Etsu

I went to an authentic Japanese restaurant "Etsu" in Liverpool.



I had sea bass which was very tasty.



Katsu curry is popular in UK although I'm not sure it's authentic Japanese food or not.

A Building

Can you imagine what this building for from the outside?


This is a Catholic church in Liverpool. If you’re interested in the inside, you can have a look from the following web link:
http://www.liverpoolmetrocathedral.org.uk/tour/panoramas.html

The 45th House of Representatives Election

I tried to use the system which started from May 2000 and vote for the 45th House of Representatives Election. Each one of procedures isn’t difficult but there is many procedures and took time. At first I need to go to the Embassy of Japan and register for my right of voting from UK which takes two to three months. After this register, I get a card and if I go to the Embassy of Japan in London or go back to Japan with this card, I can vote there immediately however I wished to vote in Manchester so I had to require ballots from Seika town where I’d registered before coming here.



For getting ballots from Seika town, I had to send snail mail with application form and the card. Unfortunately I made a mistake here. Do you notice it on my envelope? Yes, I forgot to write “JAPAN” on the envelope so this one returned to me. I needed to use another envelope with a new stamp. It’s all my fault but waste of time and money:’(



After several days of my second snail mail, I received registered mail and it was ballots. In UK even my driver’s license was delivered by normal mail. I’m surprised that Seika town officers spent 1,500yen to deliver ballots by EMS. They put a big envelope for return and said, “we recommend you using EMS because it’s safe, fast and you can also track your delivery although you need to pay the fee by yourself.” What a kind and useful information. Why do I have to send it back to Japan not London? Because we can vote in London so they’ll report or send those ballots to Japan. Why I can’t get ballots from London or website? I don’t know how many Japanese people vote from foreign countries however I’m sure there are many ways to simplify and saving money and time.  
This time I use normal delivery and cross my fingers to arrive my ballots by weekend.

Volunteer Work

In return for teaching a Japanese class at the International Society, I can attend the other language classes for free and can also get a free lunch per week at the cafe. In addition they have a party for all language teachers. I took Spanish class, Arabic class and English class for free and became friends with French and Chinese teachers at the party. I also enjoyed having lunch at cafe without doubt. These were what I expected from my volunteer work as a Japanese teacher and I thought it was satisfactory. Fortunately, I got something much more from it.
During two years in Manchester, I took English classes in all terms and noticed 10 lessons doesn’t help to improve my English, however, after taking Spanish class I admit 10 lessons give me some particular idea towards the language. I recognized that studying language from a native speaker affect my understanding a lot. My Spanish teacher tried to speak as much Spanish as possible during the class, so I gradually understand which words sound natural. In the 10th lesson she prepared an exam and I got better mark than I thought and it was amazing experience.
After starting volunteer work, I got some paid work offers. Some of them were Japanese teacher as paid work. My Japanese class is held on daytime so people who work regularly can’t attend it and asked special arrangement in private. Their spouses are Japanese but they usually communicate in English so they didn’t have an opportunity to study Japanese.
I also got a job offer of marketing research work which I’ve never done it before. Although I gave up attending Arabic class, I started marketing research work. Many interesting things started from one volunteer work.

Japanese Archery

When I arrived in Manchester two years ago, I tried to find a place for practicing 弓道, Japanese Archery. I searched web site with key words “Manchester, Japanese Archery” however I couldn’t find any place where I could join.
Recently one of my friends told me that he practices Japanese Archery in Manchester and the organization shows their information on web site. I wondered whether the facility was built in two years however he told me it’s not a new one and it’s been there at least more than five years. Why didn’t I find them on web site two years ago? He told me if I would use key words “Manchester, Kyudo” I would find it. Oh dear, I didn’t have to translate “Kyudo” to “Japanese Archery”. I found it without problem and I saw some photos; only one difference from Japan I noticed is there are no girls. My friend told me only two girls join Kyudo practice in Manchester at moment. My problem is that their practice starts from 8:30am on Saturdays. It would take one hour to go there so I just hesitate to join them. I know it would be worth to get up early in the morning and practice Kyudo in Manchester but I’m a lazy.

A Japanese language teacher

I’ve been thinking about becoming a Japanese language teacher since I came to Manchester two years ago. There is an international organization and they always welcome volunteer language teachers. Each one term has 10 lessons and one lesson is 90 minutes. In every term, I felt that I wasn’t ready for teaching Japanese. Finally I notice I would never be ready for teaching Japanese in future so I decide to start this term.
I thought it would be the most difficult to teach beginners class because Japanese is different from any other languages in characters and grammars. I had no idea which I should start to teach so I asked possibility to teach intermediate class. However the Society told me there were no intermediate Japanese speakers in Manchester. I had no choice but to teach beginners class.
In my first lesson, I was planning to teach Japanese pronunciation with Hiragana letters, how to introduce ourselves, some standard greetings and counting numbers. I thought it would take 90minutes.
My students are from China, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Germany. They evaluated their Japanese levels were almost zero however all of them pronounce Japanese without problem. I noticed Japanese pronunciation is quite easy for them. In addition their quick answeres and understanding amazed me. If I teach them how to count numbers in Japanese, they immediately understand the rules and remember them and use them without problem. So I finished everything within 90minutes so I prepared more curriculums from the second lesson. I’ve already finished seven lessons.
The other day, my Japanese friend bumped into my Korean student. He spoke to my Japanese friend in Japanese and she thought he was Japanese! This is a big progress and it made me happy. Just three more lessons are remaining and I’d like to form some particular vocabularies and useful phrases in their mind.