold of English books in Japan. ?Furthermore the selection is usually very small. ?And perhaps more importantly…books take up a lot of space, and space is precious in Japan. ?Ever since buying my first e-reader I have never looked back.

The technology keeps getting better with each new Kindle. ?The new model is lighter, brighter and turns pages even faster than the previous model. ?It has a responsive touchscreen and if you are in a wifi hotspot, you can even surf the internet (although its primary use is allowing you buy books easily). ?The idea behind the Kindle, which is made by Amazon, is that if they make reading books, and most importantly buying books as easy as possible, that you will use the Kindle to buy books that you normally wouldn’t. ?This is very true for me, as I have easily sunk hundred and hundreds of dollars into ebooks.

If you are interested in an ebook reader, I recommend the Kindle not just for its usability, but for its excellent customer service support. ?I broke kindle while on a fishing trip and they just sent me a new one! ?Again, the machine is just a tool to keep me buying books, which is what I do.

It really is beneficial for both sides, so I highly recommend getting one.

Hi there everyone! ?I hope you guys are getting through this cold month better than I am. ?It’s funny, most people think that because I am Canadian that I like being cold. ?This is a myth. ?Canadians don’t like being cold, just like everyone else. ?We just stay inside when it’s cold of wear lots of layers. ?But that’s a little more difficult when you trying to sleep, right? ?Lately I keep waking up at night because either my head or my feet are too cold. ?See, in Canada it’s easy to warm up the interior of a room, since most places have central heating. ?But Japanese apartments are’t built that way. ?They get very cold very quickly. ?And while my apartment has an air conditioner, it doesn’t work all that well in my opinion. ?That is why yesterday I decided to spring on a space heater that will heat my room better, for less money. ?I recommend the same for all of you!

Anyway, I have been busy as always, but I did manage to spend Saturday having a good time. ?I went to Asakusa for my friend’s birthday party! ?He’s an old friend from my ALT days. ?Now he’s a second grade teacher in Tokyo. ?He’s one of my best friends in Japan, so nothing was going to keep me away from this one. ?We ended up staying out just a little too late though, and I missed my last train home. ?I had to walk around Kikuna station until I could find an ATM that would take my card and then had to pay for a taxi home.

And when I got home, of course, my apartment was freezing.

If only I had had my space heater then.

Here are some of my friends. ?The big man in the middle is the birthday boy. ?I hang out with some interesting people, but they are all decent.

Until next time,

Anand

It’s December!

Hello everyone, hope you guys are enjoying the new month! ?I’m off to a pretty good start! ?I had to go to Katsuura to give my friend some money, but I ended up spending the day with my friends and eating a ton of food. ?I am going snowboarding with some teachers during my winter holiday and had to give one of the teachers money for the trip, but I decided to make a day out of it. ?I mean, it does take 3 hours to get to Katsuura, so why not?

I started off with some Katsuura tantanmen, which is one of Katsuura’s specialties. ?It’s a spicy ramen with beef, and apparently it is pretty famous among ramen-lovers. ?I ate it with some other English teachers and some of my old English conversation students. Afterwards I went to get some top shelf yakiniku with some Japanese-born English teachers. ?I made the mistake of stuffing myself with meat, rice and beer, because afterwards another set of teachers wanted to take me out for cakes. ?By then I thought I was going to explode.

It was a great day, but by the end I was ready to leave.

What’s the sad part about this story?

I am incredibly hungry thinking about it.

Until next time!