Last Sunday, my wife and I went to Seseragi Hiroba for a bit of day-camping. If you’re not familiar, it’s near Sakakibara Heart Clinic and Happy Town Kohoku, just where the Hyakken River splits from the Asahi River.

My wife’s coworker joined us there, and we set up a little barbecue set and some chairs. It was a pleasant place to hang out and chat for the afternoon. The weather was great – sunny during the day, and just cool enough to wear a hoodie when the sun went down. In the evening, the Fulvio family also came to join us, so we walked around and saw fireflies blinking along the edges of the water.

There are a lot of cherry trees around there, so it’s a popular spot for hanami. I’d like to go back next spring for sure!

Y-san (with privacy pineapple) on top of the “pillbox”

NEO Travel CLUB Report

Name: Y-san

Where did you go? I went to Hawaii.

How long were you there? I was there for nine days.

What did you do there? I went hiking on the “Pillbox trail” in Lanikai. I also hiked 5 or 6 hours to Manoa Falls. I relaxed on one of the most beautiful beaches in the US.

How was the food? Hawaii's original malasada from Leonard’s Bakery was good. I ate garlic shrimp near the North Shore. It was delicious. I ordered a Caesar salad, Huli Huli chicken and tacos at the Mavi Brewing Company. Everything was amazing!

Did you use English? Yes, I did. I used English at my hotel, at restaurants, shops and even while hiking in the mountains.

What good or bad experience did you have? My good experience was seeing the very beautiful sea and relaxing on the beach. My bad experience was being carried to an ambulance because I fainted. Don’t worry, I’m ok now!

Do you recommend going there? Yes! I recommend going to Kualoa Ranch. You can do many different things there, such as horseback riding. You can get good energy from the mountains, and you can learn about Hawail's culture and history .

Thank you for sharing your report with us, Y-san!

Some interesting street art that Y-san saw in Hawaii

Last Saturday night NEO held a party to thank Marina-sensei for working here at NEO.

For those of you that don’t know, Marina will be leaving NEO and moving out of Okayama. Her last day working at NEO will be next Wednesday, the 29th of May.

After regular classes finished last Saturday evening, we had an outdoor potluck party on NEO property. A lot of students turned up with a lot of delicious food, there was everything from pizza to chicken to burritos to homemade cheesecake. It was all great.

Marina was able to chat with current and former adult and child students and many of them were sad to know that she is leaving so soon.

There was a fantastic sunset, and the temperature was simply perfect for spending a nice evening outside before the humidity and mosquitoes arrive for the summer.

Nick and Risa were the party’s DJs, and some of the kids were quite happy to show off their dance moves.

Marina-sensei will still be here for a few more days, so please make sure to say farewell and good luck to her!

Back in 2021, I wrote a blog post about a brand of New Zealand cookies called ‘Cookie Time’ that I was surprised to find in Japan. In that post, I mentioned that there was a cookie time store somewhere in Tokyo. Recently during Golden Week, I visited Tokyo and finally had a chance to check it out.

The cookie time bar can be found in Harajuku, not far from the station. The store has a very flashy cute design. There are lots of unique pictures and objects around the store, including even a decorated car. There is also a small counter area on both sides of a long window to the outside making it a great place to eat on a nice day. The store sells a variety of things. On the menu, there are not only freshly baked cookies, but also desert shakes as well as ice cream sundaes. You can also buy gift sets of cookies and memorabilia. The staff were mostly foreigners who were all bi-lingual. They seemed to be very chatty with each other and enjoying themselves. But when I tried to talk to them to find out if they were also from NZ, they mostly ignored me…

I bought myself some fresh cookies. They were about 300 yen each. I bought one chocolate cookie as well as a banana toffee one. Since I had come all the way there, I also decided to get a chocolate sundae. They were all super delicious. If you like deserts and are in the Harajuku area, I recommend you check it out.

ご旅行先のM子さんからメールが届きました。
I’m in the airport in (a country name). I will return to Japan tomorrow .
This time, I could catch and speak English better than before.
Thanks to Neo’s lesson. This trip was so educational. My husband was amazed at my progress.

帰国直前の空港にてスマートフォンから送って下さった模様です。このM子さんは昨年の夏、突如としてお一人でハワイへ行かれ、その間に現地の語学学校へ短期で入られ、とても積極的にレッスン外でも英語を使われてきています。もちろんお振替の希望メールも英語で送って来られます。このM子さん、お若い頃から英語はお好きだったとのことですが、平日はお仕事、そして週末はお孫さんの子守ありとご多忙なのです。

六十の手習いという良い表現があります。何かを新しく習い始めるのであれば1分1秒でも早いほうがいいと私は思っています。だって、1分1秒足りとも若返らないんだから、少しでも老化する前に始めたいんです。

さて、この「手習い」とは本来は何だったのでしょうか。答えはトップの画像です。習い事大国の日本、今この時代にお習字を習い事でしている子はどのくらいいるのでしょう。昭和人な私ももちろん習っていました。が文字を書いた際に空白のバランスで美的感覚を養うお習字。空間認知力のない私にはそれはそれは大変でした。

It’s been almost 4 years since I began working at Neo.

Back to the day before the day I started to work as an assistant, I had butterflies in my stomach because I had never officially worked at any companies as an assistant who spoke both Japanese and English.

I didn’t have any working experience. Honestly, I didn’t know what had caused them to decide to hire me, but I couldn’t be happier.

I can’t (and seem like our students also can’t ) believe that I joined Neo in 2020!!

I’ve had a lot of experiences that I can’t even describe in Japanese, but all of them are my precious memories.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE GREAT 4 YEARS!!