Trip to Usuki, Oita

Hello everyone!

We had the privilege to go on a 2 day city tour in Usuki, Oita. We were also blessed to get an extra day with the guides as we were interested in the compost factory in Usuki which could only be toured on a weekday so our tour started on Friday while the official tour was on Saturday and Sunday. Let’s just say that the city of Usuki showed us all the best that Usuki had to offer in a town of just 35,000 people. I could honestly say that it was some of the best food I have had since moving to Japan.

Lately I’ve been more mindful of the food I consume as I truly believe in the saying “you are what you eat”.

Allow me to introduce Usuki, Oita to you.

Exploring Usuki, Japan: The Heart of Small Town Living and Organic Food

Located in the southwestern part of Japan, Usuki is not just another small town; it's a vibrant example of how community and tradition can harmonize with modern sustainable living. Known for its rich cultural heritage, including the Usuki Stone Buddhas, a national treasure, Usuki also stands out for its commitment to organic agriculture and local cuisine.

The Charm of Usuki

Usuki is more than its historical landmarks. With its unique landscape, it has become a hub for the production of traditional Japanese condiments like miso and soy sauce, both fermented with rice malt, alongside spirits such as sake and shochu. The town's gastronomy has earned it a spot in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for its food culture, highlighting the importance of food in its community life.

Organic Roots

What makes Usuki particularly noteworthy is its approach to food production. The city promotes organic farming, emphasizing the slow food movement. This initiative includes producing compost from fermented grasses, certifying organic vegetables, and incorporating these into school lunches. This practice not only supports the health of its residents but also educates the younger generation about the value of sustainable agriculture.

The Compost Revolution

One of the unique aspects of Usuki's organic movement is its compost manufacturing center. Here, the city utilizes local resources like cut vegetation to produce mature compost, enhancing soil fertility. This process not only supports local farmers but also creates a cycle of sustainability that reduces waste and enriches the land.

Why Small Towns Matter

In a world increasingly dominated by urban sprawl (ie. think of mega crowded cities like Tokyo), small towns like Usuki remind us of the benefits of a slower, more connected lifestyle:

• Preservation of Traditions: Small towns often serve as guardians of cultural practices that might otherwise be lost in larger, more transient urban environments.

• Environmental Stewardship: With less pollution, smaller populations, and a closer relationship to the land, small towns can lead by example in sustainable living.

• Community Health: Access to fresh, organic food directly from the source can lead to better health outcomes for residents, who often know the farmers personally.

Usuki, Japan, serves as an inspiring model of how small-town living can foster a deep, meaningful connection to organic food sources. It's a testament to the idea that the future might not be in globalized, large-scale operations but in local, community-driven initiatives that value heritage, health, and the environment. For anyone interested in the slow food movement, sustainable living, or simply experiencing authentic Japanese culture, Usuki offers a rich tapestry of lessons and flavors, all woven into the fabric of its community life.

We were also on Oita TV. Check it out!

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/5b2c6833ca4700258dc294fc7afb4d65d2a84a42?source=sns&dv=pc&mid=other&date=20250210&ctg=loc&bt=tw_up

Advanced and backwards aspects of Japan

We had a topic discussion this week about what people consider to be more advanced and more backwards in Japan.

Some answers we all agreed with about the more advanced aspects of Japan are infrastructure, health care system, and the general safety in Japan. For example, the infrastructure such as the trains are very reliable and get you from one end of the country to the other and the ambulance fee is free in Japan amongst their world class health care system. I told some of the students regarding the health care system in Japan that there is this Canadian Youtuber who was recently diagnosed with skin cancer in Japan was able to get his cancer removed without any delays. Although he had to pay some money (50,000yen), he could get it treated before it got worse but he mentioned that in Canada, he would’ve been put on a long waiting list.

In regards to the more backwards parts, the work-life balance needs a lot of improvement although it has been improving slightly over the years but still lags behind the rest of the world.

Every country has it’s pros and cons and from my experience, I would say that the good points outweigh the bad points. It ultimately depends on the preference of the individual on what makes a country great.

Japan's oldest village

The issue of Japan’s rapid depopulation rate has always been a fascination of mine and has made me eager to do something about it in the near future.

Although we are currently just an English school, we would like to contribute and work with more organizations that are currently tackling the issue of depopulation in Japan.

In September, we made a trip to Japan’s city by demographic called Nanmoku and it has been featured in this article. Please check it out!

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/25/1210413031/japan-oldest-village-rural-depopulation-nanmoku

Chappie's summer trip to Vancouver

Hello everyone! Please take a look at the pictures I took during my visit to Vancouver. We would like to have a homestay program next year so please contact us for more information.

