英会話プライベートレッスン

Hello everyone, this is Anand as always with the Awesome English update. ?One thing about being in a Japanese company is that sometimes you are called to do things that aren’t even close to your job description. ?Sometimes this is good, sometimes this is bad. ?I am not entirely sure where to categorize this story, but I will tell it as best I can. ?I was told on a Wednesday that I would have to go to a meeting in one of the branches of Cafe Kaila, located in Ixpiari in Tokyo Disneyland. ?This is not a new thing for me in that I am called to help out in the branch in Omotesando, usually to teach English, from time to time. ?But this was my first time going all the way to the Disneyland to help there. ?Going to Disneyland on a work day seems like a great thing, but not when you have to wake up 5:00 am to be in time for a meeting, held at 8am, as my manager told me. ?But work is work, so I went to bed early, set my alarm and limited myself to one snooze. ?I woke up, lurched to Disneyland and struggled with figuring out how to get into Kaila before the building opened. ?After a few phone calls, I managed to make my way in…only to find out that my manager had made a mistake and that the meeting was at 8pm. ?So I, trying not to kill people in the happiest place on Earth, had nothing to do but hop on the train again and ride to work, which started at 10. ?I will continue this story later, as I don’t think there is enough space and time for me to get into the details I want to get into.

Until then here is a picture of me before I realized I had woken up at 5am to spend roughly 20 minutes at Disneyland only to go to work.

Hello everyone! ?Anand here as always with the Awesome English update! ?My weekend we cut short by work again, but somehow I managed to make the most of it! ?This week I did plenty. ?On Friday I met up with an old friend from Canada with whom I studied Japanese with. ?I am happy to say that I have managed to get better while she has, well, not. ?One of the reasons I came to Japan was to expose myself to more Japanese people and therefore more Japanese and the difference shows over the course of seven years. ?We went to an Awa-odori themed restaurant where we got to watch hourly shows of the dance and got to participate in a short dance competition. ?And somehow I was voted as best dancer! ?I guess all that practice at being animated and lively at work pays off. ?Then again, I might have just gotten the award for being a visible foreigner. ?In any case it was good to see an old friend and good to be reminded of my life back in Canada.

I also got to try zip-lining with some new friends as well! ?On Saturday I hopped on a train, and then another train, and then hopped on a bus and then climbed a hill to get to a zip-lining course hidden off of Odawara called Tobi-tengu. ?It was another one of those events that I caught wind of via meetup, and it was a great experience! ?It was a little daunting at first being so high up and having no experience, but after the first descent it was plenty of fun. ?In all we traversed over a kilometer over lots of pretty forest and rivers. ?I hope to try it again, to say the least.

So while I did have to work, I got to spend time with old friends and with new friends and that is never a bad weekend.

All the best,

Anand

Hello everyone, it’s been another week with another typhoon. ?I hope you all managed to stay dry. ?I managed to get all of my laundry done and get enough cooking done so that I didn’t have to leave my apartment once during the rain. ?I actually spent most of the time learning about the American electoral system, which is at once incredibly interesting and also befuddling because it is an antique of a time when people had to deliver decisions by horse and not through fiber optic wire. ?I was explaining this to my friends at work and they managed to turn it around on me and start a discussion on Canada, specifically our reserve of maple syrup, which is in fact, a real thing. ?Maple syrup is such an important commodity to our economy (we sell tons to Japan!) that we actually need to stockpile it just in case we run low a year. ?So while maple syrup is often a point used to make fun of Canadians, I guess we can only defend ourselves so much considering that it is propping up our economy!

Here is a picture of me with maple syrup.

Isn’t it great?

See you next time,

Anand

Hello everyone! ?Anand here hoping you have your umbrellas ready! ?I hope that you guys are lucky enough to not have to work today. ?As you can probably guess, I am busy at the office…although I will say that I am glad to be here because for once I might be able to get some reports and paperwork done. ?I guess that is how things are when you are working on a salary – there is never enough time to get what you want done. ?In any case, I am never more glad to live near my work than when the typhoon hits. ?I feel very sorry for all the people who have to take trains in times like these. ?If you are at work, you are likely one of them…

I remember when I first came to Japan how worried I was over typhoons. ?Our image of them in North America is one of brutal strength – something that will destroy cities and topple our capitals. ?And, while there are certainly typhoons that do such things, the majority of them are just a major inconvenience to me. ?On the other hand, I always shake my head at those people who think typhoon time is time to go surfing. ?We ought to respect nature, of course because it can swallow us, melt us, sicken us or worse should it want to.

But on today, like most typhoon days I am happy to be inside, watching.

One of my young students made a typhoon map. ?Apparently Canada has 7 giant typhoons in it at once. Stay safe!

Until next time,

Anand Mohan