BRITZ英会話教室

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I spent Christmas in Kumamoto this year and was shocked to discover that December 25th was a regular school day for my children, It seems like a lot of people in Japan celebrate Christmas on December 24th but in Britain Christmas Eve is not such a special day - it is just the day before Christmas, and the 25th and 26th are national holidays.
It was a little strange waking up early on Christmas morning, not because my children were excited about opening their presents from Santa Claus, but because they had to go to school! We were finally able to celebrate when they got home in the afternoon. Since it was very different from our usual Christmas I decided not to cook a traditional meal, and instead we went out for dinner and enjoyed an all you can eat buffet with roast beef and a chocolate fountain. It was so nice not to spend Christmas Day in my cold kitchen cooking and washing dishes!
  

As usual, Christmas parties were a lot of fun. The children enjoyed playing party games, exchanging presents and eating tree and teddy bear shaped Christmas cookies.   

In the middle of December we had an end of year party for all the adult students of Britz. We met at 'Trattoria Oggi', an Italian restaurant close to my classroom in Wakaba and had a wonderful meal with lots of wine, conversation (in English and Japanese) and party games and prizes. Thanks to everyone who joined the party, and I'm now looking forward to the next party at the end of January.

  

I was invited to take part in a volunteer activity in Shinmachi with the students of Isshin Elementary School. The sixth graders, along with some English speaking volunteer guides took a small number of foreigners (as well as myself, there were people from Indonesia, Bangladesh and the USA) around a few local places of interest. The students had prepared speeches about all the places in English and acted as tour guides while the foreigners (including those like myself who have lived in Kumamoto a long time) were asked to pretend we couldn't speak any Japanese and act as tourists. It was an interesting exercise. The children were really shy throughout the activity until we got back to school and met a special guest - Kumamon! Then all those quiet kids turned into hooligans and jumped all over the local mascot to the surprise of their teachers as well as Kumamon's assistant. I'm surprised the poor bear didn't suffer from a serious injury but I guess Kumamon is used to getting jumped over wherever he goes. Perhaps because he is a non-speaking character, kids are able to get over their fears of communicating with the unknown!