When I first came to Japan, the Japanese sweets did not seem very appealing to me. For starters, I did not understand how someone could use beans as a sweet at all, and then it seemed to contain far to much sugar. It all changed during my fifth year in Japan. Because I had come [...]
On April 17th, I was both suprised and pleased at my English conversation school (英会話スクール), Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi School (スミス英会話 塚口校) in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. A student showed me that he had downloaded a video on the 2010 joint Smith’s cherry blossom viewing event (that I’d made) onto his video Sony Walkman player. You can [...]
All right, all right so now I’m gonna toot my horn and brag about the stunning view we have had right off our balcony in Koshien. The cherry blossom season has just come to a close, but for a very interesting reason the trees outside our place on our street have continued to be in a decent [...]
The other day one of my students at Smith’s 英会話 枚方 told me that another 英会話 (English conversation school) had gone bankrupt. That marks the second large chain in two years. Some of my students asked me how I felt, after all, it was my competition. I must say that I’m rather saddened by the [...]
The other day I was talking to a student about how things have changed over the past thirty or so years. The two biggest changes from our perspective were the Internet and mobile phones. Both have radically reshaped how we do business and live our lives. Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds since I [...]
Living in Japan and working with students at Smith’s School of English – Koenji (スミス英会話高円寺) is an everyday scintillating experience . My classroom is a place of learning and not only for the students to who I am a coach of communicative confidence, but also for me as I get to chat about an incredible [...]
Last weekend after coaching at my スミス英会話桂校, my students and I had a nice soak at the local sento and afterwards went out for food and drinks in nearby Arashiyama. The sento owner took over the business from his father. He`s always very welcoming whenever my students and I show up. I especially like the [...]
I made a new, old friend yesterday while handing out flyers. We started managing Smith’s Shimokitazawa location (スミス英会話下北沢) 4 years ago. As you can imagine, we have completed numerous flyer runs. Shimokitazawa station (下北沢駅) gets a lot of traffic, but it is still small enough to recognize regulars. One of the regular commuters is a [...]
Well the results are in now, and here at Ikoma Smith’s School of English. We are in a winning situation. All the kids who wrote the listening test passed, for a 100% pass rate. I am amazed at my students, they really seem to like the tests. some of the kids ask their parents very [...]
Hanazono Shrine is in Shinjuku on Yasakuni Dori . It is is tucked away behind some buildings and is painted bright red and white.- the colours of the fox. To get to it you walk down a narrow lane under numerous red torii. This shrine is where businessmen and women pray for the success of [...]
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