In recent years, I hadn’t really gone out of my way to celebrate Valentine’s Day any differently than in the way that I was accustomed to. Although shopping for the perfect gift can be a major pain, I had grown so reliant on boxed chocolates and candy arrangements that to even consider an alternative was [...]
Today a lot of students just happened to be carrying around a stash of candies. At three different times tonight, three different students approached me with chocolate offerings. I thought that this was an odd coincidence but a deliciously welcome one. It’s not every day at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi that I’m chased down [...]
When I woke up this morning, I wondered why it was so dark outside. As far as I knew, rain hadn’t been part of the weather forecast last night. So I pulled back the curtains to peer outside and was pleasantly shocked to see a flurry of white snowflakes raining down on the surrounding buildings [...]
Just the other day, one of the students at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi was telling me about her unusual pet. She has not one, but two ferrets! I haven’t heard of many people in Japan housing ferrets as pets because miniature dogs are all the rage over here. I’ve only seen a ferret once [...]
Today’s first class started out phenomenally well considering that the weather outside was dreary and not so inspiring. One of the students brought in a folder of photos that he’d taken during one of his scuba diving expeditions. Before seeing these pictures, I had no idea that he was such an avid diver. Some of [...]
Everyday, regardless of the time or weather, as soon as I arrive at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi, the first thing I do is look out the windows. Not just one window, or several detached singular windows, but a wide expanse of windows that encompass the entire lounge area. The view is quite spectacular from [...]
For the last few weeks, a friend of mine has been chasing after me to install a new program on my computer. It’s kind of like a role-playing game, or so I’ve been told. I can’t really be sure until I play this hyped up game. So, giving into the peer pressure, I downloaded this [...]
There are many unique and interesting customs in Japan but one of the most attention-grabbing is probably Setsubun (the day before the beginning of Spring). Setsubun has many customs surrounding it that date back to the Ming Dynasty in China, that were then adopted by Japan in the Muromachi Era beginning in 1392. It is [...]
I almost always come to Smith’s School of English Kyobashi everyday at least thirty minutes early. That leaves me with just enough time to prepare my files and get ready for my first lesson. Sometimes, I have a couple of minutes on my hands with nothing to do and go off in search of a [...]
Quite often at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi, I find myself serving as both a teacher and confidante to the variety of students that attend classes on a regular basis. Aside from the new friendly faces of students who have recently joined Smith’s School of English Kyobashi, there are the familiar ones that I look [...]
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