Dear Class,

Last Tuesday, due to the Obon Holiday, Honma-san and I had a one-on-one class!
We talked about the Obon Holiday and how to describe it in English.

Recently, I've created a Question of the Week on the Business English Channel on the iKnow! website.
Honma-san commented on two of the blog entries; Obon Holiday and Small Talk: Movies.

Here are his comments and the links to the iKnow! blog:
Obon Holiday

I went to my family grave in Rengyouji and Choumeiji to pay respects to my ancestors. Ｉ burned some incense, cleaned the tombstones, and prayed to my ancestors.
Afterwards, I took my family to eat kaitenzushi "Kuraya" in my hometown. I took my family shopping for food in "Yorkmart". We had a good time together.

Small Talk Topics: Movies

I saw "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" on DVD.
It starred James Coburn as Pat Garrett and Kris Kristopherson as Billy the Kid. Bob Dylan acted and sang in the movie. I liked it a lot.

Feel free to join the iKnow! site and participate in the Question of the Day as well as study the great courses!

I have also created a new store where I have listed graded readers from various publishers all in one easy to access page.
There is a link on the right side of the page as well as a "widget" that displays a graded reader from the store.

Have fun and see you next week!

Sincerely,

Matthew

Hello Everyone!

This week we didn't have class due to the Obon holiday.
If you read this during our week off, be sure to comment and tell me what you did for Obon.

I think many of your are visiting your hometown and going your family cemeteries to do annual cleaning of the graves and to pay your respects.

Since my company is mainly full of native English speakers, we don't have an Obon holiday like most Japanese companies.
We are free to take our paid vacation if we want to go somewhere during the holiday.
I have been going to the office everyday to work.
It's actually really nice since the trains aren't as crowded as they usually are.
If only the trains were always this way! (sigh)

We have had really hot weather this week and a large earthquake last night with many aftershocks. (I didn't wake up last night during the earthquake; I was very tired ^^;)
What have you been doing to stay cool?
We have been using our air conditioning a lot which is going to cost a lot.
How about you?

Enjoy your Obon holiday and see you next week!

Sincerely,

Matthew