ブランチ大津京 多文化フェスティバルに参加させていただきました！

9月になりましたが

毎日暑いですね…。

皆さん、いかがお過ごしでしょうか。

ぴあ英会話スクールは　

先日、ブランチ大津京で開催された

多文化フェスティバルに参加させていただきました！

このイベントでは

ダンスサークルの方々のダンスパフォーマンスや

ピアノの弾き語り演奏をしてくださった方など

色々な団体の方が参加されていらっしゃいました。

ぴあ英会話スクールは

英語でじゃんけん大会をしました！

イベント初参加のため

すこし緊張しましたが

司会の方の素敵なMCと

参加してくださった方々のノリの良さのおかげで

とても盛り上がり

無事に成功を収めることができました！

ドリュー先生とチャッピー先生のポケモンの帽子

とても似合ってますね笑

ぴあ英会話スクールは

滋賀県の石山校と

ブランチ大津京にある

ハッシュタグ大津京さんのシェアスペースをおかりして

レッスンをしております！

ぜひお気軽にお問い合わせくださいね。

Have a good evening!

New logo, new identity

Hey everyone! We have unveiled our new logo from this year. After 28 years in Takatsuki, it was time to move on from the previous logo. The new logo fits our current identity more. While the old logo emphasized on travelling with the hot air balloon theme, the new logo emphasizes more on personal development and connects more with the theme of community roots.

With every seed planted, the potential for future opportunities expands exponentially. When I began my life in Japan in 2017, I didn’t have anything and didn’t know anyone but throughout the journey, many seeds were planted in my life which are starting to show its growth now. I want to invite anyone who wants to open up their world to come learn with us at PEA. In the future, we would like to invite our students to our home countries in Canada and England. So why wait, come take a free trial lesson and get to know us better. You won’t regret it!

logo from 1994-2022

2023 logo

Eagerness to seek the truth

Hello everyone. At PEA, the students we seek are naturally curious about all things, especially in a time when we need the truth the most. The past 3 years were filled with deceit on all levels so we invite you to have a dialogue with us at our school. We always want our students to ask all types of questions even if they seem silly. The more questions you ask, the more you will learn. That is the true essence of true education.

"Question everything and embrace the uncertainty, for it is through the search for truth that we uncover the beauty of knowledge."

Christmas Potluck

Merry Christmas everyone. We had an amazing first ever Christmas potluck event at our new school. No Turkey but we had a roast chicken and 3 different Christmas cakes. We are definitely going to hold more gatherings at our new school from 2023 with Covid now not much of a threat anymore. It was lovely to see everyone’s smiles without a mask.

Christmas cake brought by tono sensei. too good.

christmas cake courtesy of takenobo cake shop brought by chappie sensei

no turkey but roast chicken still good and festive :)

Chappie's visit to Vancouver

It’s been a long time since I’ve visited my hometown in Vancouver! Due to the restructuring of the school, that allowed me some time to go back for the first time in 4 years. It has also been the first time since I left Canada to experience the Summer in Vancouver. I really missed the summers in Vancouver as the temperature is not too hot and not too cold. Also the sunset time is around 9pm so the day feels a lot longer compared to Japanese summers. Here are some pictures of my time there.

Common wealth picnic

Hello everyone! We will be hosting a picnic in Otsu by Lake Biwa. Please see below for details.

The meeting spot will be inside Keihan Biwako-Hamaotsu station. From there, we will walk to the picnic spot in Hamaotsu port together.

The picnic will be hosted by Chapman from Canada and Drew from England. Let’s have a fun day sharing our cultures!

Please fill out the form below if you are interested in attending.

Draw my life

As this will be our last week at our current location, we thought it would be appropriate for all of our students to do an activity called “draw my life”. Students must draw key events in their life and tell it to the class.

Here is one of the drawings from one of our students who is in 2nd grade elementary school.

From our 1st year Junior high school student.

From our 2nd grade High school student.

Nostalgic snacks

I recently came across these gummy candies which come in various shapes like Hamburger, Sandwich, Ice cream and Hot dog and it really brought back memories of when I was in elementary school. Sometimes we won these candies as prizes and it was really fun to eat them as you can take each part apart. It is interesting to see some of my nostalgic snacks available in Japan.

What are your nostalgic snacks?

One of Chappie’s nostalgic candies from when he was in elementary school

The Secret

This week, we discussed about “the secret” by Rhonda Byrne. It explores the idea that our thoughts have a lot of power in shaping our reality. It’s known as the “law of attraction”. Some people believe the events in their lives are purely coincidental whereas the book explains how these events are meant to happen by the universe’s design. It was interesting to hear some inspiring stories from the students and how some events in their lives were meant to be.

By chance, one of our students actually has the book so she brought it to class. What a coincidence!….or was this meant to be?

Stand up fit in

We did a lesson on this song “Stand up fit in” by ONE OK ROCK”.

