Author Archives: John C

Naramachi ならまち

September 24, 2009 – 5:25 am

  During the “Silver Week” holidays my wife, めぐみ　and I visited Nara 奈良市, which is now very convenient for us as there are trains every 20 minutes from Nishinomiya Hanshin Station 西宮駅 direct to Nara.

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Kitano Ijinkan 北野異人館 Revisited

September 14, 2009 – 1:23 am

When we first explored the Kobe 神戸市 area as possibly somewhere to live when we moved to Japan, Kitano-cho 北野町 immediately struck us as a very special sort of place.

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Let’s Talk – Food & Drinks

September 2, 2009 – 10:09 pm

In the “Let’s Talk” Question and Answer Item in the Smith’s School of English スミス英会話 curriculum,  Question 8 asks: “Have you ever complained in a restaurant?” I have not yet had a student at my English school,  Smith’s School of English, Kawanishi, answer this in the affirmative, and I can’t remember complaining in a restaurant myself (at least [...]

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A Farewell to Rabbit – and some words on idiom

August 23, 2009 – 11:46 pm

I have just finished reading the “Rabbit” tetralogy by John Updike. At over 1500 pages, this had been a marathon read. I had read the first of the four novels, Rabbit Run, as a young man, but had not read any other of his works since, before I tackled reading the whole set a little earlier [...]

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Onsen 温泉 – A Great Japanese Tradition

August 20, 2009 – 3:51 am

  Ever since my first visit to Japan, almost 20 years ago, I have always loved visiting the country’s great traditional hot springs 温泉. My first visit to an onsen was in Nita , in Shimane-ken 島根県. Although I had read much of the etiquette of the onsen, I was lucky enough, on that occasion [...]

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Another Journey in Time – Nose Myoken-san Temple 能勢妙見山堂

August 5, 2009 – 1:06 am

  Earlier this summer I wrote a post about a trip that I took to Myokenguchi 妙見口 see HERE. At the end of that article I promised a return visit, which I did last Sunday. This time we visited Myoken-san, the location of  Nose Myoken-san Temple 能勢妙見山堂, headquarters of the Nichiren Buddhist sect.

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English School Franchise – the only choice for me

July 27, 2009 – 12:48 am

Two apparently unrelated events happened to me yesterday that really got me thinking about my recent huge changes in life: coming to live in Japan and buying a Smith’s School of English franchised school. First, I visited Smith’s School of English head office in Kyobashi for an owners’ seminar, where I found the friendliness and support [...]

Posted in Alone or Franchise?, English School Articles, Fair to teachers, Franchise Owners' Speak, Free Advice English Schools, Living in Japan, a look back, a reward in itself, english in japan, enjoyed this a lot, my high level students, rewarding job change, teaching: why i do it | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Elections in Japan

July 20, 2009 – 10:53 pm

I’m sure you all know that Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has called a general election for August 30th. This means that we will see numerous local politicians and their supporters making speeches and handing out flyers at the stations where we are handing out flyers for our English schools. (Interesting use of present continuous). [...]

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My Kind of Town part 3

July 19, 2009 – 8:29 pm

  BMX flying One aspect of Nishinomiyahama 西宮浜, where I have lived for almost a year and a half, that I have not mentioned before in this series is the variety of sports and leisure activities that go on there almost throughout the year. There is always so much going on both on land and [...]

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My WabiSabi 侘寂 Photographs

July 13, 2009 – 5:16 am

  Birds in Flight – Isle of Wight I have seen many definitions of wabisabi 侘寂, but that which appeals to me the most is the idea of beauty arising out of a transient moment, out of elements that in themselves contain the imperfections of the natural world. The words wabi and sabi also suggest [...]

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