Flat Stanley Arrives

As I mentioned yesterday, we are having a visitor stay with us for a few weeks. His name is Flat Stanley, and he is visiting as part of Brian's niece's school project. He had a little accident and got flattened by a whiteboard; the upside is, he gets to travel around the world in the mail (or email)!

Here is his photo:






















He is going to get some rest today while we go to work, but he will be with us for a while and we will be busy showing him around Susono and other parts of Japan!

JALT 2005

It is now Monday evening, and all I can say is, "whew!". We had a great, whirl-wind of a weekend, starting on Friday afternoon with the pre-conference workshops at JALT. There, Brian learned about IT (Information Technology) and its applications for teachers and students; I learned about NLP - Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and how one can use its techniques to facilitate classroom interaction. And that was just the beginning.

On Saturday, Sunday and today, we and many of our colleagues participated in various other workshops, speeches, poster sessions, etc... all by teachers and other figures in the ESL industry. Overall, a very good conference, with excellent presentations by Jennifer Bassett, Tim Murphy, and David Nunan - among many many others. I am now inspired and excited to get back into the classroom and try some of these new and wonderful things!

Though I didn't bring my camera, Brian kindly brought his and snapped a few photos:

Steve Brown, JALT president, at the welcoming ceremony:














Our colleague, Dan:


Tracy and Tony, 10th Floor of Granship conference center:


That's about it for now - but be sure to tune in tomorrow as I write about a special visitor from the States who will be coming to spend a few weeks with us.

Away for a few days

It is Friday again, and yet another long weekend here as Monday is a national holiday. However, this will be a weekend, beginning from this afternoon, dedicated to professional development, as we are attending a large conference of language teachers. The annual JALT (Japan Association of Language Teaching) conference is the largest of its kind here in Japan and there will be presentations from prominent figures in the ESL (English as a Second Language) world, such as David Nunan and Michael McCarthy. I am very much looking forward to this conference, which I attend every year, and from which I always learn something new - be it technology in the classroom, or how to use scaffolding to aid in language acquisition. The social aspect is pretty awesome too!

We'll be back on Monday!

Ethereal Quiet of Early Morning

I'm not quite sure why, but for the past week or so, I've been waking up extraordinarily early - between 4 and 4:30 a.m. I wake up fully alert and restless - just have to get out of bed.

There is something special about that early morning time - with Brian still sleeping, the neighbors not yet out and about, as I sit here with only the light of my computer screen, there is something especially MINE about 4 a.m. Watching the sunrise is reassuring, too - it reminds me that today is, after all, another beginning, and I have just gotten a head start.

Still Running

Autumn is pretty much here with shorter days and cooler, drier temperatures. After last week's bout of sickness, I am back in full force this week, and so is Brian. We've been riding every morning, though this morning I ventured out for a run instead while Brian rode.

I started running only a few months ago, and while riding is still my activity of choice, I've decided that I quite like running - very strange, considering how much I used to hate it. A decade ago you couldn't have paid me to run; now, I value the solitute and variety that a run offers. Now if only I can convince Brian to give it a try!

Procrastination

Perhaps necessity isn't, after all, the mother of invention...

The nihongo shiken date is creeping ever nearer, and in my concerted effort to avoid studying for the test, I have accomplished a few other things:

• thoroughly cleaned the apartment, throwing away un-necessary items
• organized computer files
• re-designed the Japan Rider homepage, complete with new photo albums that are Firefox compatible!
• changed servers because our old server was annoying me
• was further annoyed by the new server
• just realized that the feedback form is not working (am blaming it on the server!)

This is, what we call in the business, the "house cleaning" phase of the creativity process, and I suppose that studying kanji does require some creativity!

It is easy to see how the house cleaning phase is beneficial, perhaps essential, to creativity - it is a literal cleaning of the slate. It is much easier to have an uncluttered mind when in uncluttered surroundings. Now that my files are sorted on my PC, Japan Rider has a clean, new look, and my tatami is free of clutter - like an empty page waiting to be written on - I am ready to study for the test, which is scheduled for Sunday, December 4th.

The Thermometer

If you've never been to a Japanese hospital, but think you might have to go someday, then this information is for you.

I walk into the hospital on Tuesday morning, having had a high fever (103.2 F) the night before, as well as having a stomachache. I do the initial paperwork (in Japanese):

What's your date of birth? January 22nd, in the 47th year of Showa.

Is this your first visit to this hospital? Yes.

What is the nature of your problem? Fever, stomachache.

