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Happy New Year everybody! I hope everyone’s 2020 is off to a great start.

At the end of December I attended my Japanese friend’s wedding. While I’ve been to a few Japanese style weddings over the years this one in particular stood out to me in a slightly strange way.

All of the previous Japanese weddings I’ve attended were “Western” style where the bride wears a white dress and the groom a black tuxedo and the ceremony held in a place where at least the interior resembled a Christian church. Pretty common nowadays in Japan. But what stood out in this last wedding was how overtly Christian the actual ceremony was despite the bride, groom and everyone in attendance (to my knowledge) not adhering to the Christian faith. There was a white priest who had a British accent that crossed himself a lot and blessing the newly married with “in Jesus’s name, Amen”. We sang hymns and watched the hollow pageantry on display which took away from the ceremony in my opinion. It must have also been distracting for all the Japanese people that had no idea it would be a Christian ceremony.

I in no way was offended by any of this but just found it bizarre and kind of a waste considering how beautiful I think traditional, Shinto Japanese weddings are. The only time I caught a glimpse of one such wedding was at the Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo. I saw the procession of kimono-wearing family led by the groom in black kimono holding a beautiful red oversized traditional Japanese umbrella which sheltered his bride who was further sheltered by the bright white tsunokakushi placed over her headdress. 

Perhaps, I’m romanticizing as an outsider looking in and maybe Japanese feel the same way about Western style weddings, but I can’t hide my surprise that Japanese would prefer another wedding ceremony over one as beautiful as their own. 

Joe

Hello everyone,

This year, I was lucky enough to be able to go home to Chicago for my winter holidays! In addition to seeing my family, I also got to enjoy some of the things that I love and miss the most about my hometown— most of all, the food, the sights, and the weather!

Christmas never really feels like Christmas to me without snow, and even though most of the days were pretty warm, there were one or two white days!

Even though my family lives outside the city, I did get to spend a few days in Chicago and enjoy the sights and the holiday decorations.

And best of all, I got to enjoy one of Chicago’s greatest specialties, its pizza!

All in all, it was definitely worth the 20 hours of travel!

I enjoyed Christmas and New Year in the beautiful city of Hagi in Yamaguchi prefecture. The city is on the coast and the views of the ocean and the nearby islands are amazing.

Hagi has an old and interesting history. When I cycled around the streets I could see old houses and water canals.

I visisted Hagi to learn its history and also to see Hagi-yaki pottery.

I also visited Motonosumi Shrine and saw the 123 red torii gates leading to the ocean!

I enjoyed staying in Hagi city very much and I would love to visit again one day!

Happy New Year everyone!

– Helen

アミックのクリスマスレッスン、みんなのお願いがたくさん載ったクリスマスツリーを飾り楽しく過ごしました。アミックはしばらく休校期間です。年明けからまた目標を立てて（実現するとコミルポイントがもらえる企画ありです!詳しくはNEWS参照です）楽しく頑張りましょう！
　　　　　　　　

　　　　　　Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

今週は今年最後のレッスン、クリスマスウィーク（クリスマス特別レッスン）でした！

本番までまだ数日ありますが、Christmas songsを聴きながらSanta Clausへ手紙を書きました

レッスンを楽しんだ生徒さんたちのクリスマス気分は120％整ったようです！

一番のハイライトは、クリスマスツリーをornamentsで飾ります

↓最初はこんな感じ

↓そしてこちらが完成したツリー

みんなで完成させたツリーはとっても素敵に仕上がりました

ちなみにShane先生のwishはこんな感じ↓↓…………人それぞれですね 

Have a Merry Christmas

アミック 校長である私、玉井里美が東京2020オリンピックの聖火ランナーとして選出されたとの速報が届きました！

日時や場所は後日連絡が来るとのことです。

夏に一般公募に応募していたもので、応募の際には400字程度の自己PRと応募動機を書きました。

今年もクリスマスパーティを楽しみました！

On Saturday December 7th we gathered together to celebrate Christmas!

We all enjoyed delicious food, good company and fun conversation.

　Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!    🎄

Amic’s Christmas week is 16th-21st December.

Merry Christmas everyone!

サンタさんに英語でお手紙を書くアクティビティをします！

外国人講師と相談してしっかりお願いしちゃう❓🎁✨

Recently I visited the pottery museum in Tobe. Pottery is very important to my family, and my parents and my brother are all potters and teachers of pottery in Australia. In fact my mother first learned pottery in Nara when she was an exchange student during high school. Both my family and I are very interested in the history and specialized techniques of Japanese pottery. I enjoyed my visit to the Tobe pottery museum and learned a lot about Tobe-yaki.

The museum had many examples of pottery throughout Tobe’s history and good information explaining the materials and techniques used to make Tobe-yaki. I was especially interested to see the tools that are used to shape clay, grind glaze materials and fire pots.

Throughout the museum there were small signs with QR codes that provided English translations of all the information. The English translations were very well written with perfect grammar and vocabulary. I appreciate the hard work that Tobe pottery museum has done to be welcoming to English-speaking visitors!

There were many beautiful pots at the museum, and even the bathroom sinks were handmade pottery!

I enjoyed my visit to the pottery museum very much. I loved seeing so many examples of the amazing and unique pottery of Tobe!

– Helen