Dear Readers:
Thank you for visiting my homepage. It might be a good idea for you to visit this "my diary" page once in a while. I will try to write and update it at least every week, if not every day. Many things I write may not interest you. Bear with me. At least I am Honest. I write what I mean and mean what I write.

Occasionally you may find something amusing or even interesting for you. "Dozo Yoroshiku." Or "Nice to see you." I am a home teacher of English, who has loved learning English and its culture over 4 decades. I am glad that I have never lost my enthusiasm to learn it more for such a long time.

Takeshi is a "genki" person when he is not lazy!

Takeshi Suzuki in Akita, Japan

Monday, July 30
1) AWAY FROM MY INTERNET CONNECTIONS FOR A WEEK: I will be leaving Honjo very early tomorrow morning for Tokyo in order to take part in the 28th Sophia Summer Seminar, which will take place at a Sophia Univ. campus in Hatano near Tokyo. The seminar will continue about a week. I won't be back until the morning of August 7. No access to my PC and Internet during the period (July 31 - August 6). So don't expect me to write back to anyone who sends me email. Let me concentrate myself on whatever activities we will have there. I will be responding to you after August 7. See you.

2) I am glad that a friend of mine, Akemi Iida sent me email. She attended the same seminar last summer in Karuizawa and is also participating in this year's one. Some other teachers who came to Karuizawa will join us too. I really look forward to seeing them as well as new comers. Prof. Yoshida and the other three teachers will be there, helping us to learn new things. Boy, I am excited! See you all.

3) Got email from Miki Kato. She seems interested in joining JALT (Japan Association for Language Teaching). Welcome to JALT! I am sure you will have a good time with us.

4) Yesterday we had a national election for the Lower House. The result is LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) won as everybody had expected. The popularity of Japan's Prime Minister Koizumi has been amazing, as high as 80% for whatever the reason. It's like a miracle when we think that the former PM Mori's rate was less than 20% just several months ago. He also belongs to LDP.

Japanese people seem to like Mr. Koizumi very much. Especially his attitude that he speaks in his own words, which is rather rare for a Japanese politician. Many call him "henjin" or eccentric, strange, odd. But he once spoke in English about himself, "Many say that I am "henjin" or eccentric. But I am NOT. I am extraordinary!" He seems to know how to charm and attract people.

To sum up the election, it was an oddity itself. Why do I think it's strange. Mr. Koizumi keeps saying that there would be no future for Japan without structural reforms. And he seems determined to go ahead with the reforms. I understand that and in fact agree that Japan has to change in many ways. Therefore I support him in that respect. (I am against his stance toward Yasukuni and history textbook issues.) But the point is can he really make those changes after the election? Someone said on TV this morning that Koizumi is just a driver while his car is as old as LDP. Can he drive in a direction he wants to go?

We mustn't forget that many members of his party LDP are opposed to any significant changes. Interestingly many LDP candidates this election too are opposed to Koizumi's changes. And they are elected thanks to Koizumi, who has exactly an opposite idea for that matter. The LDP has been in power virtually all the time after the war. Strong connections with bureaucracy that doesn't like changes. Almost no reason most of LDP members want changes. Can Koizumi really talk them into the necessary reforms without leaving LDP? It will very interesting to keep watching what's happening next.

Sunday, July 29
1) Yesterday we had a good JALT meeting with Keith Adams of Tohoku Gakuin University as our guest speaker. 14 participants attended his presentation which was interesting. Keith will stay at MSU-A to take part in Japanese language acquisition course starting from next Monday. Thank you, Prof. Adams. I hope he will have a good time in Akita.

2) This morning I enjoyed listening to Shuji Nakamura, who is now teaching at University of California Santa Barbara. He joineda Japanese TV program (FNN) from there. Prof. Nakamura is famous as the blue laser and LED breakthrough scientist. I've sent an email to him afterwards.

Prof. Nakamura,

Hello. I am a 56 year old Japanese living in Honjo-shi, Akita-ken, helping some to learn English at home. Allow me write in English, please.

I saw you appearing on FNN Japanese TV program with Kenichi Takemura this morning Japan time. Your appeal to get rid of "Daigaku Nyushi" was interesting. Like you say, it requires students a lot of time and energy to challenge "super ultra difficult quizzes" (in your own word) given to them for an entrance exam. Most of our young people have to work so hard to pass the test. Their efforts, however, don't seem to pay much once it is over. What a waste! Hopefully you've influenced many of the viewers and convinced them to start thinking more about the problem.

I myself have enjoyed learning English and its culture over 45 years. Over the two decades I've been frustrated to see unsuccessful English education going on without much improvement in Japan. A big reason for the failure is due to a college entrance exam. I hope it will be changing into a more sensible and effective one. Otherwise it had better be totally abolished.

Could you do my a favor? I entered your name in an American Yahoo search box and got 1400 entries! (Interestingly I entered "laser diode" in Japanese and got only one entry that was your former company. :-) One of them gave me the following (**), but the URL didn't work. What's wrong with it? Or could you tell me your web page if you've got one? I am no scientist, but am very interested in your philosophy. Thank you.

Enjoy your life there and good luck to you. Keep talking to Japanese people occasionally.
(snip)
Takeshi Suzuki

Friday, July 27
1) Tomorrow I will attend AES skill training session at Akita University in the morning. And in the afternoon we will have our JALT August meeting (2:00 PM to 4:00 PM) at MSU-A with a good guest speaker, Keith Adams. Please join us if you have time.

2) A little thought on LUCK today. What makes a person a lucky person or an unlucky person?

Sidney Sheldon, a popular American writer, says the following in his novel "CHASE". It was written for Japanese English learners to learn English. (quote) "When life is peaceful and smooth, Time is a friend. When life is filled with problems, Time becomes an enemy." It would be interesting to substitute TIME with LUCK, wouldn't it?

How would you make friends with LUCK, then? What would you do or wouldn't do to avoid making it your enemy? I wish I knew. :-) But let me tell you about a person who has been very lucky this year. Hideo Nomo, a Boston Red Sox pitcher who had an outing in Boston this morning. He was awarded the 11th win (4 losses) this season.

Fortunately NHK BS televised the game in Japan between 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM. At 11:00 they started broadcasting a Seattle Mariners' game as usual. They wouldn't have aired Nomo's game live if the two games started at the same time or in less than 3 hours' time gap. Lucky for me!

Nomo pitched 7 full innings, allowing a run in the first inning and striking out 10 batters. I think it was one of his best performance this season. But the game was tied at 1 - 1 after the top of the 7th inning when he shook hands with his pitching coach in the bench, which means he's leaving the mound. What happened at the bottom of the 7th shows his luck this year. Boston scored 3 runs!

Nomo had been lucky earlier, too. In the last outing last weekend, he was given 3 runs (by a 3 run homer) in the first inning. Amazingly Boston had another 3 runs by a homer in the second inning (his 10th win game). And in the former outing before that, he was awarded a winner although he had allowed 5 runs, etc, etc.

Looking back, I myself have been feeling very lucky for the past 4 or 5 years. Many interesting things keep happening to me and I really enjoy them. Wish you good luck, too.

Saturday, July 21
This morning I am going to attend TIE discussion meeting which will be held at Joinus in Akita city. Akemi will talk about her cross cultural experiences in Akita and we will discuss the interesting topic.

Friday, July 20
Akita World Games 2001 will begin in less than a month. About 3 thousand athletes and officials come to visit us from about 80 countries. There will be 26 official games and 5 demonstration games. None of them are played in the Olympics. For example in Honjo we will host "Beach Handball", not Beach Volleyball! Isn't it interesting?

The two humorous characters called "Nummy" and "Huggy" are often on TV and newspapers these days. They were created especially for the Akita WG, using the look of "Namahage", which is originally a scary image. The Akita's traditional event is rather famous in Japan.

These two creatures, however, look pretty comical and adorable. English notation of Nummy comes from (Num or lots of people) and Huggy (Hug). They seem to be getting popularity among people. I hope WG in Akita will be a success.

Sunday, July 15
I will go to Akita Keizai Hoka University to work as an examiner to interview examinees for STEP (The Society for Testing English Proficiency, Inc). It'll be another long day, but am looking forward to seeing the serious faces of many young people. Hope they'll not be too nervous and do a good job.

Saturday, July 14
I attended the 41st AES study group meeting at Akita National University today. Darth Nielsen, an ALT, gave us a nice workshop in the morning. Darth, a tall/big young man from California, who team-teaches with Miki Kato, a member of the group. We had a good time discussing the controversial Kyoto Protocol issue. In the afternoon we practiced interpretation, using Darth's original essay on "the Roles of Godzilla, Pokemon and Digimon (I didn't know Digimon. ;-) in terms of Japan's relationship with the United States". His essay was unique, interesting and well written, I thought.

Following that session we welcomed Prof. Tetsuya Enokizono, who teaches at Akita Prefectural University, as a presenter for the 7th academic session. He told us lots of interesting stories about language education in India. Do you know how many languages are spoken in India? He says more than 13 hundred! I didn't know that many languages there.

Friday, July 13
1) Updating my web page has not been possible for some time due to technical problems I've been having. Now it seems that they've been cleared away. Sorry for those who have visited this diary and been disappointed to find no updating.

