Graduation

Yesterday I graduated in law and politics from my university.

Here are the photos.

My basketball circle Penetrate members. From the left; Jun-chan(F), Take(PG), Sho-chan(SG), Abe-chan(PF)

And Satoshi(PG) making a V-sign next to me is the best friend in my circle. He is from Okinawa and Jun-chan too.

The boy wearing a white hakama(long pleated culotte-like Japanese trousers) is Maru. He's from the same high school and was a captain of our basketball club. I introduced him on the former article in my blog. Have a look at the article "Love Basketball."

These five boys belong to my seminar. I don't like my seminar because of our crazy professor and content, but the memory with these boys is so precious. From the left; Furuken, Yanoken, Dai-chan, Mutty, Take, Yosuke.

Here is my best professor Mike Nix. We met when I was a sophomore. He speaks high-speed British English so my listening must be trained. Next week he will go back to England as a sabbatical. If I have time, I want to visit him this summer.

Well, I don't feel so sad because I just graduated from the Faculty of Law. I need to go to the Faculty of Literature one more year and take some English classes to get the teaching certificate. So this year, in brief, I work at the cram school and go to the university. Am I a student or a member of society?(^o^;)

Anyway, most of my friends graduated from the university. I would hardly meet them unless anything special happens. I miss them. Take care and see you some day, everyone!!

Egypt Tour

I'm sorry to be late for updating my blog. And there are a lot of special events in March, so I'll tell you about them one by one.

As you know if you see this title, I went to Egypt with my friend. I stayed there for eight days including at the flight between Narita and Cairo. It was really hard to sit on my seat during the flight because it took about 14 hours, the longest flight I've ever experienced in my life.

Here are my Egypt tour schedule.

・arrive at Cairo International Airport

・visit and sightsee Alexandria

・go back to Cairo and leave for Luxor

・sightsee Luxor
・leave for Aswan and sightsee there

・leave for Abu Simbel and sightsee there

・get on a Nile express(sleeping car) for Cairo

・go to Giza and Cairo Museum

・leave for Narita

I think this is so hard for usual tourist because we visited 6 cities in 8 days.

In particular, when we go to Abu Simbel, our tour conductor called our room at 1:45 as a wake-up call, and we left our hotel at 3:00......So sleepy all we were. (≧へ≦；)

Everyone slept in a bus, but I didn't sleep.


I found the twinkle sarry sky in a dark desert.


I was so impressed and thouht that the scene of twinkle stars and the bright moon in a desert area was like a song named "Moon Desert(月の砂漠)" And of course I watched the sunrise. At that time, I could sympathize why the ancient Egyptian had believed in the power of sun.

Here is Abu Simbel. Don't you know?

This day made us so tired. But through this day, I got friends with other participants.

Look at this photo. Here is the Nile express from Abu Simbel to Cairo.

After arriving at Cairo, of course, our trip kept going. The final day, we visited pyramids in Giza. And of course we watched sphinx, and enjoyed riding camels.

Here are the photos. Oops, all we wore pink colored T-shirt because we got soooooo friendly each other and bought the same T-shirts.



There are a lot of places where we were prohibited to bring our camera. For example, we couldn't bring our camera into the Cairo Museum, in which Tutankhamen's golden mask is exhibited. You had better go to Egypt someday when you're young!!(^o^;)

It is so dirty and dusty in Egypt but there are also including a lot of mysterious monuments and romantic scenes.


If I had had a girlfriend, I could have enjoyed more and more....

Farewell

At first I want to say "goodbye" and "Do your best" to Shoko. I think you're a good student, especially your attitude toward English. Never forget the final goal!! Keep on practicing reading English clearly and building up your vocabulary more and more. I hope you will spend a nice year. See you someday. (^o^)/


Secondly, my work at Eikoh have finished today. I wrote letters to some of my students to cheer up. And they gave me a letter, too. Now I read all of them, and I think I was in a so happy situation. They are so kind to me, so unique, and so attractive.
Sayuri, Kurumi, Monami, Goto, Amada, Kusano, Nishihara, Seki, and Yokotatsu.... They came to study for their exam without regard to this bad weather. I really want them to success. And Hagisho also came to see me! How kind!! I think they are really nice. I'm proud of all of my students. I never teach English to them hereafter, so all I have to do is to wish their luck. Be possitive and have good days with your friends and teachers.

