christmas lights in tenjin

the weekend before christmas, i had to work. on saturday (17th) there was a christmas party at the juku where i work. hiro went with me, since he joins the class that i teach regularly. it was quite fun. i was in the card making room. i had to give the directions in english. one 'teacher', someone i don't work with usually, automatically translated. *sigh* oh well, it was fun making cards! there were three groups of about 10 kids so they rotated through three different activities over the course of an hour, then it was song singing time. they sang a japanese song about santa (it seems to be popular, my kids learned it at kindy) and then silent night. the teachers asked me to sing the first verse in english. since we did not practice before hand, they played the song in a really high key, which was a bit difficult for me! it was fine, though, and one kid actually complimented me. how nice. then it was picture time and finally the kids got a gift; an individual christmas cake.

after that hiro and i had some time to spend together, so we had lunch together, and then went home (so i could prepare for the following day's lessons.)

on sunday i went to fukuoka city for a one-day teaching project. i had to teach four hours, four different lessons to one class. the students were elem. and jr. high kids who are going to australia for 8 or 10 days for a homestay, and this was a kind of intensive english for them. most of them were pretty good at english, but all were shy. also, very few of them knew each other before having this class, so at first the lesson(s) was very quiet! at lunch, though, some of the kids bonded and the third lesson, which was after lunch, was the most fun and they did quite well.

afterward i went back to tenjin, where i found the last seat left at starbucks and sat for over an hour finishing a book. this was only a few days after injuring my leg, and i was pretty tired. then it was dinnertime so i went to a yakitori and had a couple of beers and plenty of delicious things grilled on sticks! on my way back to the bus center to go home, i passed many different light displays in tenjin. luckily i had a camera with me, so i took lots of pictures.

christmas lights in tenjin

christmas lights in tenjin

christmas lights in tenjin

christmas lights in tenjin

christmas lights in tenjin

christmas lights in tenjin

christmas lights in tenjin

christmas lights in tenjin

christmas lights in tenjin

christmas lights in tenjin

christmas lights in tenjin

christmas lights in tenjin