2) Katharine, a graduate student studying cultural anthropology at the University of Iowa wrote to me an interesting letter. Her research concerns the Japanese baseball players in the Major Leagues.  She gave me interesting questions about Ichiro, Nomo and other players. Good luck with your research!

Vicki wrote to me. Vicki and I were pleased with Nomo's 8th win.

3) How to do virtually everything - the American way? An URL is recommended by Prof. Yoshida. I visited it and was amazed by the overwhelming volume of information. He thinks it might give you interesting topics and tasks for your classes.

4) The Kyoto Protocol of global warming has been a big issue for some time. I think Japan should take a stronger initiative on this. The past week a lot of repercussion between Japan and our neighbors, China and South Korea. I think that Japan has to be far more careful in dealing with them. The following is a piece of idea occurring on my mind this week on how Japan should keep developing its so-called internationalization mind.

Many people think, as I do, that Japan is not good at making changes. It has neglected necessary changes in various fields for many years. Maybe the idea of disclosure came too late and is not still functioning properly. Thus we have let too many tough problems accumulated too deep and too complicated. They now seem too difficult even to challenge for solution. Obviously, however, we have to keep thinking more and harder, moving ahead step by step in good and constructive way.

Many Japanese are beginning to realize that our problems are serious/critical. Many leaders seem at a loss and don't know what to do. Thus Japanese society is in part filled with feelings of uncertainty toward future. People are less confident, more afraid, and more frustrated.

A danger I see is that many stop thinking for themselves about Japan should do. They seem to be leaving their destiny upon strong leadership with too easy answers. While I agree with Prime Minister Koizumi that Japan needs reforms, I don't agree with his nationalistic views on Yasukuni, history textbook issues. Tokyo Governor Ishihara is doing a good job, but he is more nationalistic than Mr. Koizumi on some issues. Extreme nationalism is always dangerous because it might lead Japan to isolationism. We should be paying more attention not to let it happen by all means.

Healthy nationalism is OK as long as it goes with internationalism. In my opinion more young people in Japan (they are future leaders) should be trained on bilingualism and biculturism. They need to learn about Japan and the world both Japanese way and international way. They should be able to think and express clearly both before Japanese audience and international audience. We have a lot to do! Two suggestions of mine here. One is I believe that English education could play an important role for the purpose. The other is that more learning on "intercultural communication" should be encouraged at schools, too.

Tuesday, July 3
1) Early this morning Japan time my favorite MLB pitcher, Hideo Nomo went to the mound in search of the 7th victory. The Boston Red Sox fighting a dead heat against the New York Yankees for the divisional championship. The 2001 MLB baseball season is 1/2 over now. Nomo had a good performance allowing only a run in 6 full innings, which made me pleased. Congratulations on his 7th win! My email friend, Vicky wrote to me yesterday wishing well for Nomo and the team.

2) Prof. Yoshida wrote about the 2000 Census results (in Japanese).

Monday, May 7
1) Hi! Amy. You have such a beautiful name, which can work both as an English name and a Japanese name. How lucky you are to have the name!

This is an interesting quiz for those of you who know Japanese "kanji". Can you guess the kanji (consisting of two characters) for Amy? It won't come up on your screen properly unless your PC is equipped with Japanese language function.

Here is the answer.
The two kanji characters are 英美.

The first kanji character (英) has various rich meanings and is used in Japanese words like "hero", "talent", "magnificence", "reputation" and others signifying excellence in quality. Interestingly it's also used in "English" and "genki"! The second kanji (美)means beauty and grace. Wow!

Amy, who I happened to see yesterday for the first time at the shrine with his father Bill, is a young, attractive girl. You can take a look at her. Click the rightest picture of the seven below.

Sunday, May 6
1) A letter from Omi-san. She was kind enough to visit my website and send me her comments. She also writes about how she is improving her listening skills by watching TV dramas. Omi-san and I are regular members of AES skill up training session group.

2) Eiko, my brother's wifeand their son Hiromasa, visited us last Friday. Yesterday afternoon Eiko, Hiromasa, my mother Fusako, my sister Minako and I went for a drive on Mt. Chokai, the highest mountain (about 2,2 thousand meters or 1.4 miles high sea level) in Akita. There is a beautiful drive-way called "Chokai Blue Line". We can drive as high as about half the way to the top of the mountain. The higher you go up, the more snow you can view. The pictures will stay on the site only temporarily.

On our way back home, we dropped in at a beautiful waterfall named "Nasu no Shirataki". There is a shrine, a suspension bridge, large gardens with various flowers surrounded by big green trees. We happened to see William Lee's family beside the garden. (They are in the rightest picture.) We call his Bill-san, who teaches at MSU-A. He specializes in Japanese and its culture and is also in charge of Community Education at the institution.Hi. Bill-san! The pictures will stay only for a while.

3) I am going to attend a special meeting of World Games Interpretation group this afternoon.

4) This morning I watched Takemura Kenichi's "Hood 2001" TV program in which both new economic policy minister Takenaka and former minister Sakaiya appeared to discuss Japan's bad loans. It was interesting to listen to them because they both have good understanding about Japan's economy and its problems. They are also talented for making sense (which is still rather rare in Japan's politics!) when they talk. They try to explain things clearly.

Saturday, May 5
1) Herald Asahi's "Point of View" by Han Soo San is headlined, "Japanese don't understand their own country." I found it refreshing and amusing. The following is a mixture of his point and what I think about it. 

The writer believes that Japan already is a good country in many ways. Many people outside Japan agree with him, too. But an important question is what Japanese people think about their country. Do they share the same sentiment that they live in a good country? To his eye the answer is negative. Many Japanese are not even proud of being Japanese. He doesn't understand why. 

There are some people who are trying to beautify Japan to make it look better by revising its history. He doesn't understand why such an attempt is necessary. Look at the textbook issue that is causing friction between Japan and its Asian neighbors. Is it because Japanese are not confident about their country today?

Japan with its success after the world war two is in a good position to take leadership for the better world in international society, especially in Asia. Many people expect Japan to play the role more positively. The writer thinks, however, "Japan does not know Japan. Or rather, it has forgotten what it is."Don't just be resentful about his negative remark. There is some truth in it according to me or rather much truth.

I'd like to add my comment to this, if I may. More Japanese people should get to know more about the world, I mean, what's happening outside Japan or how the world is communicating. Why? The reason is simple. You'll have to know others in order to understand yourself better. I think it would be very effective to encourage young people like elementary school kids to learn more about the world and different ways of living and thinking. Let them have more opportunities to look at all that and THINK about Japan and the world.

When I went to Sophia University more than 3 decades ago, a keyword of the faculty's educational principle was to nurture "sekaikan" or world view. Students were encouraged to think about an important question, "what is the world?" (including a sense of being international minded) besides "what is a human being?" and "what is god?" as well as “what is true, good and beautiful.”

2) Herald Asahi's VOX POPULI introduces episodes about why Japan cares what outside people think about it. (quote) "The nation has swung between absence of self-confidence and excessive self-confidence. What Japanese need now is a reasonable mix of confidence and humility," is a good line, I think.

Many people know the English expression "inferiority complex" for the Japanese counterpart "rettokan". Later I learned that "yuetsukan" was called "superiority complex", which amused me once. Complexes come from lack of proper knowledge and understanding. I always believe in "the Golden Mean" by Aristotle - the idea that virtue is based on moderation. Either extreme, “excess” (your having too much of something) or “defect” (having too little of it) is no good. I thank Father Nissel now in Kobe for teaching the idea to me as a Sophia student.He taught us Greek and Roman civilization in an inspiring and interesting way.

3) Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of North Korean supreme leader, was detained at the New Tokyo International Airport at Narita. The news surprised the world. The Japanese government made a quick action by deporting him. Herald Asahi reports, "Officials went to great pains not to make a fuss over the case..." While I sympathize with their difficult decision, I don't understand why Prime Minister Koizumi or Foreign Minister Tanaka had to refer to a possibility that the man may not be Kim Jon Nam while everybody knows it's the man. I was disappointed by the lack of their sincerity. I thought they would be more truthful and Honest when they make comments about any important issue like this.

Japan is said to be good at dealing with a problem based on bilateral or two countries relationship, but is poor or clumsy at handling one if it involves more than two or multilateral factors. Why is that? I think the same reason - Lack of "sekaikan" or world view. The Japanese government’s reaction this time was a typical example of such a case according to my observation. It wasn't impressive. Honesty or being truthful as much as possible is the best policy!

Thursday, May 3
1) Hi, folks. I hope that you are enjoying your Golden Week vacation if you are in Japan. My financial limitation :-) prevents me from doing anything grand this week. But I am having a fun my way. In a few minutes Hideo Nomo will be pitching against Ichiro and other Mariners. NHK BS is to televise the game.

2) a letter in which Prof. Yoshida writes about a) bullying problem in the US, b) ASTE meeting (May 12), c) Oxford Spring Symposium (May 13) and 28th Seminar for High School teachers of English (July 31 - August 6)

Sunday, April 29
1) I received 3 mail from Vicki. She is an ardent MLB fan, rooting for New York Mets. She lives in Long Island, New York and often visits the Shea Stadium in NY. Her enthusiasm for Hideo Nomo and Masato Yoshii has been intense. In fact she has collected over hundreds of items for the Japanese pitchers.

