Every month, after his second lesson, I give him the envelope. He always pulls out the cash, and I always say, “you don’t need to pay me today,” but he always does. As he was putting his tuition into the envelope, I looked at his attendance sheet. He was marking off five years as a [...]
This group of musicians from Chile play at Hashimoto train station at least once a week. They are full-time “professional-amateurs,” I call them, because there is no way that they will ever get a break here, and make it into “stardom.” But they are good… Excellent. There are four members, each of them play all [...]
It has been three weeks since mother nature let loose on the northern area of Japan. Other than a few minor inconveniences, the Tokyo area is humming along normally. It is true that the tremblor shook this place very hard, knocking-out the power and putting people in the streets quickly. The people in this area [...]
It is no secret that these are hard times for the people of Japan. Disasters happen in many forms all over the world, but people always manage to overcome. Japan will be no exception. Minutes after that quake two weeks ago, I grabbed my backpack and started walking the streets of Hashimoto, mainly to see how [...]
It’s quick, it takes only a few minutes a week to check, the phrases are valuable and useful, the presentation is clear, and it’s free!!! AND you get MORE practice with it at your next lesson! Come on all Smith’s students! CHECK IT OUT!!!! Thank you! Go here: http://www.smithweb.co.jp jim
I spent most of August and September unable to do any flyer distribution for a couple of reasons. It certainly didn’t help things, but as it turns out, it once again proved to me that the system works. March through July was spent doing steady flyers (by myself), and because of that and a few [...]
This week I was completely blown away, and quite pleased with one of my high-beginner students here at Smith’s Hashimoto. One of my first questions in most classes is “how was your week, any big news?” Her response: “Last Sunday I went to Disney Sea with an old university friend. We met at Tokyo Station [...]
Last night I had the pleasure of having a few drinks and karaoke with some of my students and friends. We had a wonderful time as usual. As the night grew on I found myself thinking about how karaoke has evolved over the years. My first experience with it was in 1982. There were no “karaoke [...]
I recently had the misfortune to have to spend eight days in the hospital. It was a first for me here in Japan, and hopefully the last. But I am a believer that there is a reason for everything, and as I thought about the experience over the past week or so I realize I [...]
“Y” started taking lessons at Smith’s Hashimoto over four years ago. She retired at the same time and started as a pink level student. She has done nothing but amaze me over these years. At the moment she is a very strong green level student, and I attribute it to three reasons. She consistently takes [...]
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