新しいHPいかがでしょうか?
10月より新しいHPをアップしております。
先に作成したリーフレットに合わせて、HPも青いタータンチェックをメインベースとした
とても素敵なものになったと思います。
ぜひご覧くださいませ。
Host mother experiences
A few weeks ago, two American girls stayed at my house in Aizu one Saturday. On that day we had lunch at a ramen restaurant which they really enjoyed. At the end of the meal one of the girls told me she knew that it was bad manners to stick chopsticks into rice but she wasn’t sure where she should put chopsticks after eating ramen noodle soup so I told her to place them together on the rim of her bowl.
That evening we went to a Japanese restaurant and they were surprised that we eat octopus in Japan. Most Americans don’t eat octopus and the girl told me that many Americans believe these sea creatures are evil monsters that suck blood! They were also surprised that we (and especially people in the Aizu area) eat “Manju tempura” as part of a main dish because a “Manju”is a small sweet cake and they thought it was only eaten as a dessert.
After dinner when we did some shopping at a supermarket,they were surprised at how neatly everything was displayed. Their comments made me think of “Omotenashi”which could be translated as “doing the best for customers” and I wondered what food displays looked like in US supermarkets.
ホストファミリーとして
先日、アメリカ、ダラスから2人の女の子がうちに滞在しました。そこで文化の違いを感じたエピソードをお話ししたいと思います。
喜多方ラーメンを食べにいった時のこと。ラーメンはとても気に入ってくれて美味しいと食べてくれました。しかし食べ終わってから箸の置き場に困っていたようです。ごはんに箸をさすのが悪い習慣だということはわかっていたようですが。なのでラーメンのどんぶりに箸を揃えて置くように教えてあげました。
その夜、日本食の料理屋に夕飯を食べに行った時、日本人がタコを食べることに驚いていました。なぜならタコは、欧米人にとって血を吸うモンスターだと信じられています。だからタコを食べることに違和感があるようです。それから、会津地方ではお饅頭を天ぷらとして食しますが、お菓子をおかずとして食べるのが不思議だったようです。日本人でもたまに驚かれますが。
それから、スーパーの陳列はよく整理されていることが驚きのようでした。やはり日本にはおもてなしの心があるので、お客様への感謝というか、Welcomeの気持ちの表れなのかと思います。
普段当たり前に思っていることが、文化の違いでこのように驚かれるとは!楽しい2日間でした。
WEC UK Summer Trip, 2013
この夏、7名の生徒さんがイギリス留学に参加され、それぞれ楽しい思い出を作って無事帰国致しました。
私の生徒さんの小学6年生Mちゃんも、最初は少し迷いながらも参加してくれました。しっかりしている子ですが、やはり初めての海外ということもあり、いろいろ不安はあったかもしれません。しかし最終日を迎える頃にはもう一週間いたいと思ったとか。楽しかったのでしょうね。クラスメート全員にお土産まで買ってきてくれて、大人になったなあと思います。
現地でお友達になったのは、香港やイタリアの子だとか。将来も英語の通じる国に行ってみたいという夢も持つことができました。
一番驚いたのは、英検4級のライティングデモテストで、35点中33点を取ったこと!留学の効果ありです!
What do people who need a size 28,29,30 shoe do in Japan?
It is often quite frustrating for me to go shopping for clothes and footwear here in Aizuwakamatsu. There are some very nice, fashionable items in the shops at reasonable prices but almost always the sizes are too small for me. When I go back to England I am just a fairly average sized person, standing at just under 180cms tall and I take a standard size 9.5 or 10 shoe in the UK which is a size 28 in Japan. The other day I really wanted to buy some stylish dock shoes for summer that I saw in some local shoe shops. They were not expensive either, just under 3,000 (GBP20). The same shoes in the UK would probably cost double that price. However, in all three shops I tried their biggest size was 27. It was so annoying. I felt it was unfair. I felt it was discrimination against all those people who take a size 28,29,30 etc shoe. Surely these days as younger Japanese men are getting taller and more Japanese men are getting broader, many of them need shoes larger than size 27? What do they do? Where and how do they buy fashionable shoes at reasonable prices? Do they have to settle for the very limited range of mostly unfashionable size 28,29,30 shoes that are available here? Buying shoes online is not a good idea as you really need to try shoes on for size and comfort. For me, I can order some clothes like shirts my size online. Otherwise going abroad is still a necessity to stock up on clothing and footwear which fits!
