Princess’s dream♪

On the last day of “Bridal Week”, we spent our utmost effort to make a lady’s dream come true. Let’s dress up to the nines!!

Even though we didn’t have enough time to have a meeting, we tried our best to make it better than before.
There are professional hairstylists enrolled in our class, so we could do the job.

Thank you for all for the effort you put into our program!!
God bless you all.

Miyuki Fukuda

Trajal Hospitality & Tourism College (Tokyo)

Feeling HOT! HOT! HOT!! “Seafair” Summer Festivals in Seattle

Our students have been taking full advantage of the great summer weather in Seattle. In mid-July, the HTC programs at Edmonds and Shoreline visited Mount Rainier – the tallest mountain in the State of Washington and the third tallest in the U.S. (4392m) – and enjoyed about 3 hours of hiking with magnificent views. The hiking course elevation was about 1900m. (The summit of the mountain is too high for us to climb to the top.) We saw some wild animals like deer, marmot, chipmunks – and the Edmonds group even saw two bears!

Last weekend, many of our students were busy attending various Seafair festivals, such as an American Indian pow wow (dance festival), a food festival at Seattle Center, and the annual bon odori of the Seattle Japanese-American community.
At the American Indian pow wow, of course the HTC students were impressed by the extreme face makeup and fancy costumes of the Indian dancers, but many of the Indians were also impressed by our students’ yukata (they were wearing yukata to attend bon odori later that day), so the Indians and Japanses students were busy taking photos together and of one another.
The bon odori in Seattle is especially interesting because people of many races and cultural backgrounds all wear yukata, kimono, or happi and dance Japanese bon odori together. And the most surprising thing is that many of the Seattle locals – white people, black people, Latin American people, etc. – have practiced the dances in advance and can perform them quite well! Even the Seafair Pirates come to the bon odori and join the dancing.

After the bon odori, some of the Shoreline students went to Kerry Park on Queen Anne to celebrate a student’s birthday in full view of the Seattle skyline at sunset. The students were still wearing their beautiful yukata, so many of the other visitors in the park were impressed with how exotic they looked.There will be more Seafair festivals in the coming weeks. I will write about them next time.

In their classes, the HTC students have been working on various projects and presentations. For example, there was an international culture project in which the class PALs (teaching assistants) teach the students about their cultures and countries, and the students then report the information to the whole class. There was also a project in which the students present their individual talents, such as music, dance, magic, cooking, etc. And another project involved presenting the special characteristics and attractions of the various states of the U.S.

July 24, 2009
Neal Colodner

Whale Watching

Hi everyone,

It's Suzy again! I am excited to tell you about my short trip to NSW in July.

My husband and I went to Sydney, then drove to the NSW coast.

We went to Jervis Bay and took a boat cruise.

Here is the website if you want to look. http://www.whalecruises.com.au/

The weather was cold and windy but we enjoyed the views of the blue sea and the white, sandy beaches.

Jervis Bay is a famous Whale Watching area. You know, in Australia "Eco-Tourism" is very popular. It means tourists come to see the wonderful, natural environment and animals. We saw 2 humpback whales swimming and blowing spray. We saw 2 ocean dolphins. Exciting! Finally another dolphin swam next to the boat all the way back to the jetty. I'm sure the dolphin looked up and smiled at me! Really! It was so much fun.

Here are photos of me on the boat and the rocks.

You can see it was cold, but I can't stop smiling!

See ya,
Suzy (Melbourne)

Special Week

Hello. My name is Kazuko Sato and I am Manager of International Education at Trajal Hospitality & Tourism College. I am also a homeroom teacher of the students in International Course and we had a “special week” from Monday 13 July and Friday 17 July. Let me tell you what we did during the period.



The Monday was ‘Museum Appreciation’ day. We got together at JR Mitaka Station and visited Ghibli Museum. There was a lot of work by Studio Ghibli whose co-founder is Hayao Miyazaki, a prominent filmmaker of many popular animated feature films. If it had not been so hot, we could have walked along the Tamagawa-Josui river to the museum. Despite of a weekday, it was crowded with overseas visitors and children.





On the Tuesday and the Thursday, the students had intensive TOEIC lessons and the classes called “World Today”. Two teachers were invited externally: Peter Sensei did listening and Aaron Sensei taught about reading section. The “World Today” was about some current issues and Tsukada sensei conducted the five series of lessons – global warming, food crisis, starving children, ethnic conflict, and space elevator.



The Wednesday was ‘Art Appreciation’ day. The students tried wearing Yukata, the cotton summer Kimono, with students in Hotel Course. They learnt from what to wear under the Yukata to how to fold it before putting it away. After the lesson, they tried writing English about their experience – some wrote about the way to put on Yukata and the others made an introduction of Kimono in itself.




