It's Back to School Time!

Hello everyone! 
After a very nice Long summer vacation I'm ready to start blogging again.  I don't know what it was but during the month of August something deep down in my soul said "August is no time for work!" So I neglected my blog and its updates. 
Now that it's September I can say that I'm ready to start again with the back to school season!

August was great fun but I seem to have spent much of my time trying to stay cool during the "dog days of summer"  I tell my friends and family living in the US that its been 36 or 37 degrees every day for the past 2 weeks and they cant believe it!

I've started a new back to school morning regimen that should look like this.

7am-wake up
Drink a 500-600ml of water
stretch or exercise
watch "the wife of ge ge ge" (8am)
check my e-mail
see my wife off to work
finish e-mail and do blog!!
start first lessons......

some of you might be wondering why i drink water first thing in the morning.  I'll let you guess for now.  Your hint is "its for health reasons".

anyways.
see you again soon!

Did you eat your "U" foods?

Yesterday was a day where you are supposed to eat foods that begin with the "u" sound.  A popular food to eat on this day is "unagi".  In Japanese there are many foods that start with "u" but there are very few in English.  Can you think of any?   "American Style Udon" doesn't count!

Here are a few that I could think of, but they have the serious disadvantage of being  One: not very delicious, and Two: Difficult to acquire in Japan. :(

Ugli fruit
Umquat
Upside down cake

Good Weekend

Hello Everyone.  I hope that you all took advantage of the nice 3 day weekend this last week to do something fun!  I did!  I had a great time starting with the Osaka brew Fest held in the Kyocera dome.  I was able to sample many beers from around the world and I even got to have some beer made in my home town.  I was really surprised!  The beer was excellent and they had a very wide variety of both domestic and foreign beers.  I especially liked the Hefeweizen style beers, which are a kind of wheat beer that is very good drinking in summer! For more information look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_beer. 

Closer to home you all should check out the Minoh beer company!  They had a very nice selection of specialty beers that were both delicious and cool, because they were made so close to home! 

This beer is called Anchor Steam, Its very bitter but it reminds me of my home in SF.

A lazy teacher.
A couch potato victim.
He's summer stricken.

Summer is here!

Speedy Bicycle 
Easy path cursing down hill
summer time, moves slowly


Mango Peach Cherries!
Watermelon Nectarine!
Summer fruits come!

SLIDE SHOWS!

Hi everyone!  I know it took me forever to get my pictures shaved down, but I finally got it done!  Please enjoy the 2 new Slide shows!  Remember you can click on the image to make it bigger!!

M.

July is Haiku Month!

This Month I have decided is Matt's English School haiku month!
Everyday this month I will submit a new English Haiku under the Haiku-project page (please check the navigator) Please feel free to add your own English haiku and comments!!!

Like in Japanese the haiku must follow the 5-7-5 format!  Have fun and lets see what we can create!

M.


Strive to educate.
Learning is never selfish.
All roads need bridges.

NEW SKIN

Check out our new blog look!

Still Editing

Hi everyone! 

I know that I've promised a new photo slide show.  I really am working on it.  It's just taking a very long time to get all of my photos labeled and shaved down.  I'm now down from 900 photos to just over 500.  so I'm getting closer :)   Thank you for  your patients. 

In other news:

It's great to be home and teaching again.  I've been enjoying seeing all of you again on a regular basis and I'm happy to see that none of you have totally forgotten your English.  Some of you might feel a bit RUSTY though ( what does rusty mean?).

I'm also happy to say that I'm enjoying many of my Japanese foods once again.  Including ramen and kaitenzushi.  ( Yes, I like kaitenzushi, thank you very much).  However, upon coming home, I've realized that my Japanese level is not what I wish it was.  So, my new endeavor( ohh good word!) is to study more Kanji in order to improve my reading and writing skills!

The only thing that has me down is the hot and extremely muggy weather.  My body doesn't know what to do.  I also have a hatred of the air conditioner because all of the fluctuation between hot and cold makes me feel sick.  I hope that my body adjusts soon!

see you all in class!

M.

Homeward Bound

Hey everyone,  I have a morning flight to catch.  I can't wait to see you all again.

Take Care.

Back on the Grid

Hello students and friends!

We have arrived in Seattle and big surprise, its raining.  The weather is colder than I would have guessed, but its a nice change from the hot humid weather of Washington DC.

It's amazing how green Seattle is.   We're staying with my good friend Mr.R.  Many of you may have met him last spring when he came to Japan.  He is doing well and says hello to all of you.  He is looking forward to coming to Japan again sometime soon we hope.  Mr.R knows a lot about Seattle.  We went to a very good coffee place that makes fresh doughnuts.  It was the best cup of coffee that I've had in the last 5 years.  I couldn't believe how nice it was. Mr.R also has given us a list of all the best things to see in the area.  Seattle is nice, but very small and all of the tourist stuff is very close together.  Today will mostly be rest after a bumpy flight, but tomorrow we will go and be tourist more. :)

thanks for watching and keep posting.  I'm really happy with all of you posting comments, KEEP IT UP! 

The Wireless Desert

Hello friends and students.  I'm writing to apologize for my lack of updates the last week or so.  I've been on the east coast since the 2nd of June, but I haven't had a reliable internet connection here. This makes doing updates very hard!!  so let me say that

Washington D.C. is nice and Hot, probably 30c, and humid.  Its a nice change from the cold California weather that we were having. 
Over the last 2 weeks.  I have seen 95% of all of my living relatives. my estimate is about 70 people at least.  It's been sooo busy!!! 
we are still eating, drinking, talking and enjoying our stay.
we will be in Seattle on the 8th and out of this wireless internet dessert.
I'm still in a kind of culture shock. I had forgotten how much I like Americans!  So its been really fun for me to talk to people and enjoy my random conversations with strangers.  Americans love to talk and will talk to anyone!

so,  please be a bit more patient.  I promise to do a HUGE update with lots of pictures and what not when i reach the West coast again.

thanks, and talk to you soon!!

