September 8 - 12

The Hokkaido Board of Education has a relationship with the University of Alberta in Canada. Dr. Olenka Bilash of the University visits Hokkaido for three weeks every year to teach teachers from Hokkaido the principles of B-SLIM, her second language instructional model. The conference is also designed to improve the English ability of the teachers. District ALTs (such as myself) are asked to attend at least one week of the seminar to assist Dr. Bilash and speak with the participants in English.
I attended the third and final week of the seminar, which was designed for Elementary School teachers. Elementary School English education is a newer thing in Japan and there is not a lot of set curriculum designed yet for it. Therefore, most elementary school teachers have little experience with teaching English and may themselves have a very low English ability. However, I was so impressed with the enthusiasm of the teachers at the conference. We did a ton of activities ranging from motivation and theory to singing and dancing. It was a lot fo work, but in the end it was a lot of fun.
Some of the teachers and ALTs	They had a party for us on Thursday night
Hello	Cheese
Dr. Bilash is the blonde one in the middle	The party coordinator
Yo	Hungry?
I also had a chance to head into Sapporo on Wednesday afternoon. It was a beautiful day. This is JR Tower in the Sapporo station.
Some of the flower sculptures in Odori Park

September 19

Although typically my position at the Board of Education restricts me to High School teaching, this semester the three ALTs at my office get to viist elementary schools in the neighboring town of Toma. This is a picture of me at Uembetsu Elementary School. Visiting the elementary schools is so much fun, but the little ones really wear you out!

September 20

Recently I've been popular with the neighborhood kids. Today they came over to play video games for a while. Here's a picture of them.

September 23

Today was the Kamui Kotan Ainu Matsuri (Festival) at Kamui Kotan. The Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido. They have suffered a fate similar to the Native Americans of North America. When the mainland Japanese people began settling in Hokkaido, the government forced the Ainu to settle into reservations. Asahikawa city actually used to be one of the Ainu reservations. Now, the Ainu culture has been reduced to a few groups of Ainu descendants who still practice some of the old rituals in reconstructed villages, museums, and at festivals.
The word Ainu means human in the Ainu language. Kamui Kotan means "Village where a God lives." The deity referred to here was named a ferocius god named Nitnekamui. The festival held there today was great. There's a lot to talk about the Ainu, so I won't write it all here. Feel free to email me if you have any questions that I might be able to answer, or lead you in the direction of someone who could answer it.
Lavonda making mochi, pounded rice cake	Amy continuing the job
Everyone got a little piece of the mochi	Tools of the trade
Mr. Kawamura, who runs the Ainu museum	Old and young Ainu
Contemplating...	Part of the ritual

September 27

Well, this morning Hokkaido was rocked by an earthquake. The epicenter was located about 20 miles off the coast of Kushiro in Southeastern Hokkaido. The epicenter registered at an 8, but by the time it reached me in Asahikawa, it was about a 3 or 4. I was woken up at 4:45 or so in the morning and noticed that my futon was moving and that my jeans drying on the clothesline above my head were swaying back and forth. Seeing as this was my first time in an earthquake, it took me a while to realize what was going on. However, everything is ok and life goes on.

September 30

This evening, the office had a yakiniku (BBQ) party at a supervisor's house downtown. It was a pretty fun time, especially since there hasn't been an all -office party in a while.
Where's my cup?	Peace
Hello everybody!	Hi Shimizu-san
Bob pouring his heart out