You may find Vicki's letter extremely interesting if you know something about baseball because it's very unusual and personal - something you've never read anywhere. She adores Japanese culture and is keen on learning the language.

2) NHK BS televised a MLB game of the Seattle Mariners. The team has just won the 20th win in the month of April, which is a major league record. Kazuhiro Sasaki, "Daimajin" closed the game, having a 13th save, which is another record. Ichiro was 3 for 6.

3) Mr. Fumiya Tsuta died yesterday. My deep condolences.

Mr. Tsuta brought a nationwide sensation in Japanese high school baseball world 17 years ago, leading Ikeda High School as a manager. The school won the national inter-high school baseball tournaments held at "Koshien" three time.

I liked his new ideas about high school baseball and his philosophy about educating young people. Through his constant efforts Mr. Tsuta accomplished great achievements that any man could be proud of. He brought us a lot of excitement through his devotion and determination to the world of high school baseball and its fans.

Thank you, Tsuta-san for many good memories. Many won't forget about you. I will remember you as a person of real "genki" and courage in changing high school baseball games from traditional ones to more exciting ones. I will also remember you as a man of integrity. You said what you meant and meant what you said. You were most Honest and sincere.

4) Three points from Herald Asahi.
a) The title of Cover Story is "World leaders can now talk to Japan in English." It introduces a list of newly elected ministers who can speak English; Yoriko Kawaguchi, Heizo Takenaka, Mayumi Moriyama, Nobuteru Ishihara and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Howard French, Tokyo bureau chief of The New York Times says, "Having a Cabinet with people who are very international minded ... may help change the image of Japan and ... "

b) This is about Heizo Takenaka in another article. "He's what you Americans call a spin doctor," Mr. Koll said. "His job is to sell policy to the people."

Mr. Takenaka, sell your policy openly and clearly about what needs to be done to better Japan's economy, to do away with bad bank loans and to go through structural reform. Do talk about your ideas to the people of Japan through TV, Internet or papers. Many people will listen to you. Tell us who are opposing to your ideas in the LDP for what reasons if they try standing in your way.

c) The title of VOX POPULI, VOX DEI is "Cabinet a colorful train running on old tracks", which I find funny and humorous!

Saturday, April 28
1) I will attend AES skill up session this morning.

2) Last night I listened to Hiroshi Kume interviewing Heizo Takenaka, State Minister in charge of Economic, Fiscal and IT Policy (some of the new ministers are too long, aren't they, folks?) on the "News Station of Asahi TV. Another new minister, Nobuteru Ishihara, a son of Tokyo Governor Ishihara attended the program, too.

Two interesting comments by Mr. Takenaka. One is about a Japanese word "keiki" (My Japanese English dictionary says it means business or business situation.) He says there is no equivalent English word for "keiki" in a strict sense. I had never thought about this. It's interesting. Actually there are many Japanese words which can't be translated into English. Some of them are problems when we want to make a change in any Japanese system.

Mr. Takenaka says that he will avoid using the ambiguous Japanese word. Instead he will use "keizai" or economy. Another interesting point was he used "a town meeting", which he intends to start holding in order to communicate with voters or citizens. That's a terrific idea.

I've seen many town meetings in the US via ABC News. Some of them were hosted by my favorite Peter Jennings. Anyway Mr. Takenaka's idea pleasantly surprised me because I had never heard of such an idea from any previous ministers. Quite impressive. Leaders in any field of Japan should or had better be familiar and be equipped with understanding of more than two cultures or different perspectives like him from now on, I think. They should also be able to make sense with clear logic when speaking. Japan is changing if you believe it or not.

Friday, April 27
1) Vicki in Long Island, New York is celebrating her birthday soon. Happy Birthday, Vicki! Many Happy Returns of the day. Vicki and I have been email friends for several years.

2) It is interesting that Prof. Yoshida wrote to call for more interpreters for Akita World Games, which will be held between August 16 and 26 in Akita. The world is getting smaller and smaller! his letter

3) This morning Japan time Hideo Nomo was pitching for Boston Red Sox. I visited ESPN to look at the pitch by pitch report of the game. It's amazing that you are kept informed of how a game develops via Internet. According to the report, Nomo allowed only one hit in the 7th inning. Boston is leading Minnesota Twins by the score of one to nothing. Another good performance of my hero, Nomo.

Yeah, now I've found that Boston beat Minnesota by 2 to 0. And Nomo is a winning pitcher. I am excited that he is having a good start this year. You know, earlier this season, he had a no-hitter game, too.

4) As for Japan's politics now we have a new prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi. He made his cabinet yesterday very on his own. It seems that he had not received any recommendations from any factional bosses about his appointment of the ministers. It is extremely rare in Japan. Why can Mr. Koizumi do that unusual thing? It's because he is enthusiastically supported by nation-wide LDP voters, who demand "change" in politics. Much of the media seems to report the news favorably.

I am glad that he has chosen Mr. Heizo Takenaka as a minister as well as 5 women and 3 from private sector in his cabinet. The Herald Asahi's headline is "The new LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) chief struggles to live up to his campaign promise to do away with factional politics." Let's see what Mr. Koizumi and his cabinet can and will do.

5) Locally here in Akita a big change , too. Just recently there's been a split within an LDP party of "kenkai giin" or prefectural assembly members. 8 members out of 27 LDP members left the party and formed their own party. Some of the 8 support the continuation of MSU-A faculty after its closure in the spring of 2003. Now LDP is no longer a majority party at Akita Prefectural Assembly.

Thursday, April 26
1) I've forgotten to introduce you a letter from Masako Sasaki, inviting English learners to the 37th AES English Skill Training Session at Akita University this coming Saturday. I look forward to seeing everybody at the session on Saturday. a letter from Masako Sasaki

2) Today I'd like to introduce you one of my students, who is older than I am. He is Mr. Masugi who came to join my English class several years ago. He is a good athlete, a good learner equipped with incredible degree of "genki" or energy and enthusiasm. I asked him to write a message for this website. I have added a few more messages from other PALS class students, too. Mr. Masugi's self-introduction and other PALS students

3) a letter from Prof. Yoshida He is suggesting a website material (in Japanese) for discussion you could use in your classroom.

Wednesday, April 25
1) I received mail from Noriko Sawai. She also read a book, "Never study English". She attends Jon Gordon's "Intercultural Communication" with us. read Noriko's letter

2) Naoto Sato gave me an interesting view (as well as his practice) about teaching grammar to his students. I find his way good and practical. As I told you earlier, Naoto is a good simultaneous interpreter. read Naoto's letter

Tuesday, April 24
1) A letter came from Tom Merner.

2) I've been working on this website to fix some problems with it. Now it looks OK and everything seems to be working properly. Folks, my apology to some of you who visited this page and had trouble looking at some pictures or something.

3) This evening I am going to attend the second class of Jon Gordon's "Intercultural Communication" at MSU-A. I'll have to prepare for the class by reading chapter one of his given textbook. It was very interesting to attend the first class last Tuesday. Participants were enthusiastic and asked many questions. I'm sure today's lesson will be exciting, too.

4) Now I've found that I received a lot of email. I can't answer some of them because I will be busy preparing for the class this evening. You will hear from me tomorrow. See you.

Monday, April 23
at the MSU-A campus (April 21, 2001) Click on the picture.

1) We had a good Akita JALT meeting last Saturday. 19 participants joined us and learned a lot about Elementary school English education thanks to an invited guest speaker, Tom Merner, who has spent a lot of his time in his collaborative work with Ministry of Education about the subject. You can read his handouts both in English and Japanese. You can also look at some of the pictures of the meeting.

Tom and I enjoyed our time last Sunday before the JALT meeting. We had an interesting deal: I spoke to him in English and he spoke to me in Japanese. Wow! He had no trouble, whatsoever, in expressing himself in Japanese. Now wonder! He has a Japanese name, too. I heard it later from Tom.

Thank you, Tom, for everything you did for us. I am sure a lot of work you are doing for JALT and Elementary school English education with MOE will reward you in the long run. Say hi to your wife and 11 year old daughter for me. I was trying to put our picture in front of cherry trees on the MSU-A campus here on this page but it didn't work. Please wait.

The following day, April 22, Tom had a meeting for Iwate JALT about the same subject. Mr. Iwaizumi and Mary Burkitt of Iwate JALT wrote to me that they had a quite successful meeting. In fact 50 people took part in it. That's an incredible number for any of our JALT meetings. Congratulations, Iwate!

2) a letter from Prof. Yoshida about two meeting on April 28 and May 13. He will be talking about his now famous "the Fish Bowl and Open Seas model".

Saturday, April 21
1) I visited our town's "Honjo Park" yesterday to enjoy cherry blossom viewing. I took many pictures with my digital camera. Here are two I'd like you to take a look at. Just click on a picture if you want to look at the image in the bigger size. My home is just a few hundred meters or yards from these scenes.

2) a letter from Prof. Yoshida of Sophia (Jochi Univ) about a week-long summer seminar. Read the invitation to the seminar if you are a Japanese teacher interested in joining it this summer.

