In the “Let’s Talk” Question and Answer Item in the Smith’s School of English スミス英会話 curriculum, Question 8 asks: “Have you ever complained in a restaurant?” I have not yet had a student at my English school, Smith’s School of English, Kawanishi, answer this in the affirmative, and I can’t remember complaining in a restaurant myself (at least […]
A Farewell to Rabbit – and some words on idiom
I have just finished reading the “Rabbit” tetralogy by John Updike. At over 1500 pages, this had been a marathon read. I had read the first of the four novels, Rabbit Run, as a young man, but had not read any other of his works since, before I tackled reading the whole set a little earlier […]
Onsen 温泉 – A Great Japanese Tradition
Ever since my first visit to Japan, almost 20 years ago, I have always loved visiting the country’s great traditional hot springs 温泉. My first visit to an onsen was in Nita , in Shimane-ken 島根県. Although I had read much of the etiquette of the onsen, I was lucky enough, on that occasion […]
