Category Archives: Living in Japan

Every day life: What it’s like to pick up and stay here for real.

David Suzuki, Canadian Icon

I grew up watching a program called The Nature of Things, hosted by Japanese-Canadian eco-icon David Suzuki. As my hometown is near Suzuki’s hometown of Vancouver, BC, he was also considered a local and my family and friends were all fans of his. The Nature of Things was a program dedicated to educating the world [...]

McCartney or Lennon?

At Smith’s School English in Okamoto スミス英会話岡本校, in two weeks we will be exploring the question of which Beatle was the most prolific and best songwriter, McCartney or Lennon.  There was a great post on Yahoo about it. ‘Was it John or Paul?’
As you may remember

スミス 英会話 高円寺Two Major Tokyo Festivals

Today and tomorrow two of Tokyo’s most popular festivals will take place -the Samba festival in Asakusa and the Awa Odori festival here in Koenji -the second largest street dancing festival in Japan.
Koenji yesterday had a feeling of expectation about it as the locals (me included) wandered around watching the final preparations being made -lighting, [...]

Japan has Many Good English Speakers!

This morning while distributing flyers to promote my English school in Kobe (スミス英会話岡本校) I talked to one woman on the street near the station who spoke English quite well.  She said in English that I was ‘exaggerating’ when I commented that she spoke English well.  Again, as has happened many times recently, I realized that [...]

Vocabulary Lessons are Fun Too!

Last week I had three students and decided to use the vocabulary lessons. These are an interesting part of the Smith’s curriculum.  They consist of many units each comprising 12 words. The words are random and unrelated for the most part.  Some are nouns.  Some are verbs and some are adjectives.  Some can be used [...]

スミス英会話高円寺 SALT

Yesterday I was tossing up between going to Shinjuku or Shibuya to see Inception or Salt and I’m so pleased that I elected to see Salt.
 From the moment the Bourne style movie started to its end it was action packed and breathlessly riveting.
 Angela Jolie was fantastic and was the only performer in the movie whose [...]

スミス 英会話 高円寺 Koenji’s Summer Get Together

It is now more than a week since 20 of us gathered to party with fellow Smith’s School of English- Koenji students at our favourite local haunt – izakaya Don Bei.
 This was the first time that we had our usual Sunday night June party on a Saturday night in July. A decision that turned out [...]

Smith’s [Eco] School of English Otsu

The summer heat and humidity has once again forced the air-conditioners on in homes, offices and schools across the nation. Every year at this time I think about how we can save on energy and also help the environment. Are my home and school as eco-friendly as they could be? Are we doing everything that we can [...]

Sakai Higashi and Nakamozu Summer BBQ

Last Sunday was our annual BBQ event. We were  joined in Oizumi Ryokuchi – Sakai City by students and their families from Smith’s Sakai Higashi and Smith’s Nakamozu. Despite it being a very hot summers day, we had a good turn out. The youngsters having fun with water pistols all day helped take the edge [...]

Summer BBQ Event

It is time for another joint Smith’s School of English Nakamozu and Smith’s School of English Sakai Higashi BBQ event. The BBQ will be held in Oizumi Ryokuchi, the same location that all of our BBQ’s have been held over the last few years. Oizumi Ryokuchi(大泉緑地公園) . The Park is a large, forested park with 320,000 trees. [...]

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