3) Herald Asahi says the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Frontier Sciences will start screening applicants for English proficiency using standard TOEFL and TOEIC tests from the next academic year, rather than use its own test. I have a hunch that many others will follow. Will it be good for the whole English education in Japan? Yes, I think it will. Again things are changing in Japan.

4) Japanese TV news programs report about former Taiwanese President Lee Tenghui having gotten approval to visit Japan from the Japanese government. Of course China gets upset and very angry about the decision. Japan has been having the problem of a controversial junior high school history textbook with China as well as a "safeguard" problem of restricting the import of their cheap mushrooms, "tatami"-mats and "negi" into Japan's market from China.

China believes in the concept of "one China, two systems" policy while Lee is viewed by China to be the leader of Taiwan's independence from China. This reminds me of my college days when I belonged to a debate section of Sophia ESS. About 35 years ago we had a debate proposition, "Resolved that Communist China should be admitted by the United Nations". Well certainly things change as time passes by. It is interesting to watch such changes.

5) Today is the day for our April meeting of Akita JALT. I hope it will be a success.

Friday, April 20
1) A letter from Prof. Yoshida about difficult words: "Do you know what a 'galingale' is?  How about 'halieutic'?  Below is a very interesting Dictionary of Difficult Words.  Words you've never seen before--and will probably never see again..." more on this

2) I had still another very good letter from Lovey. I'd like to share it with you, folks. If you are interested, read a letter from Lovey in US

3) Tomorrow we will invite Tom Merner and hold our Akita JALT April meeting. He will talk about Elementary school English education. The meeting will be held at GH-300 of MSU-A (Minnesota State University Akita). The time is from 2:00PM to 4:00PM. I hope many will come join us. I will go to Akita Airport to pick up the guest speaker around 10:00AM. I look forward to chatting many things about English teaching with him prior to the meeting.

Thursday, April 19
1) I received a letter from Lovey in US.We call her "Lovely Lovey". She is such a loving person, full of love to everybody. I met her at MSU-A last year when I was taking a course of Community Education by Dr. Pat Darling last fall.

Hello! Lovey-san. It's nice to hear from you. Sorry for not having responded to you. You might get a picture on how I've been doing for the past weeks if you read this diary. For now I'd say that spring has actually arrived here in Akita. It's been pretty warm and cherry blossoms are beautifully blooming for all of us. Happy to hear that your right hand is doing better.

By the way the spring MSU-A Community Education has started. I am taking "Intercultural Communication", not "Cross Cultural" according to Dr. Gordon. This is interesting, isn't it? Lovey is also interested in the subject. In fact she is an expert on intrapersonal or interpersonal or small group communication (these words I learned last Tuesday), I believe. (Read a long letter from her she gave me a few weeks ago.)

2) Herald Asahi paper gives its readers an interview of Hirotaro Higuchi, one of rare "genki" top leaders in the business world. The title is "Coming days, not Lost Decade, is what counts". His point is we had better forget about how unsuccessful we have been so far. Instead, he says, "The Lost Decade is a thing of the past. What's important is to make sure that next 30 days or 60 days will not be lost."

I agree with Mr. Higuchi. We have to consider and appreciate why "HOPE" was left inside the Pandora Box. Hope and "genki" or enthusiasm are the keywords as far as I am concerned.Interestingly just down the interview article, lies a column of Vox Populi, Vox Dei: "Has mankind made progress over centuries. It discusses the two cultures of Japanese ancient times, namely the Jomon (man) Period (c. 10,000 BC - c 300 BC) and the Yayoi (man) Period (c. 300 BC - Ad 300)

3) I am making an experiment on putting on this website some pictures of how students of MSU-A are enjoying learning English. They were taken with my digital camera the day before yesterday. Hope some of you have fun watching them. I am not sure how long the pictures can stay there because the space given to me by my provider for my homepage is rather limited. They will be there at least for a couple of weeks or so. So anyone who is interested had better make a copy at your PC. look at Mark's students (The students look really happy!)

I've added Dave's class pictures, too. About 15 freshmen in his class have been learning English, working hard. look at Dave's fresh students

Wednesday, April 18
A couple of interesting information from Prof. Kensaku Yoshida: one is on English lesson planning and the other on why today's children get angry so easily.

Tuesday, April 17
1) I will be visiting two classes conducted at MSU-A this afternoon; one is Mark Cunningham's and the other Dave Ragan's. In the evening I will attend the first class of Dr. Jon Gordon's course, "Cross Cultural Communication", which will continue for 12 weeks. It must be exciting to learn about the subject because I am really interested in it. I received a letter from Dr. Satoshi Sawata that he will be attending the same course. I am glad we are in the same class.

2) I read a book, which is selling incredibly well among people interested in learning/teaching English. The title is a controversial one, "Eigo wa zettaini benkyo suruna" (my literal translation would be something like "Never study English (if you want to learn English)" written by a Korean Ph.D person. (I don't know how to spell his name in alphabet.)

Basically I agree to what he says in the book. His recommended ways to develop English skills are not anything new as far as I am concerned because I myself have been doing the same or similar things over the decades to learn the skills. For that reason I was able to read the book very quickly. I almost could guess what he would be writing next before reading it. It's as if I wrote the book. ;-) I found some expressions of the author interesting. An example: Get used to English (and its way of logic) just like getting used to playing the piano. Many people share the same concept but express in different words to describe it. I am reminded of Tohru Matsumoto's idea, "Think in English", which is more than 4 decades old.

Monday, April 16
Community Education courses stat at MSU-A this week. There are various courses which include English Conversation elementary level (2 classes), middle level (1class) and advanced level (2 classes) . We also have cross-cultural communication and Japanese language teaching course. You can choose depending on your ability and interest.

I am taking cross cultural communication by Dr. Jon Gordon. If you live in Akita and have forgotten to apply for any of the above, this is a good reminder. For your information each class of the course is held once a week, (7:00PM to 8:40PM, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evening) for 12 weeks. The fee is more than reasonable 18,000 yen for each course. Spread the good news among your friends. Don't miss the chance to develop your skills.

2) Herald Asahi, April 14, had an article about elementary school English education entitled, "Early English exposure breaks down barriers" reported by Akiko Okazaki, an Asahi Shimbun reporter. According to the article, English teaching at Amano Elementary School in Osaka appears to be a great success. Native speakers of English teach them basic conversation skills every week. The kids are having a lot of fun. Many other schools all over Japan are also teaching or begin teaching English soon.

You may wonder why the title is worded like 'break down barriers'? Here is the reason. Tokio Watanabe, professor of English education at Shinshu University, is quoted in the article as saying, "The nation's English education system is flawed." He thinks that Japanese learners are not taught to think and communicate in English. As a result many Japanese still are afraid to open their mouths before English speakers. Prof. Watanabe says, "This deliverance from 'English phobia' is the foremost reason for starting English in elementary school."

On April 21, the coming Saturday, at MSU-A we will have Tom Merner talk about elementary school English education for our Akita JALT meeting. (Tom will be having the same presentation in Iwate the following Sunday.) If you know any teachers of elementary school, will you tell them about the April 21 meeting? more about the meeting

Saturday, April 14
1) I am going to attend AES Study group meeting today.

2)I read an interesting column, VOX POPULI, VOX DEI (Tensei-Jingo in Japanese) in the Herald Asahi paper. The title is "Even election spectators have important role". It's about LDP's presidential election. I am one of those interested spectators and will keep watching and listening to each of the four candidates.

Two interesting expression in the column. One is, "In politics even the most immediate future is said to be unpredictable". This concept is very familiar to most of Japanese who are interested in politics. But it's the first time to read it. The other is "A half-baked performance will not do."

The column is originally written in Japanese for Japanese readers. And some professional people must translate it into English later. They must have a hard time because the original Japanese is very Japanese in various ways. It is high quality Japanese, maybe one of the best I know of. However difficult the translation may be, they must be having a lot of fun during the process because it is in a way a creative piece of work, too.

This reminds me of my college day. Father Everett always gave us a weekly assignment of translating a Japanese column into English for his composition class. We were in a way translating "Tensei-Jingo" type of Japanese into English. He could do that because he understood both Japanese and English and their cultures. It was hard, but interesting for us to do the assignment. Of course he must have been incredibly busy correcting our works every week.

Thursday, April 12
1) An interesting story about how to use commas from Mr. Irinoda via email from Prof. Yoshida

2) This morning in the Herald Tribune(former Asahi Evening News) I read an interesting article about what the government has been trying to do with Japan's "non-genki" economy. The two economists, Eisuke Sakakibara (Japan) and Allen Sinai (US) are quoted. Allen's point is that Japan could have implemented many of the proposed reforms earlier in the preceding 10 years. I agree with him 100%.

How many years have Japanese politicians kept saying that we need structural reforms to get over the economy slump? (just in words!) Have they been successful in getting any part of the reform done? If so, which part? How much did it cost to accomplish it? Was it a success or a failure? etc, etc. A lot of questions must be asked and they should answer them clearly and Honestly. It is time to get rid of "tatemae" and get in more "Hon-ne" on such an important issue.