Etc…

I am then directed to the waiting area in front of 内科 (naika = internal medicine). While waiting with a few other patients, the internal medicine nurse comes out with more paperwork, a pencil and a thermometer. She tells me to take my temperature, and that it should take five minutes for an accurate reading, and walks away.

Ok. I shake the thermometer, pop it in my mouth and begin deciphering the kanji on the paperwork.

Circle where it hurts – ok.

Circle any symptoms you have- ok. So far so good.

When I get to some sentences that I don’t understand at all and am relying on my trusty electronic dictionary (Canon Wordtank V80), a nice, student-looking guy walks over and offers to help. Thankfully, he reads some of the obscure kanji aloud for me, as I mumble appreciation around the thermometer. After helping me with the paperwork, he then says, “by the way, the thermometer doesn’t go in your mouth; it goes here, under your arm.”

Great! So I’ve just been sitting in the waiting room with an arm-pit thermometer in my mouth for the last five minutes! Well – it’s good to know that I’m not done learning yet!


PS – if you’re interested, it turns out that I had a kidney infection, which laid me low for a few days – but that’s gone now!

Too Much...

Whew.

After the disheartening beginning of the long weekend, Brian and I actually did manage to get away to Nagano for some DH biking after all. We left Susono early Sunday morning as, according to the weather forecast, we would be in for some sunny skies. We got to ride Sunday AND Monday, and we did get lucky with the weather.

Sunday, the sky was overcast and somewhat threatening, but the temperature was comfortable and the trail conditions dry. Also, Fujimi Panorama was so uncrowded, without the usual DH fanatics blasting down the advanced courses, that I could get in a few practice runs on the A-Course (advanced) as well as brush up on the B-Course.

We camped on Sunday night under a clear sky and enjoyed continued good weather on Monday. Susono, our home city, was not so lucky - turns out it rained here all day!


Yatsugatake in Nagano:


As the weather clears, the frogs come out around our apartment:




PS - stay tuned for the next post when I give some tips on where not to put your thermometer when in a Japanese hospital!

Not quite Katrina

or Rita, but we get our share of Tropical Storms here too. The power of the storms might be similar, but the Japanese have been toughing these out for thousands of years, so even direct hits are just an inconvenience and a few hours of live news reporting from a beach.

We had everything in place for a long weekend of DH riding in the Nagano: bikes repaired and tuned just right, the rack system on the truck repaired and reinforced, all camping/riding/cooking gear packed, etc. The forecast began looking worse as the holiday (the Autumnal equinox) grew nearer...

Finally we decided to abandon the plans and stay around home in Susono. It turns out that Typhoon #18 is heading this way, and should reach here by 6 tomorrow morning. Here is a multi-spectral image of that storm:

Blogs I Read

So actually, I've been a member of Blogger since about 1999 or so, under one guise or another. One of my first blogs was a team blog called "Letting the Thunder Pass". Way back then, I didn't maintain the blog, only a post once a month or so. Oh, how little was I aware of the fervent popularity blogging would gain. Ah, well. I guess that's why I never invested in Microsoft, either:-)

Of late, I have been reading many blogs regularly. Some are people I know, some are just very popular blogs that everybody reads, and others are "friends" whom I've met through blogging.

The blogging friends whose blogs I read:

• Life's Little Things, which is about, well, life's little things - a career woman, mother, wife, mom-of-kittens. And I think I'm busy.
• Neilans chronicles the activities, insights and activism of an active woman (who just happens to be Brian's mom!)
• Once Again With Feeling - one of my very very best friends, who talks about his challenges and successes, both in his marathons and his life; inspiring and intelligent.
• Alyssa in Japan speaks for itself, and her photos really are worth a thousand words.

Bloggers I've met through blogging:

• Mr. Hassle's Underpants, by Doc Shazam - the blog of a heroically hectic medical intern (female, I might add!) who also does some awesome mountain biking around Colorado.
• Street Philosopher - A university student (19 years old), who, I think, thinks more and more often than I ever did. And, yes, he enjoys mountain biking. More power to him.

Popular blogs:

• Boing Boing (hey, everybody reads that!)
• Random Acts of Reality - an ambulance attendant in London - intelligent and brief posts about the joys and miseries of saving the lives of drunks, heroin addicts and little old ladies. Sensitive and life affirming.
• Small Dead Animals -An opinionated Canadian. Finally! I knew there was another one!!

Well - that's it for now. Tune in tomorrow when I list the poets I read:-)