Leap Year Day! Our friends Akemi and Hitoshi came for tonkatsu. I was tired and ignored them half the night but they had fun. The unfocused picture in this photo is of Jonathan's grandmother who died on Leap Year Day 44 years ago. Akemi drew a beautiful picture of her.
Italy news: We got our Visas! I had to do a little convincing so they would accept all my documents. They wanted an original, signed travel insurance policy which our insurance company would not give us. When I told them we were insured up to $300,000 they gave in. The woman at the embassy was actually on our side. She knows that Italy is very strict about things and since we still have to get permission to stay there once we are in Italy, she wanted to make sure we wouldn't be kicked out of the country once we are there. Bureaucracy!
We are counting the days to April 7th. Jonathan is especially ready to get out of Japan. I still can't believe I'm not going back to school in April to start my new classes. My students don't know I won't be there. Such things are very secretive here. They will probably find out when I'm not there on the first day.
Before I'm off to Italy, however, I have another school related trip to my hometown of Pella, Iowa. I'm taking 15 of my students to live in families and go to school there. It's my fifth trip. It's a great opportunity for my Japanese students to get to see life in a small, Iowa town.
This is Iowa not Holland. The young women on the right are the 2007 Tulip queen and her court. What are those head things they are wearing? They are posing in the Iowa State Capital Building library. It's amazing how this little town of Pella has kept their heritage. I have several Dutch friends in Tokyo. They are very rather amuzed. Pella seems more Dutch than Holland. Anyway, I'm off now to have pizza with the neighbors who are from Harmony, Minnesota. It's a little good-bye party for us.

I'm sitting in a book store / cafe in the extremely over-priced Roppongi Hills neighborhood. I'm in Tokyo, once the most expensive city in the world but am relieved London has taken over that prestigious position. I'm fine not being at the top of that list anymore. One apple is still $2.50 but going out to eat, especially lunch, is not so bad.
I got lucky today and got a table by the window. There are pigeons strutting under the tables outside. Japanese are so neat that there is nothing for them to eat I'm afraid. If it weren't for the buildings across the street I might be able to see where I work. On top of the building which is a Maserati car dealership there is a huge sign advertising the Blue Man Group. Wasn't this group really popular once upon a time? Well, we are a little slow here. Even a Hollywood movie takes at least six months before it will be shown. Not only do they want to make sure it's a hit, they also want the leading actors to come all the way to Japan for a press conferences. You can watch extensive interviews with the most popular Hollywood actors. It's how I often spend my Sunday afternoons!
Anyway, back to sitting in the cafe in Roppongi Hills. On my table are three books and a Chai Tea Latte-Grande. One book is called "Italian, Beyond The Basics" I'm not sure why I think I'm beyond the basics already. I guess I DID get through a 500 page Italian grammar book in record time. I'm not sure if anything will actually come out of my mouth as understandable Italian but I really did study all the basic grammar including the preterit past, a verb tense that is used when talking about the distant past. Is that really necessary? I just get so excited about learning a language that I can't resist going on to the next page even though I really don't have the page I'm on down yet. The second book on my table is "Florence and Tuscany" by my favorite guide book series, Eyewitness Travel. My friends can't imagine why I like this series. After all, one book is heavier than a brick which isn't very practical when baggage allowance to Europe these days is 44 lbs a person. I have no idea how I will manage that as I have 25 books pilled up on my bedroom floor ready to be packed and taken with me to Florence. I like this series because it has lots and lots of pictures. I need pictures. I'm a visual person. Don't give me just words describing famous places. I want to SEE the gorgeous buildings, landscapes and the very detailed maps of every room of the Uffizi including where the toilets are! My friends, of course, think I should just get a brochure as I walk into the actual building instead of lugging bricks around the world. Maybe they are right. In Italian, that would be "Forse loro hanno ragione" Impressive, huh? My third book is not related to Italy. It's called "Courage to Teach" by Parker J. Palmer. I've just started it and I'm already changed. More on that later.
If you don't know me and have for some reason read this far, you are probably wondering what I'm up to. Why am I in this expensive neighborhood in Tokyo studying Italian, looking at Tuscany guide books and trying to get the "Courage to Teach". Here's the answer. I'm in my 20th year of teaching in Japan, my school granted me a year sabbatical and so I chose to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world-Florence. You may think it strange that I chose Italy-since I AM an English teacher in Japan. How could I possibly justify going to Italy? Will it benefit my school or my students? My answer:

1. I want to put myself in my students' shoes. How do they feel when I am in front of them speaking English?

2. I want to watch good teachers teach.

It's easy to be in a bubble in Japan where cleaning your homeroom is more important than the classes themselves. There is little or not training of teachers in Japan. It's the responsibility of the teacher to simply make sure the students get the information. It's not their responsibility to make the class interesting or to motivate the student. Many students just sleep their way through their education. (A sleeping student doesn't disturb the class, after all!) Student teachers actually student teach for a total of three weeks. I remember student teaching for 6 months! I never want to be critical of how things are done outside my own country of birth but Japanese students are bored , passive and have few if any dreams. You can read more in the book "Shutting Out The Sun, How Japan created it's own Lost Generation." by Michael Zielenziger. You will be completely blown over by this book. I live here and I was deeply affected.

3. I will be taking courses on-line. I'm taking one already called "Compassionate Teaching". Definitely a course Japan needs.

Enough! I'm sure only my parents have made it this far. Well, I've started my Italy blog. I hope some of you will check in from time to time to see how
I'm doing. Our (I am going with my partner) departure date is April 7th.

We will arrive in our new home, Firenze, May 1st. No, we are not taking the slow boat to Italy. We will be flying to Paris then on to a week retreat in Taize, France. (More on that later.) Then we are going up to Holland to spend a week in the tulip fields. It has always been my dream to do that. I'm Dutch.

I have no idea where this blog is going. I've brainstormed hours on how to make this blog unique. Not an easy thing to do when one out of ten
people in this world seem to have a blog. Maybe it doesn't need to be unique. Maybe it just needs to be from the heart. Ooh, that's a scary
thought.
As I look out the window of my expensive Roppongi Hills cafe I'm
encouraged by the "Blue Man Group" advertisement. It's a picture
of a blue man in front of stunning mountains with his arms stretched out to the sky holding xylophone maillots. He's ready for anything and so am I!