As you know, the Liberal Democratic Party seems to have four candidates for the LDP presidential election on April 24. He will be automatically Japan's prime minister. I have a request to the four, Mr. Hashimoto, Mr. Koizumi, Mr. Kamei and Mr. Aso. Why don't you tell us your concrete idea about "structural reform"? No successful debate is possible without your defining the keyword first. Then you have to give us your clear plan and proposal on what to do or what not to do about the reform.

In the Herald article, Allen Sinai is quoted by saying, "We want the Japanese economy to grow faster and what we observe is an incredibly slow process of getting anything done." We know that, Mr. Sinai! Will you tell us how to make the process faster ? ;-)

An interesting idea occurred to me while thinking about the above: that's replacing the word "economy" into "English education". It will be like this. "We want Japanese English education to develop faster but what we observe is an incredibly slow process of getting anything done. Japan has been too slow to change from the traditional "grammar-translation method to a better one. We require a much more responsive system, much more individual initiative and a very quick recognition from all English teachers when things aren't going right."

Wednesday, April 11
1) I received email from Kaoru Nakamachi in Bangkok. her letter

2) Hideo Nomo had an outing this morning, Japan time, against Baltimore Orioles at his home-ground. He was awarded the second victory this season already. NHK broadcast the game. He pitched 6 innings, allowing only a run, another good performance after his no-hitter game last Thursday (JT). Boston's offense was incredibly active and had scored 10 runs when Nomo left the mound. The final score was 10 to 1.

Monday, April 9
I have heard from Kaoru Nakamachi, who is teaching at International School Bangkok. We both attended the "ss27" seminar last summer at Karuizawa. a letter from Kaoru Nakamachi She has some Japanese students in her class, who are afraid of coming back to Japan because they might lose some of their English skills. Or it may be difficult for them to retain their acquired skills. My homepage might give them some tips on how to prevent it from happening or how to keep improving them even better while staying in Japan. The following is my message to her students if they are reading this.

Sunday, April 8
This week I was impressed to read an interview article (in Asahi Shimbun) of Heizo Takenaka, a key policy adviser to the Mori Cabinet. He has been one of my favorite economists because he can put difficult things in a clear and understandable manner. The professor is Honest, straightforward, and gets to the point, I think, more than he used to, which is another positive sign that Japan is changing. In the past a VIP like him who is close to the government never spoke like he does in the interview according to my observation.

Many people are now beginning to realize that Japan has been incapable of not finding its way back to the path of economic stability after going through the bursting of the asset-inflated economic bubble in the early 1990s and the "lost decade" that followed it. (I also write about the problem in my convocation speech at MSU-A. Read the latter half of the speech if you are interested.)

Why has the government failed to solve the problem? Mr. Takenaka, a professor of economics at Keio University, says it's “because the government has simply been standing by idly when it should have been taking meaningful steps to improve the situation.” He laments on lack of leadership on the part of prime minister and its Cabinet. (The title of the article was "no leadership, no change".) The following is my summary of his analysis, which I think is good and valid.

What you do think? I am getting old (however young at heart I may be) and thought of getting rid of #5 seniority issue, but ...;-)

Saturday, April 7
Two days have passed since Boston Read Sox Hideo Nomo became the fourth pitcher in major league history to pitch a no-hitter in both leagues. The other three were Cy Young, Jim Bunning and Nolan Ryan. I still remember vividly how he performed his first no-hitter in Coors Field in September, 1996, when he was playing for the LA Dodgers.my memory about Nomo in 1997

I have been an ardent fan of Hideo Nomo since he went to MLB in 1995. He has excited many baseball fans American, Japanese and the world. Famous words like "Tornado" and "Nomomania" were often used for him. Unfortunately his performance had been less spectacular for the past few years. Everybody must have thought that he is past his prime years. Well, he has just proved they are wrong. Hope Nomo will keep doing a good job throughout the season. By the way I watched the 10th inning of the Seattle Mariners today. Ichiro hit the first homer and Daimajin Sasaki closed the game in the bottom.

Vickie has been my email friend since 1997. She is one of the three Americans, who kindly replied to my question about "chemistry" in LA Dodgers then. She lives in Long Island, New York with Bernie, her husband. She likes baseball and often visits Shea Stadium and has been a devoted fan of Nomo. Vicki's letters

Thursday, April 5
1) I sent a letter to my lists inviting teachers to our Akita JALT meeting on April 21 at MSU-A about elementary school English education. We will invite Tom Merner as a guest speaker. More and more elementary schools are starting English education here in Akita as well as elsewhere in Japan. Many are not sure, however, about what to teach and how to teach it to the young learners efficiently and effectively. I hope it will be a good opportunity for participants to learn about it. Early education is important because it will certainly give a lot of impact to the whole English education in Japan. I have a hunch that it will change it for the better.

I'll add a thing about Tom's coming to Akita for his presentation. I made him a personal promise that our cherry blossoms will be in full bloom welcoming him here in Akita when he makes a visit on April 21. I wish what I promised would come true.

2) I was watching Ichiro, a Seattle Mariner, playing well on NHK TV. The team won. But more exciting news came to me. Nomo, a Red Sox, has been continuing his excellent pitching - no hitters - until the bottom of 7th with 10 strike-outs. Wow. Great! He is starting to pitch an 8th inning. But I have to leave soon. I've got an appointment with Yumiko, Dave and Mark at MSU-A. Good luck to you, Nomo, who is a real "samurai".

Wednesday, April 4
1) I like people. I like meeting and talking to people. Maybe that's a reason why taking a picture, esp. a picture of people has fascinated me for long. If I remember, I used to be fond of drawing, painting pictures as a kid. Then my parents bought me a simple camera when I was a fifth grader. That was many, many years ago. :-)

Then I bought a better one called "nigan refu" or two eyed camera during my junior high. I took many, many pictures of people. Finally Asahi Pentax 35mm when I was a senior high school student. A picture of Japanese emperor and empress when they visited Honjo I took with it was so good that it's in the Honjo city official album. I also enjoyed developing films and printing pictures too in my room during night. You see I couldn't afford to have a dark room. ;-)

Now I have a digital camera. Remember it was a free prize for my new year card. It has some merits that ordinary cameras don't. One of them is you can take as many pictures as you want almost for free. I am not a rich person. So that's a great advantage. This year I am going to take a lot of pictures with it, trying to be able to depict people with their good and happy expressions. I love people. The next picture was taken at our World Games interpretation training session last Sunday. I chose it among a lot of others.Andrea Drury is an ALT of Uzawa High School. She is from Warrington,  Great Britain. She was a guest speaker at our session and talked about sports in GB, early English education and her experiences in Japan. Yoko Kamada is translating what Andrea says into Japanese simultaneously. Yoko is a serious learner always eager to improve her skills while teaching at Chuo High School. She will most probably be studying in US for an MA in speech and translation.

2) I used to subscribe the Japan Times over 10 years until several years ago. During that period I was able to read TODAY's paper TODAY. When the publisher stopped delivering today's paper today (due to transportation "gorika"), and that without any notice to few readers in Akita, I protested about it over the telephone. They gave me a few remarks of "regret" but failed to give me proper "apology", I was mad and stopped my subscription. A few years went by without subscribing to any English papers. It didn't bother me. You can read anything on the internet nowadays.

David McMurray, a former JALT national president, came to Akita for his "haiku" workshop in the spring of 1998 when Akita JALT was revived. It was a great Honor to welcome him! He asked me to subscribe Asahi Evening News because every Saturday's edition has his haiku column. So I've subscribed to AEN since then. (AEN's delivery is one day old, too, here in Honjo, Akita. But it's an evening paper. :-) Now this week the name has changed. Instead of AEN they have the new name: Herald International Tribune. Things are changing.

3) I received a good letter from Akemi Iida, who teaches at Keiai Gakuen High School in Chiba. Read her letter. Both of us attended a week long Sophia Seminar for Japanese teachers at Karuizawa last summer. After the seminar, we started a mailing list among the 27 seminar participants thanks to the good efforts by Hiroshi Otani, a teacher of Kitakyushu National College of Technology. We still enjoy communicating with one another on the list. A good point about the ss27 ML is that English is an official language and everybody has to write in English. It's a good practice for many, I believe.

Tuesday, April 3
1) Baseball season is starting. Japanese professional games have just started. So are MLB (Major League Baseball) games. Ichiro and Sasaki, Seattle Mariners, are starting to play just in half an hour. At the same hour a national Japanese high school baseball tournament will bring us an exciting match between Okinawa and Tohoku teams in one of the semi-finals. Hard for me to decide which to root for. I'll cheer for both. A baseball day, today.

Later I found Ichiro and Sasaki had a good start in the very first MLB game of 2001. They contributed to the victory of the team. Wow! My favorite Nomo is likely to start pitching for the team soon. I can't wait. If you are watching MBL games on TV through NHK, you can listen to American commentators on the sub-channel, which is a good practice for listening.

2) This morning I wrote the following on a mailing list "ss27".

I've been using World News Tonight with Peter Jennings (ABC news) over the past decade for my class. I have picked up a 2 or 3 minute segment and made a transcript out of it. My students can watch the VCR tape, listen to the words, look at the transcript and practice reading with the dubbed audio tape for the segment. They also have a chance to learn an American way of thinking about an issue and, whenever possible, make a comparison with a Japanese way for discussion.