The Aftermath.

Well I have been having a very busy, very crazy, very fun and exciting last few days.  In the last 3 days I have seen about 50 family members, eaten about 10,000 calories, (it feels like it anyways) and have been enjoying the California sun!

My brothers wedding was yesterday.  It went very well.  My brother looked happy, his bride looked beautiful, and our families looked so happy!  We are all very tired now.  I was a part of the bridal party.  I was in fact the "best man".  If you don't know what a best man is, he is basically the person who helps the groom with things before the wedding, sometimes helps plan things, and also keeps the groom calm before the wedding. Also, during the ceremony he is the one to hand the rings to the bride and groom when it is time for the ring exchange. 
I'll post a new slide show soon, when i get the time and energy.  at the moment my mother is pestering me to come and be with the family ( NEW WORD , Verb. To Pester,   to bother or annoy a person while they are trying to do something else.  My little brother pesters me while I'm trying to do homework.)

I'll post again soon

M.

U.S. Week One

Finally some sun!

It's been a very busy last couple of days!!  My whole family is so busy getting ready for my brothers wedding.  I have all my clothes ready now and I just need to brake-in my shoes now so that I don't hurt my feet on the day of the wedding.  My brother also got back from Peru yesterday and so now my mother has 2 of her 3 sons living in the same house, plus a daughter in law (my wife).  I mother has been so happy.  all of my brothers as well as father hate to go shopping and are never any fun.  Now that my wife is in town my mother has been having a great time going around and showing all the cute shops and such to my wife.  They spent the WHOLE day shopping yesterday so that they would have something to wear for the wedding.  Everyone came home happy and tired.  My mother is a real bargain hunter and she seems to have amazing luck when it comes to clothes.  It's nice to have a talent.   The plans for the rest of the weekend i think will be a  BBQ as well as going to see a movie this afternoon.  You have no idea how few movies actually make it to Japan! my guess is that only about 20% of what is made in the US actually makes it to Japan.  Its really too bad because there are so many good movies that don't have "super-starts" that are really really good.
anyways
more to come soon.

Hello From the San Francisco Bay Area!

Well, I've made it here safe and sound.  I'm still suffering from jet lag but I hope to be back on my feet in a couple of days.  It's been really nice to see some of my family.   I think that I'm in reverse culture shock.  Mostly I'm surprised at how large everything is.  food, cars, roads, clothes, people, everything!   I'm also shocked at how good the public sanitation system and recycling system is!  I also forgot how friendly Americans can be.  At the airport, I saw a couple of strangers sit next to each other, and not 10 seconds later begin to have a friendly conversation!

My mother's house looks absolutely beautiful.  She has expanded her garden and its full of lush vegetables, and giant roses.  I'll post some pictures soon.

Tomorrow is going to be a shopping day I think.  It should be fun!

This is how I feel.

There is an Idiom in English that means to be excited or nervous about something.  Look at the picture and see if you cant guess what it is.

please post your comments :)

Packing

Hello and happy Monday.  I fly tomorrow!  Very excited.  I managed to finish all my last minute shopping for presents for family and friends and now I'm ready to throw it all in my suitcase along with my clothes and whatnot.   I tend to be a very light packer.  So I'll be able to go to America for a month in a Medium Sized suitcase, plus a backpack.  Easy right?

I've been told that the weather in California has been pretty hot the last week, so I'm packing lot of light clothes.  I plan on going clothes shopping in the US so I'm taking mostly old clothes that I can 1: leave behind, and 2: clothes that are easy to roll up.
I'm doing my test pack today.   Should be easy :P

....I hope....

NEW POSTING RULES

Hi, I've changed the posting now so that anyone can leave a comment.  PLEASE TRY to post in English. Some Japanese is ok, but this is MATTS ENGLISH SCHOOL.

Good Luck.

According to my research California State is 10% bigger than all of Japan!

US Color map

Places of Intended Visit

The US is a very big place.  The state of California alone is almost the same size of Kyushu, Honshu, and Shikoku all put together.  Because of its size Travel takes a long time.

During my trip I intend to visit the following cities/states

California
Many many cities in California including San Francisco, the S.F. Bay Area, as well as other Northern California Cities such as Napa.

Oregon
Portland, Famous for beautiful nature, delicious local beer, and green politics.

Washington
Seattle, Famous for rainy weather, excellent coffee, the Seattle Mariners and underground music.

Washington D.C

The capital of the United States.  A very beautiful city full of history, culture, and politics.  Home to some of the best museums in the world.  Excellent Sandwiches.


Virginia state
Located very close to Washington DC Virginia is one of the original 13 colonies and has so much history as well as pre-history for the united states.  I've heard it said once that more  US presidents have come from Virginia than any other state. 

Travel times--
 From Seattle to San Francisco is...
about a one hour flight
a 10-11 hour drive
a 24hour train ride  (over night)


From San Francisco to Washington D.C. is...
a 5-6 hour flight
a 5-7 day drive
about a 4-5 day train ride.

Starting Out

This blog will serve several purposes.
One will be to keep track of things that are going on in my small but growing school.

Another is so that you will be able to see what I'm doing while I'm on sabbatical in America.

And finally it will be a place that you will be able to "study" even when your not in class and learn little tidbits, as well as see some of the great things that your peers and classmates have said and done.



lets do it!