I think it is interesting to see a music video made by a Japanese band that focuses on Racism and discrimination in another country. The conflicts in this music story pinpoints the problem of discrimination and racism perfectly. As a person born in Canada whose parents are from Hong Kong, I could relate to the boy in this music video. Sometimes, I was the only Asian kid in class and it felt quite bad to feel left out. It is the feeling of not belonging to the majority.

Ultimately, the music video teaches us to embrace our differences and not have to go against our own values and identity. As the lyrics in the song said….

”I am who I am
No matter what
Never changing”

Powerful words indeed.

The Power of Words 言葉のチカラ

Today I shared this inspiring article about NBA star Yuta Watanabe with one of my students who is a basketball fanatic. It outlines Yuta Watanabe’s journey to the NBA and he shares with us how words can have a huge impact on how you approach life.

I was truly inspired by the words that Yuta lives by which are 謙虚 and 初心. It is one aspect of Japanese culture that has drawn me to settle into this country. It is also interesting how the term garbage time in basketball has a significantly different meaning from Japanese which is translated as a waste of time. Garbage time in basketball basically refers to the time bench players play when the game’s score has already been decided. However, in the mind of Yuta, there is no such thing as garbage time as any time in the NBA is an extremely rare opportunity. There are 450 million basketball players in the world and only 450 can play in the NBA so it is literally a 1 in a million chance.

If there’s anything to take away from this article, it is that that words have a powerful effect in shaping our mindsets. This also relates to English too. Instead of saying “It is too difficult”, you can try saying “It is challenging but I will try”. Instead of saying “If I can speak English, I can travel the world”, try saying “When I can speak English, I will travel the world”.

click here for the English article

click here for the Japanese translation.

One person’s defect is another person’s treasure.

Hey everyone!

Recently I came across this article about this defective Pokemon plushie. Do you remember us talking about scarce items being very valuable? Well, it turns out that the Pokemon company allowed people to return their defective plushie but some people opted to hold onto it because it’s very rare. It just goes to show that any item that is scarce can hold a lot of value.

Please check the article out.

https://soranews24.com/2021/02/11/pokemon-centre-in-japan-apologises-for-mistake-makes-plushie-even-more-valuable/

Ayana's last lesson before graduation

It’s an end of an era for our student Ayana who will be moving away for university in April. This time, she suggested to do a painting with English class. The class’s theme was “Your dream future”. Look how nice their paintings are. Unfortunately Mr. Drew was not able to finish his painting in time but still enjoyed the activity.

Ayana wants to be a food connoisseur. The food in this picture is caviar.

Aina wants to be someone who can do (do it yourself) DIY activities. What a useful skill to have!

Collectables lesson winners

We had a lesson about the value of items.

There are two types of value.

1) Monetary value- Items that are worth a lot of money due to its scarcity and market demand.

2) Sentimental- Items that are valuable only to the user (eg. personal photos, birthday cards, etc)

The students had to guess how much each item was and whoever was able to guess to the closest amount wins a small prize. Two students were tied and the items were Van Gogh’s sunflowers painting and a misprinted British stamp. Please take a look.

Actual price: 4 Billion

Student’s guess: 3 Billion

Actual price: 34,000 yen

Student’s guess: 30,000yen

Winners can choose from one of Chappie’s coin collection :)

Ayana's last Halloween with PEA

It is already Halloween week and this time, it will be one of our longtime student’s last Halloween with us. She has been learning at PEA since she was 6 along with her younger sister. How time flies, eh? Usually, there is a wall between foreigners and Japanese people but we certainly do not feel with these sisters. Having immersed themselves at PEA for such a long time, communicating with them has become very natural.

As it is her last Halloween with PEA, she got to choose what Halloween activity she wanted to do so she chose to make Halloween chocolates. Please have a look at the photos.

a mix of our melted white, milk, and dark chocolate

smoothing out the chocolate

NOW It’s time to wait for the chocolates to harden!

September 2020 theme- Advertisements

This month, we focused on the theme of advertisements. It was interesting to talk about the differences between Japanese advertisements and Western advertisements. Japanese commercials can range from very weird to very wholesome. For those who are unfamiliar to the word wholesome, here is the definition given by urban dictionary.

“An embodiment of the following: self-less, considerate, sweet, compassionate, thoughtful, generous, genuine, doesn't talk trash about other people,

"Did you know that Pat keeps an excel spreadsheet of all the money he borrowed from his parents so he doesn't burden them?" Said Chelsea.
"Whoa, really? That's so wholesome!" Exclaimed Tran.

For the weird commercials, the viewer is left watching something that he/she has no idea what is going on until they reveal it at the end. Native speakers often say “what did I just watch?” upon watching something so weird. This method is very indirect. Western commercials on the other hand, tend to get straight to the point and are very direct about what they are advertising.

Please check these out.