Business class or economy? Economy, please!
Surely most of us, if offered the choice, would prefer to fly business class on a long flight of 11 or 12 hours; business class seats are much larger and more comfortable, there is much more legroom, the service is more personal and attentive, the food and beverages are of a much superior quality. Who would not prefer business class?
I now know one person who would prefer to fly economy class, even he were offered a business class ticket. He is my father, John. After he flew business class from London Heathrow to Tokyo Narita on April 16th, he confessed to me that he would actually prefer an economy seat next time!
Last year when I contacted ANA about booking a flight for my father with my air miles, they told me that a business class ticket would only be 33% more expensive in terms of miles needed than an economy seat. In addition to that, they did not have an economy seat available on the return flight I requested. As a result of this information, I reserved a business class ticket for him. I had to use up almost all the air miles I had saved for the last 4-5 years to do so but, as he is quite old now, I wanted to treat him to a more comfortable flight.
However, when he arrived at Narita he told me that he could not sleep on the flight and he felt a little lonely as there were partitions between the passengers in business class which hindered conversation between passengers and besides, the other passengers did not appear to want to chat much, either. During the flight he only talked to the flight attendants. Once, when he got out of his seat to stretch his legs and drew back the dividing curtain between the business and economy classes, he saw the passengers in economy sitting side by side and some were chatting to each other merrily.
On arrival he said that, if he flew to Japan again he would prefer to fly in economy class!
British Hills Day Visit 2013

総勢39名で参加した、ブリヒルツアーは盛況に終わりました。こんなに人数が多かった年は初めてで、皆さんの意識の高さを伺うことができました。特に今年は、夏にイギリスサマー留学を控えているので、ちょっとしたイギリスブームというところでしょうか?
Christmas Concert 2013
今年も早いもので、半年が過ぎようとしております。Time flies so quickly!
当初、12月8日(日)を発表会として年間予定表に載せておりましたが、会場の予約状況の関係で、その前日7日の午後1時半開場、2時開演になりましたことをお知らせします。会津稽古堂は皆様ご存知のとおり、2年前に建てられ、その年出来たてのホールで、第一回目の発表会を開催したことは、記憶に新しいところです。年々ホールの予約をとるのが困難になっています。段々と周知されてきたからだと思います。加えて、稽古堂の登録団体(登録団体になるためには色々な条件をクリアしなければいけないと伺っています)が増えてきたのか、私共のような一般団体は、登録団体の先行予約の後に予約なので、希望の日時は中々難しいようです。朝早く並んだのですが、このような状況でしたのでご理解頂ければ幸いです。
とにかく、今年も楽しい会にしていきたいと思います。生徒さんからも、こういう内容が良いと、意見も出ているので、参考にしながら見極めていきたいと思っています。どうかお楽しみに!
Trip to British Hills 2013
また、このツアーのお知らせをさせていただく季節となりました。
その後、マナーハウスの案内をしていただきます。毎年のことですが、あの有名なドラマ、“花より男子”の道明寺家の設定ですから、2Fのlibraryに行くと興奮します。“ここに○潤が座っていたのだ~”と感動。去年もその話をしたら、若い男子のテンションが急に上がり、爆笑しました。
Winter to summer in 4 weeks!
It never fails to surprise me how quickly the weather changes in Aizu. Just a month ago we had snow on April 21st around the time the cherry trees were blossoming. Admittedly this is rather a rare occurrence but it happened and I have a nice photo of Aizu’s famous ancient cherry tree, the Ishibezakura on that day to prove it.