After saying goodbye to our students, we went home for a well earned sleep after a hard days work. A day at Disneyland is harder than teaching all day.

Some of the grounds decorations. The grounds are constantly cleaned and kept on prime condition all day long. The entrance fee to Disneyland was around $50 but fortunately our company paid for the entrance and a small amount for food.

At Disneyland they even have a parking lot for baby strollers.

Colleen got into the whole Mickey Mouse thing. We stopped for lunch at our favorite pizza place.

Of course I couldn't go to Disneyland without having a smoked turkey leg and my students enjoyed one as well. By the way Darrell, I had 2 turkey legs this time.

This was at the main entrance to Disneyland and gives you a bit of an idea about what the traffic was like.

Sunday June 3rd we went to Disneyland with 18 of our students. It was a cloudy day but we did manage to get sunburns. It was crowded and we were on our feet for 8 hours so it was a bit tiring. We did enjoy the time with our students outside the classroom. Kate and Lynn are the other 2 teachers and Ikue is our program coordinator.

I believe we hit the right weekend as it wasn't crowded and the roses were in full bloom.

Colleen really enjoyed the time at the park and there were so many flowers to enjoy, she was in her glory here.

It was an amazing display and it only lasts for about one month of the year.

Last weekend we found this rose garden on the internet and discovered it was only about half an hour from our apartment so we headed there on Saturday. It was a breath of fresh air. There were over 6000 roses here and hundreds of different varieties. ( Sorry Pete but you are going to have to take time to smell the roses.)

This is at our present university , this is where the building used to be that we taught in when we first came to Japan. It has taken them 8 months to tear down the old building and do a bit of escavating. A new building eventually will appear in this location.

Several rivers run through Tokyo and they are all polluted. Japan has a ways to go in cleaning up their environment.
I think we have been going through a bit of culture shock this time. It apparently happens to everyone but it has taken a little longer with us probably due to the short stays we have had here. After a while the way a different culture does things begins to grate a bit. Not that we aren't enjoying it this time, it is just that you begin to wonder about some of their ways and thinking. In Tokyo the sun sets at 7:00 so we miss the long evening you are experiencing now. However I don't think I would trade you weather for ours right now. It has been mostly in the low 20's since we have come.

Just a minute ago we had our second earthquake and it really shook our apartment, definitely a different experience than what we are used to in Canada. It only lasted a few seconds but you certainly know there is a force underneath.
This picture was taken from the university building where we had one day of training when we first arrived. You can see the pollution in the air. We definitely live in a concrete jungle and often crave the wide open spaces of the prairies.

We apologize to our blog watchers, we have really been lax in getting anything up this term. However, we are in Japan and have completed a month already. Classes are going very well and we really enjoy our students. It took a while to adjust as the jetlag hit us fairly hard this time. We have had to adjust our diet this term as Jim is attempting to keep his blood sugar levels down but he seems to have that under control; he checks his blood daily.
We are doing well and have only experienced one small earthquake so far. This picture is in a garden near our apartment.

There are some traditional decorations for Christmas over here but there are also the type shown here. We often hear Christmas carols in English and we are thankful for that. It reminds of us home and we are anxious to return now. So Merry Christmas and God bless. See you soon.

This is the building in which we had previously taught so obviously we were in a new location this term. Our new facilities are actually quite good. It is very interesting the way in which a building is demolished here. There are still classes going on in buildings all around this one.

We have experienced probably more rain this autumn term than last year but it is still usually mild weather that accompanies it.

Yesterday was our last day of classes and it is a bit of an emotional day as many students are in tears to see their teachers leaving. After classes the staff went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner and farewell.

Mid December and we still have bushes blooming by our apartment. We'll soon be home to face different conditions.

This was the little chruch we went to last Sunday. We met in the upper room and their were 50-60 adults in attendance. They have an earlier service for families with children. The service was in Japanese but a man sat behind us and interpreted for us. It was amazing to here some of the songs we knew sung in Japanese. We met many there who could speak English so after the service we had a meal in the lower level and had a good time of fellowship. It was good to know that we were not alone.
Next Sunday, the gal who has Bible study with us is coming to chruch with us.

Near our busstop.

This was taken right by our apartment.

The fall colors are still on the trees here.

Sukiyaki was our main course at dinner and you can see it in the picture. It cooks on a little burner in the centre of the table. It has a sauce and in it we were cooking vegetables, mushrooms and beef. It was an excellent meal and the beef was great.
We had started the meal with a small plate of roots and whale meat. The whale meat was like a jerky but we could have done without it. Anyway we ate it, first time for everything.
In the little bowl by the burner is a raw egg and that is for dipping the vegetables and meat in, it was actually not too bad.

A Japanese family invited us for dinner one Saturday, we spent 2-3 hours at the dinner table and they gave us lots to eat. We were sitting on the floor but they gave us back rests.

This is a flowering bush also inside the school grounds.

These are small palm trees that are growing on the grounds of this high school near our morning bus stop.

This is the second way they advertise their candidates. They stand at train stations and bus stops with banners and shout out their propaganda. The third way is that they go around the neighborhoods in vans with loud speakers blasting the airwaves. I find this last one very annoying but the locals seem to accept it. Anyway I think the election is over soon.

There are obviously some political campaigns going on in Japan at the present. All over the city are these billboards and all the candidates have a number where they can put their posters. This seems to be the only place to put posters, I don't see any in other locations. It does keep the city clean, not like in Canada where there are posters all over lawn, boulevards and hydro poles. This is one of the ways they advertise here.

This is a picture looking out onto Matsudo City from our staffroom window at the university.

This is Jim's favorite, those shrimp are incredible.

This is one of the restaurants that we frequent and it is close to the university. Colleen,s favorite is the one in the centre, a vegetable and cheese dish.

Plastic food is displayed at most restaurants here to let you know what is on the menu and also the actual size of the serving, I think it is a great ideas, especially for foreigners like ourselves. There is a whole industry over here that just manufactures plastic food for displays.

There aren't only pigeons in London, there are plenty of them in Tokyo as well.

The staff from the British Isles had been talking about these kebabs they always eat at home and I said I had never heard of them. That same weekend we were in Tokyo and we saw this guy selling kebabs. I had to try one and it was delicious. I had a hot beef kebab in a pita shell, try one if you ever get a chance.

These students were performing as Hawaiian dancers . It was a very cool day so they must have been cold posing for pictures .

These are some of the students entertaining at the university festival.

We pass by this tree every morning on our way to the bus stop.

It is near the end of November but there are still lots of flowers blooming here.

They do some decorating for Christmas here, these lights were placed on the trees at our university this week. Christmas here is not celebrated really and it is not a holiday. Because it falls on a Monday this year people will be a work as usual.

These are rooms at the university where courses are offered. I don't know about the tearoom but I think some of our Canadian students could learn something in the manners room. The students at this university are so polite and well-mannered that they are a pleasure to teach.

More cakes, they are quite amazing.

These were some of the cakes that were on display at the university last weekend.

This is a picture of one of the piano rooms at our university. There were approximately 100 pianos in this room and many side rooms with more pianos, there was also another floor which was similiar. The students here use headphones and noone else can hear them play. Music is one of the major subjects taught at Seitoku University.