A picture students left on the whiteboard at school this morning:



Almost looks like Anpanman!

We just put up a page listing some of the benefits of studying Japanese with GenkiJACS. We're always happy to hear of students who want to learn Japanese because they love the culture, and of course the language itself, but for other students, improving their Japanese has concrete benefits. GenkiJACS is currently working on ways to increase those benefits, to make your study with us even more worthwhile. We have some big programs we'll announce shortly, so till then, if there's anything we can do to help you achieve your goals, please feel free to ask!

We hate to pat ourselves on the back too much, but there's been a rash of students extending their stay with us recently. So much so that the average length of study for students with us right now is 3 months! This is great for us, but also great for students. We see a lot of people come for two weeks at a time, and while they may not have a choice (work commitments, etc.), it's really just not long enough to improve your Japanese ability significantly. So we're really happy to have so many students staying with us for the long term, as it means they're going to end up with great Japanese!
Helping students to study for the long term is also why we started offering student visa courses with our partner school. The first intake of visa course students is with us now, and will switch to our partner school in April. We're excited for them, and hope this leads to them staying in Japan for the long term!

Finally, two students were hired to work in Kyushu this week! We hope to have reports from both of them shortly, but both will start work soon in English-teaching-related jobs around Kyushu island. We're always incredibly happy when people manage to fulfill their dream of staying in Japan, so to have two in the same week is wonderful news! Ganbare, Katie-san and Vicky-san!

A screencap from the other day’s weather report:


I love the way they’ve illustrated their graphics! Not just the iceman with 冬(“fuyu”, winter) written on his kabuto helmet, or the pink girl with 春 (“haru”, spring) in her hair, but the examples of how cold it is. They’ve chosen to illustrate the degrees of cold by what kind of drink freezes at each temperature. So, 水 (water) freezes in the pipes at about -5 degrees, ビール (beer) freezes at -10, and お酒 (sake) freezes at -15. Good to know!

A slew of upcoming events at GenkiJACS!

Today, Thursday 1/28: Visit Yuusentei Japanese gardens; learn hanafuda Japanese cards at school
Friday 1/29: Karaoke party
Saturday 1/30: Sushi eating and Round 1 game center tour
Tuesday 2/2: Free city tour; “ehoumaki” sushi roll making class
Wednesday 2/3: Visit Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine
Thursday 2/4: Visit Kushida shrine; watch Japanese movie at school
Friday 2/5: Trip to onsen (hot springs; Friday night party

Students will be busy!

Woah! The Facebook page we started in November 2009 has already grown to over 1000 fans, and is increasing all the time! 信じられない！ It's lovely to hear from so many people who studied with us, and who want to study with us in the future. If you want to join the group, the link is here. Here's to a great 2010!

Something we really look forward to at this time of year are the pretty Christmas lights in Fukuoka.

We went to see the lights with the lucky(??) students who get to be in Fukuoka right now.


We went to the underground shopping center


And the IMS building


And Elgala Hall


And of course Kego Park

Along the way we ran across these lifelike mannequins

(If you happen to meet these mannequins out on the street, be sure to say hi!)

At the end we ate ice cream, and then the tour was over!


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At last week's closing ceremony, Arno-san, who had been studying at GenkiJACS for three months, brought homemade tiramisu for everyone.




It was the best thing I've ever eaten!!!

Arno-san, thank you.

After everyone ate the tiramisu, we went to a restaurant that let us have a taste of a wine called Beaujolais Kaikin.



We had planned on just sampling the wine, but...

"We'd like a bottle of Beaujolais, please!"



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We went there, to Anmitsu Hime.

Who knew there was a place this close that was so much fun...



We wonder how much the students could really understand, but the GenkiJACS teachers and staff thought it was hilarious!



The person in orange works for the club.


I see a love triangle in their future


Yuji-sensei was strangely excited about it all.


Tomato-mama and everyone were so pretty that we had to ask "Are you all really men??"

We just went, but we're already thinking of going to Anmitsu Hime a second time.

Everyone should try going at least once!


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We all went to Tsugumi-sensei's restaurant.

While the shop actually specializes in sweets (parfaits, etc.), today they made lots of different food specially for the GenkiJACS students.

Everything was good.

I thought taking pictures of food was a Japanese thing...



Rie-sensei monopolized the dessert everyone had been looking forward to.



Tsugumi-sensei has a horse and pony, and after dessert there were pony rides...


It was another fun party!




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