So I signed up to help some young people at the visually impaired school in Tokyo practice for their English oral exam. They have to read a short paragraph in English and then answer a question based on it. Then there are 2 questions asking for their view on a "related" matter. Then they look at an image showing various activities and describe them and then another image showing a situation that they also have to describe.
The first issue I had was that the English in the paragraph was very peculiar. The questions were written in an odd way too.
The image displaying a situation was a bad drawing of a man in a bookshop wanting to buy a book but realising he has not got his wallet with him. There is a bubble above his head with a drawing of a wallet and a cross through it.
Some students were given a large print version of the image others got a description in Japanese in Braille or large format. I got the English translation of what the young people were given. So they were told the man is at a loss and that there is a picture of a wallet with a cross through it! Oh my God this test has just got 10 times more difficult for them!
I got quite concerned and at the weekend asked an American guy who teaches English at a Tokyo University what's the story? It turns out that the test is set by group of Japanese people and they believe that native speakers do not need to be involved in the process. Well that explains everything and I can now relax!
H,C and A arrived in Tokyo on Saturday. The next day we decide to immerse ourselves in Japanese culture and went to two shrines and enjoyed hot and cold noodles for lunch. DK cold, me hot.
As there are no public holidays in June Ricoh were encouraging people to take the 24th or 27th June as holiday. DK does not need much encouragement so we all went off to Kamakura to look at the big Buddha and also look at the hydrangeas.
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| Hungry so stopped for tacos. I had a mango dessert - only to find bits of taco at the bottom of it! |
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| DK waiting for his flattened shrimp! |
Our visitors soon got the hang of Tokyo and were out and about doing their own thing. But we got to meet up with them in the evenings to hear about their adventures.
On Saturday everyone else was going to go off to the rugby. I had declined. However the day was very hot, and the seats in the stadium are plastic. So H decided that if the seats are in the sun it would be very unpleasant experience. So H and I did an arduous 10 minute walk (not!) to the Nezu museum. It had an exhibition of mirrors – the back of them. And we got to enjoy the large garden. We nipped across the road to have coffee and a large piece of Victoria sandwich cake. Yummy!
Just as we were leaving the boys texted to surprisingly say they were having beers and did we want to join them?
Our visitors set off to Hiroshima on Sunday morning.
I had my last English discussion lesson until next term and I got taken out for lunch. I've arranged to meet them next week for an excursion. I really wanted to try and do something English and then go and eat something English. The Japanese English association in Tokyo gave a couple of ideas. I was also on the hunt for a document I have seen which listed all UK brand shops so contacted the British Council. They gave me a link to a promotional poster which had no information on it. I felt very tempted to write back to say the information provided was bloody hopeless but instead I thanked them very much for their response. I found a museum in Tokyo that was designed by the British architect Josiah Conder who I'd never heard of. Thankfully they have an exhibition on of photographs by an English photographer (also never heard of ) arranged with the V&A (yes of course I have!)
Japanese love anything new and so when Shake Shack ( a burger joint) opened last year the queues were 2 if not 3 hours long. I went on Monday with 2 mates. We joined the queue at 10.50 and the place opened at 11am. The queue does not move much as people don't go in and sit but have to place their orders at the counter first...and then go back to collect the food when it is ready. I don't see all the fuss about burgers - this one had a soft bun which went to mush..and the shake was ok. Apparently I was supposed to have a concrete - dense frozen custard. The best burger is still Hotel Continenta's (Whitstable) bun is toasted, salad has a light dressing....is anyone still awake?
The weather is getting hot and humid.....we've had the A/C on and I want to buy an electric fan.
H, C and A returned from their travels so we had one last day with them in Tokyo. We went back to the 100 steps - a series of rooms from 1935. Used to be a wedding venue but now it is an exhibition space. This time is had some illuminations - very good.
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| Place has fab carvings. |
We popped over to see the bonsais and koi at another venue but there were way too many people and way too many weddings going on.
A quick visit to Donki for the final souvenirs, still the waving cat eluded them. So DK did a detour to try and find one and we headed home.
In the evening went out with an Irish couple who are always good value. DK booked a restaurant but since we last visited in November the prices have doubled, we sat down looked at the menu with some surprise. We checked if they wanted to leave but said they were ok to stay.
It's a long weekend approaching so we are off to Kobe!