I use the material both for adults and high school students. Sometimes I try it even for some junior high students if they are interested. Actually some are! Of course I know English is too difficult for them. Naturally I don't expect them to understand everything for them. But they can look at the news pictures. They can grasp what's going on if you tell them about it properly.

There is a very good program, NHK's "Kodomo News" or news for kids. I wish somebody would start "World News for Kids" soon. I know there are some on the net. I am talking about a TV program, which still enjoys some advantage at least for some years to come over the internet. ABC, CNN, BBC, PBS or any volunteers? Or even NHK? It will be a big hit. You'll have to make a promise if you start this, though. It should be a copy free program for educational purposes.

3) Dr. William Lee of MSU-A (Minnesota State University Akita) wrote to me about MSU-A's Spring Community Education Program, which is to start in April. I know it's a good one because I participated in the program three times in the past - in the fall of 1999, in the spring of 2000 and in the fall of 2000. It's an excellent chance to develop your English skills and learn a lot about cross-culture for twelve weeks.

And the price for your attending the course is very reasonable, less than 20,000 yen for twelve weeks. Less than 2,000 yen for a good lesson of one hour and 45 minutes. The class size is about 15 students. Actually what MSU-A offers to us is always cheap. Why? It's not meant for profit-making in the first place. It's a good reason that the institution should continue to exist even after 2003. :-) You can choose your course depending on your current ability and interest. (The information is in Japanese.) more on the

Monday, April 2
A letter from Prof. Yoshida informing us of an article written by Mr. Yasushi Akashi about English education in Japan. In a word Mr. Akashi thinks that Japan's teaching English is far from satisfactory while everyone admits there is an increasing demand for more Japanese to acquire the skills. I agree with him. (I don't agree with his opinion on elementary school English education.) You can read what he has to say on the subject by clicking this. more on this.

Somebody taught me long ago a phrase, "Think globally, act locally," which has intrigued me. I have practiced this motto myself anonymously. ;-) Mr. Akashi, however, used to think globally and act globally working for the world mainly through his involvement with the United Nations for many years. Ms. Ogata is another similar success example.

We are proud of these Japanese who understand both Japan and the world, aren't we? Their views must be given more recognition, more publicity. They will help a great deal to solve our Japan's problems, I think. And more young Japanese generation will be interested in following in their footsteps, which is important both for the future of Japan and the world.

A reminder. Did you know Mr. Akashi is from Akita? He is from a small town called Hinai-machi in Akita pref. Hinai-machi is famous for "Hinai-dori" or "genki" chicken which is used to cook "kiritampo", a famous dish in Akita. Why the chicken taste better than ordinary ones? It's because they are raised in an "hanashi-gai" environment so that they make a lot of exercise, which makes the meat much more delicious. Taste "Hinai-chicken" in "Kiritampo" if you haven't. You will see the difference.

Another thing: We had World Games interpretation training meeting yesterday, which was a lot of fun. I will report on this later.

Friday, March 30
Today I am going to introduce you some of my students.

Thursday, March 29
1) Father Nissel, my college teacher, is moving from Kagoshima to Kobe at the beginning of April. more on Father Nissel's moving to Rokko, Kobe

2) Prof Kensaku Yoshida has uploaded his TESOL featured speaker talk on his home page. more on his TESOL speech in US

3) Prof Kensaku Yoshida gave us good news. Sophia Summer Seminar will be continued this summer. more on Sophia Summer Seminar for High School teachers

Sunday, March 25
Hi! Now I am back!

1) There have been various kinds of computer related troubles last week, which has kept me from receiving email letters and replying to them. (I will reply soon.) I was not able to update my diary, either. But now it seems that everything has been restored back to normal.

2) On March 13, I bought a new desktop and a laptop. I've had them connected to the old PCs by LAN. Now each of the four is available for access to internet, which is good for my students in my PALS English Class. Some ideas I have cherished so far for utilizing the technology and advanced PC software to make my class more interesting and exciting.

3) Yesterday I went to Akita city to take part in a TIE discussion meeting. It was such a fun to discuss the importance of daily exercise with participants. The speaker was Robyn Fairhall, who made a presentation entitled "Exercise: Agony, Ecstasy or Just Plain Necessity". Robin sent us a message earlier on the topic. "I thought that this subject might be topical with the World Games being in Akita this year which will inevitably make us all aware of our own fitness level." 

She continued, " I will discuss the advantages and risks of exercise, the common problems encountered and the new category of injury called "Boomeritis" This refers to the injuries now being sustained by the Baby Boomer generation.  Hopefully we can discuss our own exercise routines, problems, reasons for not exercising or reasons why we exercise and how we can remain healthy into our golden years. I look forward to some interesting comments and discussion. I will bring along some handouts on the day."

4) As I wrote on the diary (March 17, see below), Nihon Television's "NNN Document: Recommendation for a New Style Education" will be aired tonight (more precisely after midnight; from 1:25 am to 1:55 am). Hopefully 6 million people watch the program and get to know better about MSU-A.

5) I will be putting a small advertisement about my PALS English class on a newspaper next week. It's written in Japanese. You can take a look at the preview if you are interested.

6) Hello, everyone who is participating in the reunion of "SS27" in Tokyo. SS27 is a group of mainly high school Japanese teachers of English who took part in a Sophia summer seminar at Karuizawa. Prof. Kensaku Yoshida, Dr. Anderson and Dr. Arena gave us good workshops for a week then. It was an exciting week. Now several months later, some of them are having a reunion for two days (yesterday and today) with Prof. Yoshida at Sophia University. I am sure they are having a lot of fun. I wish I were there with them!

Sunday, March 18
This morning LDP members, Akita Prefectural Assembly put a whole one page advertisement on "Sakigake"Newspaper. Most people in Akita pref. subscribe to it and read it everyday. The ad is on why they are against Governor Terata's (who belongs to minority party at the assembly) plan to start a new "kokusai-kei-daigaku" or international college in the spring of 2003, which means the continuation of MSU-A faculty when it's closed then.

This is my advice to the LDP Akita and its supporters: You had better study more closely and thoroughly about what MSU-A has been achieving over the past decade. Otherwise you'll be making a huge, irreparable
mistake. MSU-A is not just an ordinary institution that you can find anywhere else in Japan. People in Akita and Japan, Minnesota US will lose so much instead of getting so much.

Of course the continuation of MSU-A will require certain amount of money. But it's good, worthy investment for the future. Do you know how many Japanese parents are spending, and how much and why, to teach their children English a year? A huge amount! Why? They know their children will need good English skills for their success in today's Japan and more so in the near future.

I know that you will have to be competing with Governor Terata in the coming "ken-chiji" election soon. It may be a biggest reason that you are making this an issue against him. But please think more carefully. Go and listen to people, educators who know more and better about MSU-A and its merits especially on future fruits it could bring to Akita and Japan. Visit the campus and talk to the students. Akita is changing. Japan is changing.

A good example of such a change can be seen in professional baseball. Yesterday I watched "Ichiro" playing in an MLB game live on NHK BS channel seven. Amazingly the American commentators of the program knew a lot about Ichiro. I usually listen to American commentators, not NHK commentators when I watch MLB. It's a good practice of listening.

Many fans in the stadium knew about Ichiro, too. A Japanese pitcher (closer), "Dai-Majin Sasaki" pitched an inning for Seattle. It seems that the number of MLB fans is on the radical increase because MLB is more exciting. Players, too. Shinjo is hitting well in the preseason. We have Irabu, Yoshii, Mac Suzuki, Hasegawa and others and of course my hero Nomo. Nomo and me They are a bunch of Japanese athletes with what's called "international mind". Japan is changing.

I also read an Asahi Evening article on "English thrives when children learn early on" written by Kazue Suzuki. It features English teaching at Meiji Gakuin Elementary School. The kids really enjoy learning English there. As you know, many elementary schools in Akita like elsewhere in Japan are starting English education along with the guidelines of Ministry of Education.

Akita's education at elementary level would be one of the best nationally in the near future with the help of MSU-A faculty, which has been accumulating professional data, expertise on teaching English to Japanese learners for over ten years? Who could replace the experienced faculty? English education in Akita and Japan would suffer a lot if the continuation of MSU-A didn't take place in 2003 simply because of an LDP Akita's tactic for a 2001 gubernatorial election.

Saturday, March 17
This morning I found a key sentence to describe Japan's problems in politics, and perhaps in many other fields, on Asahi Evening Newspaper. (It's incredible that all available (Japanese) English papers for us in Akita are one day old. It's 2001 and we live in an internet age, folks. Can't someone do something about it? ;-)

Here is a sentence that intrigued me: No one in his right mind can comprehend this absurdity (taking place in Japan's political world). A question to readers. Don't you think "his" must be written "his/her"? :-) Some might be curious about what absurdity it is talking about. Well, maybe no. Everyday we keep reading, hearing, watching a lot of absurdity in Japan. A good and positive sign out of all the mess is that more and more ordinary people are learning about it and begin speaking about it publicly, which had not happened earlier in Japan. More importantly they seem to start thinking about it more seriously.Certainly Japan is changing.Watch out, dear politicians. Don't fail to catch up with the positive change. Do listen to their voices.

