Second week began! No JCC/GTS dinner on September:(

The second week of the fall semester began and a few students withdrew for various reasons. But big drop will probably come after the first test! Unfortunately I have to cancel the September dinner because I will be heading to Ohio where I can meet with my former student who was 18 at that time and now 40! We will resume the dinner on October! Waubonsee Community College Japanese 101 has 21 students who eagerly study Japanese in my once-a-week class though it must be tough in that format!

Over 100 students in 1101 at A MOMENT!

As usual, including the class taught by my friend, all 1101 classes are full and some are even added! They are having trouble finding a seat in my class as well as a parking spot at COD! Many former students know there will soon be some mysterious seats and some students being beamed up to somewhere! 2201 is a class of very good size and I hope they will stay and enjoy themselves! I have to make a trip to Ohio during the Labor Day weekend to meet my very first student in the US (well, he was 18 now 40!) and his family, I have to cancel JCC/GTS dinner in September! The dinner will be back in Oct. 1! The first class at Waubonsee Community College will be tomorrow and 20 students have so far signed up. The class there will be held only once a week on Thursday so I am not sure how much they can learn but kind of interesting to see how it goes!

100 seats of Japanese 1101 are now completely filled!

Not only classes of GTS but my friend class has been filled! Well, out of these 100 plus some students, how many students will survive? Now is the betting time! hahaha! Truly hope everyone stay until the last day of the class but.... At least I am getting excited to have new faces in my class. I already noticed some familiar names coming back to the class!

GTS 1101 are filled!

75 seats of GTS 1101 are filled now. Well, as many of GTS family member knows, soon several ghost students appear! 2201 has 8 more seats left and there are a few students in 2251 now. Another 1101 class taught by Imamura-sensei, a good friend of GTS is still open and I encourage many of you to join her class before being filled. She is an elementary school Japanese teacher and know a lot of fun stuff! Though I am now busy preparing for the first class where I have to "threaten" you, I try getting excited to have the whole new students!

1101 Morning classes are full!

As Fall semester approaches, classes are gradually getting filled and now 1101 morning classes (10am and 11am M-Th) are full. GTS night 1101 class on Mon and Wed (5-7pm) has 16 in it. So 9 more seats left while 13 seats have been taken in 2201 class. As GTS was asked by Waubonsee Community College urgently, he has to teach their 101 class (once a week on Thursday between 2 and 4:45pm). So I will recruit some study abroad participants from there as well. There will be Chiristmas Trip to Japan under Humanities 1840 this fall (We will be in Japan from 12/17 through 12/27). Let's have some fun in Japan in Christmas! Certainly Summer Study Abroad will be back in next summer as well!

GTS is now back! Dinner tonight!

Today is the first Friday of the month and the regular GTS/JCC dinner will be held tonight! Some study abroad program returnees will join us. GTS was successfully returned to Chicago with his 4-year old daughter EMA 2 days ago and is trying his best to recover from the Jet lag! Morning classes of 1102 have 21 students each and 5pm class has 16. 2201 so far holds 14 students! By the way, Shingo's Christmas Field Study Trip has 3 students in now so join the trip (12/17/2010-12/27/2010)!

Kobe Oji Zoo!

GTS visited Oji Zoo in Kobe with his daughter and niece. It took 1.5 hours from Kyoto but it was quite worth visiting! Two Giant Panda bears were having fun and eating and Four Koala Bears from New Zealand were all so cute as well! I may add this zoo visit to the future trip plan!

GTS' Dad' Cineration Completed!

GTS's father passed away last summer right before the Study Abroad Program. For a year, his urn has been kept at home and this year his urn will be placed into Cinerarium after becoming the posthumous name tablet in Tanukidani (狸谷不動尊）. The cineration celemony was peacefully completed "Yasuragi-Byo (やすらぎ廟)" Cinerarium. Summer Study Abroad students visited this temple during their study last month! We will come back there again!