Bye.

Crushing Defeat...

Only 27.6% of the students have passed the entrance examination. I've never seen this number since I started to work in Eikoh, so still now I can't believe this year's result....

Of course I feel happy that some of my students have passed the exam, but I couldn't congratulate them truly today. The first girl that came back to the cram school after watching her examinee's number were weeping for her failure. On seeing her face, I kept my teardrop back somehow. Why does God betray the students who have made every effort to pass the exam?? Why??


I'm so sorry. It's my fault. So sorry.


I can't settle down to do anything. I really want to pass myself away....



This Friday and Saturday is the very last time to work as an Eikoh teacher. And next Thursday is our last chance to turn the tables. I'll do my best on whatever they need!

Cleaning

A new week has been started. The time has come when I have to say "goodby" to my Eikoh students this week, but what can I do for them???


Anyway, yesterday I went to Eikoh as usual and cleaned my file cabinet. My 3 and half years were always there, and my work was to pick up the memories one by one, which had been scattered and left there long time. I was so surprised that I got a lot of things from my students like these below.



I'm sure I never forget my all the students I taught or talked with. Some of them gave me a letter. Some of them gave me a pen. And some of them gave me a picture. Through looking at them, I ruminated over and over my students' smiles....So precious. They are all in all to me.

I don't want to show my tearful face, so I intend to say "goodby" with smiling. But before doing that, I must touch up them to pass the exams. It is said "Leave everything neat and clean behind you", isn't it?



Well, I got to remind the experience which one of my students showed me a picture. She found it in front of the drugstore Matsumoto Kiyoshi. How about making a search for my name in Katakana "タケ". (*^ν^)/

Valentine

Today each of my students went to high schools to take entrance exams. I waited for them at the station this morning, and I could meet Yoshiro, Moriyasu, Amada, and Mura, and I cheered them up to win the landslide victories.


Anyway yesterday was the day of Valentine, and I got two gifts from my students. Here are the pictures.

The one with pop package you can see the letters "THANK YOU" is from 12 & 14 year-old girls, and the other gorgeous one is from 17 year-old girl. Have a look at the following enlarged photos!! (≧▽≦)




How much do you know about Valentine's Day?


In ancient times marriage was strictly prohibited by Roman Emperor Claudius Ⅱ. On the other hand, the priest Valentine secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had valentine arrested and thrown in jail. The day when Valentine was executed got to be called Saint Valentine's Day.

Also, I found an interesting article about Valentine on BBC.
The main topic is about the Kenyan rose growers who earn less sales than usual because of the world financial crisis. And additional topic is also interesting. The original meaning of Valentine's Day seems to have been lost a little; in Japan and South Korea girls have to give "giri-choco" to their co-workers. That means giving chocolates is an obligation event for women these days. Moreover, in south Korea, there is Black Day on April 14th, unlucky men gather together to eat Chinese-style black noodles. How pity!! (^。^;)


If you're interested in, please click here.

→http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8513045.stm

anxiety

The private high schools' entrance exams have taken place not only in Saitama but in Tokyo since this week. Now I have more than 20 students who have to take the high school's entrance exams, and I'm eager to support them.

But I can't sweep off my anxiety to the exams... so it's really hard to fall asleep every night. Yesterday I slept at about 2:00 and wake up at 5:00, went to the Urawa station and said "FIGHT" to my students this morning. My life got to be a worst one now. The only method to improve my life is to see or hear my students' pass.

Especially the students who will go to public high schools must be in the severe condition. There are keen competition for some high schools such as Urawa, Ichijyo, Omiya, Ichiritsu, Warabi, Urawa Minami, and so on... and we'll need to get higher score than now if we really want to pass.

I believe that we're absolutely strong in terms of the mental growth. To get a high score, they have to compose their thoughts and try to be calm.

I'm looking forward to hearing their good announcements.