＊♪＊ TOU-NICHI-BUN (vol.8) ＊♪＊

The ninth annual Japanese speech contest was held on August 20th with 1 student representing each of the 15 classes.

Their original characters were reflected in the contents of their speeches and we were proud of the students’ ability and humor.

The first prize in the contest went to Miss Jiyeong Jeon.
The title of the speech was “The warmth of the winter”.
Her beautiful poetic sentences and sensibility gave us a great feeling.

Congratulations, Miss Jiyeong!

J.Fujisaki
Tokyo Japanese Language & Culture College

Trajal summer festival 2009

Building better relationships with the locals is indispensable for companies or schools. Our management principles are “Contributions to Local Communities” and “Practice Hospitality.” We have been focusing on developing our school along with maintaining good relationships with the locals for many years.

We held the “Karaoke Singing Competition” as part of such efforts on Aug. 20.
There were many participants who seemed to enjoy very much the event with opened arms and warm smiles.

The foreign students displayed their skills in preparing Korean dishes such as Buchimge (flat pan cake), Kimpap (rolled sushi), Chapche (a mixed dish of vegetables and sliced meat; chop sooy), Tokppok i(a broiled dish of sliced rice cake ) and Sikhe (a sweet drink made from fermented rice) for participants. Everyone enjoyed the items with gusto.

During the festival a class was held, allowing participants to make a cocktail. It also included a chance to gain first-hand insights into the job of a flight attendant and so forth. They enjoyed the class very much and we all shared the precious moments.

Satoshi Tsukada ( Webmaster / Tokyo )

Travel Journal Educational Foundation

Whistler School Trip Aug. 17 – 20

In mid-August the entire Seattle program – Edmonds, Shoreline, and seven internship students from Kanagawa University – went to Whistler resort in British Columbia, Canada for a 3-night 4-day school trip. We were blessed with great weather and everyone enjoyed various outdoor sports, such as golf, tennis, cycling, horse-back riding, running, swimming, canoe & kayaking, hiking, basketball, and even zip-line traveling through the forest. The first morning, I was really surprised how many students woke up early to join the 5 km run – 33 runners, but the number decreased each morning, and on the last day only 9 runners came out.



On our first night, we had a dinner/dance party, at which we celebrated Mr. Nojima’s birthday by dressing him like Michael Jackson. Everyone had a wild time eating, drinking, and dancing. The second night was our Cooking Contest; the students from each room prepared their most delicious dish, and the four teachers served as judges. The winning entrée was stir-fry kimchee and vegetables made by the Kanagawa University students. Late each night, when it was dark outside, many students went out to look for a dark place away from the lights of Whistler Village, where they could view the stars. The night sky was clear and the star-scape was magnificent.
We also saw a few shooting stars.







On day 3, a group of 13 of us rode the gondola up Whistler Mountain, and we hiked about 3 km to the mountain peak, where there is a structure made of huge stone slabs. It is called “Ilanaaq” and it is the symbol of Whistler. (I think you will see it often in the TV broadcasts of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler.) Along the hiking course, there were many mini-versions of the Ilanaaq made by hikers. They reminded me of “Jizo” statues in Japan. We tried making a few too. After hiking, we rode the “Peak to Peak Gondola” that connects Whistler Mountain to Blackcomb Mountain. The air was a bit hazy,
but the views of the sprawling valley below were fantastic.

Aside from sports, students enjoyed the pool, spa, and sauna in the hotel and shopping in Whistler Village. Among souvenirs, Canadian maple syrup, maple sugar cookies, and Vancouver Olympics mascot toys were popular.

Neal Colodner August 27, 2009 (Seattle)

Beach Volleyball in winter, Greek Dinner and Dance

Beach Volleyball in winter

It is still cold in Melbourne, but we are having a couple of windy days and flowers start blooming. Spring is just around the corner!
It’s time to go out and play sports! So we played Beach Volleyball!
There is a place near our campus where we can play Beach Volleyball all year around. You can see on the photos,
it is indoor beach!
Beach Volleyball is harder than normal one because we play on the sand; it was the first time for many of us, but GREAT FUN!!!

Ryoko Yoshiura (Melbourne)

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Greek Dinner and Dance

Hello, everyone! Here is still a bit chilly Melbourne.

Melbourne is well known as a multi cultural city.
Walking through the city, you can see so many different nationalities.
It's just like a miniature version of the world!
One of the majority nationalities is Greek.

So, we organized dining out at a Greek restaurant the other night!
19 students and staff included some last year's students who visited us from Japan enjoyed Greek taste! My favorite dish of Greek food is Tzatziki, which is served as an appetizer and thick creamy texture. You can dip in or spread on the bread! Yummy!

During the fantastic meal, we enjoyed dancing Greek traditional dance with other customers and watching professional dancer's sexy(?) dance as well.
When you come to Melbourne, please have a try "Greek Experience!".

