A lot of exploring occurred in the 2nd half of May, and I've taken longer than I like to post this, but as you can see, I've had a busy 2 weeks. Koyasan is the headquarters of the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism, a form of Vajrayana Buddhism. The founder, Kūkai, (now more commonly called…
I attended the PanSIG 2023 language conference at Kyoto Sangyo University yesterday. The commute took just over 2 hours on the express trains from Hirakata, so I arrived too late for the 1st session I had hoped to catch, which began at 10:40. My haste to get out the door, resulting in an abandoned thermos…
Today, we drove to Yumidateyama (弓立山) in Saitama to go hiking. After the hike, we stopped at Sekai Mumei Senshi no Haka (世界無名戦士之墓), a war memorial. Dinner at 大衆割烹 岩井屋 in Ogose, Saitama
We had to run through the crowds at Ginza to make the 11 o'clock showing at Kabuki-Za theater. We left Nerima-Ku for the theater over an hour in advance, yet the actors had already entered the stage when we sat. The theater doesn't allow people to take pictures during the performance (or even handle a…
When I came to Kansai Gaidai last month, I had to start teaching TOEFL again, which I hadn't taught since prior to joining USC, and when my director raised the question of adapting the curriculum to a hybrid class that also includes "structure," I questioned whether the TOEFL still limited its scope to English. Of…
Today I'm in Tokyo visiting my in-laws. I had a Zoom conference this morning with my director, and I managed to get some grading done. We left Hirakata before 4:30 PM last night and arrived in Tokyo around 10 PM. The bus from Kansai Gaidai to Hirakata station was the busiest transport I've experienced so…
Despite a cloudier, wetter spring than most, we managed to do a lot in April. Cherry Blossoms I'll start at the end of March, when we visited Osaka Castle to see the cherry blossoms. I've uploaded highlights from that trip below. The weather cleared up a bit that night, and we saw some beautiful colors…
I look forward to attending the JALT PanSIG English conference at Kyoto Sangyo University on May 13th & 14th. https://twitter.com/JALT_PanSIG/status/1629830210261745664?s=20
The following came to me courtesy of Ben Norman, a music educator for the Clay County school district in Florida, who I've known since my undergraduate days at Jacksonville University. It's a great read that covers a lot of topics related to rhythm, but below is the part on language: Rhythm is tied to language.…
This is the final weekend before the semester begins at Kansai Gaidai, and today we participated in the new faculty appointment ceremony. Tomorrow, there's a new student reception, which new teachers will attend. Monday things kick off. Tsutayama bookstore, near Hirakata station As of today, I am covered in the Japanese health system, which is…
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