Well, good news I have for English learners in Akita. It was brought to me by Hiro Yunome of MSU-A. Hiro says, "...Therefore, Akita folks, who would like to take TOEIC examination, no longer have to travel to Morioka or Sendai, or any other places.... More detailed information about this will be discussed with TOEIC HQ. We, however, would like to share the good news with you and your students!..." Well it's certainly good news for English learners who are interested in taking a TOEIC test. They can take the test here in Akita and save some money from now one! more on this

Yunome-san sent me another happy news. "Nihon Television has agreed to introduce MSU-A education program via a nationwide program titled "NNN Document: Recommendation for a New Style Education" on Sunday, March 25  from 1:25 am to 1:55. According to Nihon TV, this program's weekly average audience rating is around 6%, which means 6 million people will watch the program...

"The program features both Keio University and Japan MSUA. It will treat MSU-A as a unique education...Most of the regular viewers don't have a good image of the branch campuses of U.S. universities at all because there were many institutions who withdrew from Japan for various reasons (financial, for example), and this presents the impression of instability." more on this

Thanks for the good news, Hiro! Folks, please watch the program. Maybe it's a good idea to "yoyaku-rokuga" or set your VTR or VCR to record the program in advance. Remember the time is from 1:25AM to 1:55AM Sunday night, March 25.

Here is what I think. The program will provide an excellent chance for many English teachers/learners all over Japan to get to know more about MSU-A, its faculty and its students. Education Ministry and English teachers have been struggling to find good answers on how to change English education to meet the needs of changing society of Japan and its learners. Well, some answers are already in existence and under practice, which is my observation like many others who know MSU-A well. Just come visit MSU-A in Akita to witness that for yourself!

If you visit MSU-A, you will be surprised how "genki" or enthusiastic the students are. The professional and devoted teachers give them interesting but intense class everyday. (Of course everything is done in English.) The students do homework at the library or dormitory studying about 4 to 5 hours for themselves so willingly after the class everyday. They enjoy talking to English speaking peers everyday on the campus. I know all this for a fact because I frequently visit the campus and talk to the students. Their eyes are shining!

MSU-A's magic: Many students (graduates from Japanese high school) enter MSU-A with whatever little English practical skills. They can't speak. They can't listen. In 6 months, however, they can listen and speak so well! More importantly they begin to think about many problems using English logic. They are starting to "Think in English". It's like witnessing a quality magic. I wonder how many other colleges or universities are doing the magic?

I have been thinking of this for some time. There should be more chances for MSU-A students to have exchange meetings with other school students. Participating students from various schools in Akita, Tohoku or Japan are encouraged to show their skills in poster session, speech, discussion or debate or any other competition meetings. Such meetings will motivate all the participants to study more. Will it cost a lot? Well, education costs anytime, anywhere. And it will pay later if it's good one.

Friday, March 16
I've changed the order to my diary upon Milan's advice, which I think is good.

He kindly responded to me about this homepage on a mailing list. He wrote, "One suggestion: on your diary page, reverse the order of the entries so the most recent is at the top."

Milan Davidovic lives in Toronto, Canada. Thanks, Milan.

A little earlier, I received a letter about the URL of my homepage from Joseph Tomei (a JALT member in Kumamoto)

"Just a quick note, the character preceding the takeshis is a tilde (~) and this didn't come through on my email. If you click on the email link, you may get a 'Not Found' message. just change the character to a ~ and you should be able to see the page. cheers, joe"

Thank you, Joe, for a good suggestion!

Still another from Kyushu:
  "Joe has already commented on the "tilde" character not coming through, so everyone should be able to access your page. Good job! One suggestion - how about a <mailto:> link on your home page so people can send you feedback directly. just paste in <mailto: takeshis@mail.edinet.ne.jp> with an anchor tag to your name. cheers from southern Kyushu! Hugh"

Thanks, Hugh. I have added some mailto's.

I have heard from many others, too for the past 3 days. Thanks. It's really encouraging! Unfortunately now I don't have time to introduce them. But I will, later.

Wednesday, March 14
Thank you, friends!

I sent the URL of my homepage to my friends yesterday. Many responded to me quickly, giving me good comments. Some were kind enough to find my mistakes, which are being corrected. A new page is also being added for introducing some of the letters. (I won't put any parts which are personal.) Thank you for visiting the page and giving me comments. Please continue to do so. I appreciate it a lot.

Mr. Naoto Sato, who is in charge of our WG interpretation group, gave me an interesting question in his email. He agreed to my quoting it.

Mr. Sato wrote to me: "Do you normally teach mostly in English? My personal belief is that English should be taught in English as much as possible. This is not to say that the use of our mother tongue should be entirely eliminated in English classes. It's just that I feel that there is too much explaining in Japanese. Worse yet, most people take it for granted."(end of Mr. Sato's letter)

I answered: "Thanks for the good question. The question is a big one, most probably, the biggest, which may decide how successful your class can be. I was taught English in Japanese as a junior and senior high student. And then at Sophia I was taught English in English. Some other subjects were also taught in English, too. So I know both ways.

I am against too much explaining in Japanese. My observation is, however, that English education at most of the schools is more or less too much explaining in Japanese, which should be changed as quickly as possible. I can see some of good teachers are beginning to use more English in class, which pleases me.

At the moment, I am not doing my class all in English due to my capability. But I am making every possible efforts toward that all English. So maybe in a few years my class will be 90% or more in English, I hope." (end of my letter)

Mr. Sato gave me his quick reply. "Thanks for answering my question. Until I read "Think in English" by the late Dr. Toru Matsumoto, I had believed mistakenly that every single English sentence should be translated into Japanese. In fact, all of my classmates, even my teachers, thought nothing of doing that.

I decided to make a departure from the traditional translation method forced upon us, starting to read books written in plain English. Then I came to realize that it IS possible to learn to understand English in English. In this respect I feel very much indebted to Dr. Matsumoto." (end of Mr. Sato's letter)
(For readers' information Mr. Naoto Sato's ability to interpret both Japanese into English and English into Japanese (consecutively or simultaneously) is incredibly high. Definitely one of the very best I know of.)

Monday, March 12
It's a beautiful day, today. A lot of sunshine we're having. I feel warm being outside although it's still as cold as 1 degree C.

Sunday, March 11
We had a good meeting at AES yesterday.

A report about AES study meeting held yesterday:
In the morning Ms. Yoko Kamada gave us a workshop. We enjoyed making English haiku. I think haiku making is a good exercise for students.

This is my haiku at Yoko Kamada's workshop today in 2001

After haiku making, participants enjoyed making a short speech (unprepared) picking up a timely subject.

I remember inviting David McMurray (Fukui Prefectural University) to our April JALT meeting in 1998. I remember this vividly because it was the very first meeting we had just after Akita JALT was revived again. His topic was haiku and English education. David has had a haiku column of Asahi Evening Newspaper every Saturday for several years.

After Yoko Kamada's workshop Ms. Masako Sasaki gave us interpretation training session. It was on juvenile delinquency in US. An interesting subject. The two sessions were followed by our academic session in the afternoon in which we had two speakers, Ms. Tsukako Shiga and Ms. Jodi Peterson. Tsukako is a graduate from Akita Univ and will teach English in Fukushima from this spring. I have often seen and talked to her at AES. Wish her good luck!

Tsukako Shiga gave us a presentation with the title "The Use of Shimaoka Kana System for English Transcription in Early English Education". Finally Jodi spoke about her teaching experiences at elementary schools in Akita. She thinks the introduction of English teaching will do young learners a lot of good if it's conducted in a proper way, emphasizing that English should be taught in a manner that kids can get a lot of fun. I agree with her on the point. According to my observation early English education will also help change the whole English education for the better. Incidentally Akita JALT will welcome Tom Merner on the subject on April 21 JALT meeting.

This is about politics. Is our prime minister, Mr. Mori, resigning? If he is, when and how? When and how is his party LDP (liberal Democratic Party) going to have its election to choose its leader? It was last Wednesday (March 7) that Asahi Newspaper printed the shocking news on the front page: Mr. Mori has decided to resign.

Practically all the media followed Asahi and have reported about his resignation everyday. Mr. Mori, his cabinet members and LDP top leaders, however, have denied it. Mr. Kamei, a LDP VIP even says that today's media keeps writing false reports about LDP and politics. It is the media violence according to him. Then which is telling the truth about it, LDP or media? Is Mr. Mori resigning or not? If he is, when and how? Aren't they responsible for giving us the Honest answers? And don't we have a right to hear them?

Asahi Evening News reports (March 10), "Mr. Mori's speech will vaguely touch upon his intention to quit but will not directly mention the word 'resignation,' the sources said." What does it mean? How can we make sense out of this senseless message? (The expression was learned at today's AES.)Is he reigning or not? Why can't LDP give us more truthful and Honest accounts on this? Aren't they aware we are beginning to exhaust our patience (in Japanese, kan-nin-bukuro-no-oga-kireru).

