Paul's Classes

Kazuma's grandmother's cat died- it was 15 years old. Atsu's been working hard to harvest his potatoes. Aimi and Miki sang at the karaoke last Saturday and then went out for lunch. Shiori worked at her part time job in a coffee shop. Her exams start next week, Mana just finished her exams today.

Hiroe went to the hot springs every night last week because she hurt her back playing volley ball. Yasuko went to Asahikawa to buy a new car. What is called a Matsuda here in Japan is called a Mazda in North America. Yukari went to the Kachimai fireworks display and really enjoyed it because the night was clear and it wasn't crowded. Shiro saw an old elementary school friend. Sunday Yoko went to the Wakada School for a fire drill. It sounded very informative because she did a fire drill, went through a smoke experience and learned heart massage. Shohei watched Japanese rugby on TV. Kaori went to her grandfather-in-law's memorial last Saturday and then on to her in-laws' home for dinner.

Haruki told us about his very brave twelve year old son who went on his own bicycle holiday. His son planned out his whole trip south to the pacific and left on his own for three days. Of course he had a cell phone to keep in touch, never the less we all were impressed with his son and Haruki and his wife for trusting their son's ability. Poor Atsuko had to give up her Toeic fee because she couldn't make the test. Her daughter's school open house ended up on the same night. Taro was very tired after only two days off in the last month. He's been leading high school students on field trips canoeing, climbing, hiking and camping. Ryukichi will be attending a seminar on business skills in Kitami. Mayumi finally had a chance to relax last weekend with a bit of curling after a very busy summer. Sanae got a day off for the anniversary of her hospital's founding. She went to see Ponyo and only cried twice. Yasuko will be going to Columbia for a year to teach math and science. It's a program offered through JICA.

This morning we started to talk about Prime Minister Fukuda's resignation. As seems to be the consensus, most thought Taro Aso would be the next LDP leader. Many would like to see Yuriko Koike in the running but because of Japan's parliamentary system they don't see her getting past her own party to stand before the voters. The situation seemed to be such a foregone conclusion that most were uninterested in talking more. So we moved on to the topic of Urawaza. Takashi told us about his heating urawaza and Keiko and I accepted his invitation to visit his home and look at his installation. It was quite interesting.

We discussed an article about efforts to encourage domestic consumption. The article contended that there were a growing number of izakayas hanging green lanterns outside their doors in place of red ones to signify that the owners were buying only domestically produced and raised food. Nobody in our class knew anything about it or had ever seen such a lantern. 

Tonight we talked about newspapers. Mari sells advertising for an Obihiro newspaper and has been very busy. Her company is putting out a new free magazine. Of course its emphasis is advertising but it will have articles on food, fashion and entertainment. Generally, the term newspaper refers to all sources of news, advertisement and articles printed on cheap paper specifically for this function. More specifically, broadsheets are large folded sheets of newsprint and tabloids are newspapers printed on half the size. Kyoko went to the Asahikawa Zoo. She loved the penguins and chimpanzees. Miki is really getting into horseback riding. She's been reading a book on riding technique. With horses, just like people, cooperation is the best. 

The main topic for this class was Prime Minister Fukuda's sudden resignation. Most students seemed to think he should have stayed on and pushed his reform legislation through. I found it interesting that the opposition party was not blamed for obstructionist policies. I got the impression that some kind of compromise was expected (that's very Canadian). The class was split on Taro Abe's ability as a replacement but no one thought Yuriko Koike had a chance.

This class continued the ghost story in Unit 5. Hiroko told us that when she saw the ghosts in her last apartment, she was so scared she couldn't scream. We reviewed simple past and past continuous on page 106, did exercise a and left exercise b for homework. Back on page 31 we did 3a and b. Eri told us that the last time she was angry was when she tried to wake up her husband but he wouldn't wake up. 

Congratulations to Yuko and her husband, they celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary. Yuko then visited her aunt who is 97. She's a bit hard of hearing but otherwise in great health. Nobuko  got a letter from Teiko Satho. She's recovering from her recent illness and is in rehabilitation - what great news. Shoko's sister-in-law and her family came to visit from Yokahama.  They went to Sapporo to visit their in laws. Teiko and her family went to the Hokkaido newspaper fireworks and though it was a half hour shorter than the one earlier in the summer, she thought it was great because of the beautiful clear night. Ritsuko celebrated her granddaughter's 7th birthday with her family. Isamu went to the Satsunai Garden hot springs. They're offering reduced prices to seniors on the 1st, 22nd and 26th of the month. I was so happy to say that I was too young for the deal.

Just two students tonight, Kazuma's writing exams. Mika will be writing exams next week. Yesterday her parents went to the market and they had a big fish barbecue. Tetsuaki cleaned his computer up with the vacuum and then cleaned up the files. In class we started with pronunciation exercises and went on to lesson D in unit 4, "on average".