Mariko Yoshikawa (Melbourne)

Trajal Special Course

We conducted a lecture of how to use a timetable at the Railroad Museum in Ohmiya City from Aug. 11 to 13, 2009.
Railroad enthusiasts came to learn how to use the timetable and took a certificate timetable exam.
A total of 473 parents and youths participated in the course.

Harigai

Public Relations Department (Tokyo)

A letter from an alumni of the Hotel Course in Dubai.

Hi everybody. This is Issei.
It’s been a month already since I first got here in UAE.
It’s extremely hot!! The temperature goes up to 43℃～45℃ in the daytime. The humidity level is unexpectedly high.

I don’t know why but not many Asian people are here in UAE.
There are many staff from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and the Philippines. Six Japanese are working in this hotel including myself. Four are at the front desk and two are chefs. I’m in charge of guest relations with the Japanese girl who is the same age as me.

I’m still having a hard time to communicate with other staff members in English.

Life is so much different from the one I had in Japan.

Of course, this is not Japan!!
I know I’m the one has to adapt to new circumstances.
Maybe it takes time to get used to it. But I can still enjoy my life here because I go to Dubai every weekend. I’m planning to spend 6 months to look around other hotels in UAE.
I can hardly wait!!

The company’s cafeteria serves curry or curry-flavored items almost every day. I miss Japan.
I’m attaching a snapshot of the manager Ms. Negishi and myself, and a wild camel.

Issei (Dubai)

School Visit

Greetings from Melbourne!
It is getting warmer day by day here in Melbourne.
Everyone is waiting for Spring to come.

We visited the Japanese class at Xavier College in Kew.
Xavier is a very traditional Catholic boy school.
We, Trajal Melbourne Campus, have a very good long-term relationship with the Japanese class there.

The buildings are like in the Harry Potter films!
Our Japanese students could not stop taking photos!

We did a lot of Japanese-English activities together and had sushi afterwards.

Yoko Quinn (Melbourne)

Balloon Festival！！

Balloon works made by students in their second year have been displayed at the JBAN balloon contest.

The theme of this year’s event was “Snacks.”
The balloon works depict a prince riding on a horse coming to get the princess waiting on the top of a decorated cake.
The students were impressed by the professional balloon works shown at the contest every year.

Masami Shigeno

Trajal Hospitality & Tourism College (Tokyo)

Footy

I went to a footy game with my mum Jennifer, my dad Geoff and Maya!

Footy is Australian football, and it's very popular here in winter!
(The popular sport in summer is cricket.)

We cheered Geoff's team “HAWKS”,
and they won!!!

We sang Hawks' song :)

We enjoyed it very much,
and I want to go there again!

See ya!

Yuri (Melbourne)

＊♪＊ TOU-NICHI-BUN (vol.7) ＊♪＊

We conducted a technical college entrance briefing for students on Aug. 28th and 30th. For the event, we invited eight graduates who gave participants some practical advice.
The students asked them what should we do while attending the class in TOU-NICHI-BUN. In response, all the graduates answered “Study Kanji.”

Good luck to our students!

J. Fujisaki
Tokyo Japanese Language & Culture College

Seafair Climax, Mercury Rising

The Seattle summer festival season – “Seafair” – climaxed with 2 big events over the past two weekends. On Saturday July 25 there was the “Torchlight Parade” in which representatives of various cultural, sports, municipal, and business organizations of Seattle march through downtown Seattle with various costumes and floats and huge balloons. The parade takes place in the evening/night, hence the name “torchlight”. Preceding the parade was an 8 km race along the parade route. Eight HTC students and I participated in the race. Hironori Igarashi from JHS was the fastest from our group, finishing in 30:25. All of the HTC participants finished within 50 minutes. Before the race, we got to take a picture with the Seattle Seahawks (football) cheerleaders.

During the past week Seattle achieved new record-high temperatures – 110°F (about 43℃) in some areas. Seattle usually does not get nearly that hot, so many homes – and classrooms – do not have air conditioning, and many of our students were feeling uncomfortable. But on the bright side, the humidity was not so bad, and the extreme heat lasted only 4 days, after which it cooled down a bit. Fortunately, by the time most students took the TOEIC exam last Friday (July 31), the temperature was more bearable. The warm sunshine, however, is continuing. The only rain we have had since June was a brief, light shower just after the Torchlight Run last Saturday.

The final Seafair event is the hydroplane races, and the Blue Angels Air Show over Lake Washington. The Blue Angels are a fleet of seven US Navy fighter jets that perform aerial stunts, flying very close together at super-high speed. Many HTC students will go to the shores of Lake Washington to watch the thrilling show under sunny blue skies. The Edmonds students had a field trip to the Boeing Museum of Flight last Thursday, where they able to watch the Blue Angels taking off and landing as they practiced their routines. Some students even took photos with the Blue Angel pilots.

Neal Colodner
August 2, 2009
(Seattle)