Mr. Miyazawa, Finance Minister, used a word "hakyoku" (catastrophe) for Japanese economy and finance. (The following day he said the word was improper.)It seems that the news was reported as a big and serious one outside Japan, but not so in Japan? Why is that? Is Japan's finance really in crisis? Is it collapsing? Don't we want to know more about this? Why do people keep silent about all this? Apathy, indifference, hopelessness or what?

Today's Sakigake newspaper has a column "New York - Akita Hotline". The writer is Prof Ryuzo Sato (New York & Harvard Univ), who was born in Yuzawa-shi, Akita pref. He makes a comment about a recent US nuclear submarine accident.

The comment is about a cultural difference in making a apology between US and Japan. For example, you have a car accident. And you apologize to the other driver. Later, you'll be severely admonished by your lawyer and insurance company. Your apology in US means you are responsible for causing the accident. But in Japan it means much less. An example of this: In a car accident both parties usually say to each other, "I am sorry." If you violate or neglect this custom, the other will be offended. This may be a good topic to give to your students for discussion in class. Sometimes it's better to use English for discussion because it's much clearer and logical, I mean, if your students have learned to do so.

Back to Japan's LDP problem for a moment, I remember Ryuzo Sato's interesting analogy about Japan's leadership that he wrote in the same column, maybe a year ago. It was on "which part of a fish goes bad first, its head or its body?" Can you guess the answer? The head goes bad before its body. Of course he means the leadership of Japan in many fields has gone bad or corrupt. But Japan is lucky because most of the people are still good and healthy, he says. Hopefully his observation is right.

I will attend World Games interpretation training session today.

Saturday, March 10
I'm going to attend an AES (Akita English Studies) meeting today. Ms. Masako Sasaki has been in charge of the meeting. We have had a skill training twice every month (the second and the fourth Saturday) usually at Akita University. In the morning we will have the 34th skill training and in the afternoon the 6th academic session.

Tomorrow I will join a World Games interpretation training session which will be held at Akita Pref. Library in Akita city.

Monday, March 5
We had a snow-storm this morning with occasional strong wind. A gust of the wind blew, breaking and tearing two of the iron made shutters from the frame of my front building. It was scary to see the big iron things being flown back and forth in the air by wind like two crazy giant kites. Mr. Itoh, who takes care of my house, was asked to come immediately and did a temporary repair. It was lucky that nobody was hurt. So much for the dreary news.
 
Happy news from now about the "eiken" or STEP interview test. I enjoyed interviewing over the 40 English examinees yesterday spending my whole morning and afternoon time. It was certainly a tiring but worthwhile experience and I learned a lot from it including some problems of English education in Japan. I would like to share them with you, but I am not sure how much I am allowed to discuss them openly at this moment. Maybe sometime in the future.

Just a comment. My first question to each examinees was "Are you a student?" He/she answered, "Yes, I am." Then I asked the question, "Which school do you go to?" Surprisingly many junior or senior high school students didn't understand it. I didn't know why. Some even answered, after a pause, happily, "By BUS." :-) They might have been practicing an answer, before the interview, to a question like, "How did you come here today?" or "How do you go to school?"

I think they should be educated to ask a question like, "I don't understand your question," or "Pardon?" or "What do you mean?". For the higher level students a question like "Do you mean where I go to school?" or "Are you asking me the name of my school?" Remember the question was asked to high school students who are supposedly good at English because they are taking a STEP test. They seem to know more difficult words/phrases or more complicated sentences on a paper test.I still don't know why they couldn't understand such a simple sentence.

Is my question, "Which school do you go to?" incorrect? Is it so unnatural that they can't make it out?Did they understand, "What school do you go to?" or "Where do you go to school?" I know some of my phrases are unnatural because I haven't lived outside Japan. So help me. Somebody, please tell me why or if you have any comments about it. Thanks!

I should add this to the above story: My question and their responses to it wouldn't be evaluated in any way for their test results. It was asked during free conversation period to make them feel more relaxed at the interview. Both my examinees and I enjoyed the free conversation.

Having said it, their common, eager attitude to learn English (whether they are high school or university students) made me extremely happy. They are highly motivated to learn English better. I'm talking about all my examinees. They are willing to learn it better. To my question, "Which subjects do you like best at school?" many answered, "English". Interestingly to my added question, "which subjects do you hate? some answered, "English", too. :-) "Why?" "I don't like school English." :-) And their English is good! I gave all my examinees a reminder that their future success would greatly depend on how much they can speak English.

Saturday, March 3
My host computer EDI (or provider or main server) was shut down. (Later I've found that no email arrives at my address until March 6.) I am sorry for any inconveniences the trouble caused you. Please re-send your mail to me if you haven't received my reply to your mail sent to me between March 3 and early March 6.

Tomorrow I will go through a new experience. (For the past 4 years I have gone a lot of new experiences and have enjoyed most of them. I like meeting and talking to new people, especially with different ideas.) I have been appointed a little earlier and will work as an examiner for "eiken" or STEP test at Akita Keizai Hoka University. I thank Naoto Sato for the opportunity.

Here is Letter of Appointment I received from The Society for Testing English Proficiency, Inc. (quote) This is to certify that Takeshi Suzuki has been officially appointed as an examiner to interview examinees in the Third session of the Test of Practical English authorized by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, due to be carried out on March, 4, 20001.
(to readers: Don't you think the name of the ministry is too long? Its abbreviation used to be simply MOE. Now MOECSST?)

Friday, March 2
At last I am about to start this homepage of my own soon. It took me more than two weeks, much longer time to prepare. And it's not ready yet. At first I had expected the job to be much easier. I had promised some of my friends the page would be finished by last Saturday (Feb 24). Well, I was wrong! The first time of doing something sometimes takes longer time because you are not used to the job. A lot of unexpected things happen. At least I am enjoying the process. Maybe I can put it on the net early next week.

My apology to the members of World Games 2001 Akita interpretation group! I had made a promise to show their pictures on this homepage by Feb 24. Naoto Sato, who lives in Noshiro-shi, is in charge of the group. His English skills are incredibly high-level. He can engage in simultaneous interpretation even now, but continues to improve his skills. I am proud of being a member of the group and enjoy taking part in the group practice every month. The group has about a dozen members.

(from Feb 16 to March 4)

Very busy preparing for this homepage of my own. A friend of mine, Tokuo Kurisu in Tokyo once wrote to me, "You are homeless in these days without your homepage." So start building your own, folks! I mean, if you haven't got one yet. :-)

Thursday, Feb 22
It was a great experience being present at Winter 2001 Honors Convocation of MSU-A. I also enjoyed giving my keynote speech to the students. They as well as the faculty, staff and guests reacted actively to my talk and occasionally laughed a lot at my humor. Thanks to their good response I was able to deliver my message better. An Honored student gave a speech after me and said, "I am NOT a fish. I am a person." A real interaction between us. Oh, I love the students of MSU-A!

Tuesday, Feb 20
I visited Prof. Mark Cunningham (MSU-A) at his office.He generously had offered to edit my speech for Feb 22 Honors Convocation of MSU-A (Minnesota State University Akita). He did a great job and, thanks to Mark, my points in the speech have become clearer. It was also exciting to witness his concentration, not to mention his editing skills, during the process. (a picture on the left is Mark working on my speech)

While I was at his office, Prof. Dave Ragan happened to visit the room. I first met Dave in November (1997). Since then Dave and I have worked hard, first, to revive AKITA JALT chapter in 1998 and then to keep it active for the past years. He has been an Akita JALT chapter officer (membership chair). Mark joined us in 2000 as an officer (program chair). (Yumiko Okakoi is our treasurer.)

Four good people in other picture are Dave, Mark, me and Anthony from right. Anthony is a very talented computer specialist working for MSU-A. Sorry, folks, for the poor quality of the pictures here. Mark's room was rather dark for my free digital camera I got as a prize for my new year postcard lottery at the beginning of this year. :-) I know the camera will do a much better job in a lighter room.

Monday, Feb 19, 2001
I decided to open my homepage. I try to do it all in English because I want to communicate with learners and teachers who are serious about English (and its culture) learning and teaching. I have only one message.

"Let's get serious about our English teaching and learning."

I am interested in all sorts of discussion about problems we have in terms of teaching English in Japan and their possible solutions on the base of 'Hon-ne' not 'tatemae'. It is not easy for many Japanese teachers to discuss the problem because they are usually unwilling or reluctant to express their real opinions and feelings.

Many point out that the teachers’ skills are on the question because many have not been properly or sufficiently trained for communicative teaching while it is absolutely necessary for them to keep improving their communicative skills. We, teachers, have to work harder to improve our skills. Let's use more English in the classroom. Let's be a risk taker. More importantly let's enjoy using English. Let your students see that you are enjoying it. Then your students begin to enjoy learning English in a real way.

To teachers who don't enjoy expressing yourselves in English, let me ask you, "How can your students enjoy learning to speak if you don't?" Having said that, if you are reading this message, you must be a good English teacher and you must enjoy speaking English. I know that. Well, I will say to you, "Good luck. Keep up your good work. Encourage other teachers to enjoy improving their English skills."In short I am against "juken eigo" type of English education, which is unfortunately still going on at many schools. In other words I don't favor the conventional grammar-translation method. I support more communicative English education which students enjoy learning.

Thank you for visiting the page and reading what I am writing.

go back to "genki" homepage index