The Friday was ‘Field Trip & Ethnic Food Experience’. We got on a Sky Bus in front of Tokyo Station and enjoyed the 50-minute tour. The weather was nice – we did not need either an umbrella or a sunshade. After that we moved to Hiroo and tried some Thai and Sudanese food at Café Frontier in JICA Global Plaza. They even sold some fair-trade goods in the shop!

The main theme of the Special Week was “Knowing me, knowing you” and I would like the students know some bits of Japanese culture as well as overseas situation. In September, we will try having Iranian food, visiting Edo Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, watching Noh & Kyogen, trying Tea Ceremony and walk an oversea visitor around Yokohama! In the meantime, have a lovely summer holiday!!

Kazuko Sato
Trajal Hospitality & Tourism College (Tokyo)

School Holidays in Australia

Beautiful Sunrise in Gold Coast


Blue Mountains

Our tour leaders, Bec and Janelle from Student Services

Mika and Takane had Birthday during the Tour

Opera House in Sydney

Opera House in Sydney

Hello!

We visited Sydney and the Gold Coast during our school holidays.
We could have a lot of good experience!
I would like to show our pictures.
Please enjoy these photos. (＾＾)

Konomi (Melbourne)

＊♪＊ TOU-NICHI-BUN (vol.6) ＊♪＊

The students from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan

(short-term study course; 7/2~7/31)

went on a trip on the 11th and 12th of July.
They enjoyed so much!

Our resourceful staff,

Mr. Lo and Ms. Sarukura led them to the trip.

J.Fujisaki

Tokyo Japanese Language & Culture College

♪ Come and see our balloon decorations ♪

Theme Park Course’s first year students made balloon flowers

and put them on display in the entrance of the auditorium at the 8th floor.

For relief from the summer heat, come and take a look at our “garden”.(^O^)／

Shigeno

Trajal Hospitality & Tourism College (Tokyo)

Winter in Victoria

Hi everybody, it's Suzy!

I am enjoying winter in Victoria. Are you hot in Japan in summer?
Two weeks ago I went to visit Marysville. It was a small town near Melbourne.
Marysville burned in the bush fires in February this year.
Maybe you read about the terrible fires here in the Aussie summer?
Marysville burned and now there is no town.

My family and I drove to the mountains near Marysville.
We saw the white winter snow and the black burnt trees.
It was amazing. I have a photo for you to see.
It is a sad photo, but the next photo is happy.
The new leaves have started to grow on the trees.
Life is beginning again! I think the photo is beautiful and hopeful.
In spring the tress will grow and become strong again.

I hope you like the photos.
I hope this year brings new things for you all.

Cheers!

Suzy - Trajal Coordinator (Melbourne)

Summer Quarter, Summer Season

The students came back from their Quarter Break vacation and travel with a new confidence, as if their ability to travel by themselves in America and Canada gave them a sense of accomplishment. Some of them saw the Statue of Liberty in the “Big Apple” (New York), some went to California, others went to Vancouver and Victoria in Canada. I went to the Olympic Mountains of Washington State with some students. There was still snow in the mountains, and we saw many wild deer and a powerful waterfall.

In their first week back at school, the Shoreline students took a trip to Bainbridge Island by ferry. On the ferry, they had to interview other passengers about their purpose in using the ferry, where they came from, etc. And in the second week, the Edmonds students visited the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

Last Saturday, July 4, was America’s Independence Day – the only day that America has big fireworks displays – so many students spent the day at Gas Works Park in Seattle, waiting for the fireworks show at night. The show lasted only 30 minutes, but was very powerful and well coordinated with inspirational music. By coincidence, the full moon was shining brightly right in the middle of the fireworks, making the show especially beautiful. I think about 30 or 40 HTC students went to see the big fireworks show in Seattle. The total audience had about 50,000 people! Other students saw smaller fireworks displays in their local neighborhoods.

In the month of July, there is a festival somewhere in Seattle every week, and I am looking forward to attending some with the students and watching them enjoy American and local culture.

July 9, 2009
Neal Colodner (Seattle)

Email from mentee in Saipan

Hello! I’m Yuka Takeda from Osaka.
I got an email from a graduate who works at Hyatt Regency in Saipan.

Hello! I’m Saeko. How are you? Do you remember me?!
It has been one month since I came to Saipan. I’m sorry not to email you soon.

The ocean in Saipan is extremely beautiful but that’s it (LOL).
Time flies slowly so I can relax.
I work at the office now and I enjoy working here.

It might be too early to think about next year but I’m worried about my future.
After I go back to Japan, I would like to live in Yokohama or another country.

I’m looking forward to seeing you!

Saeko