Kakuta Haruo---Decoding Japan---

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Location: Sakai, Osaka, Japan

Monday, April 09, 2007

Another KONA-MON story

AIZU-YA serves TAKOYAKI without any toppings; no sauce, no KATSUO-BUSHI (dried bonito), no AO-NORI (green laver). The dumplings themselves have SHOYU taste instead. According to a legend, AKASHI-YAKI, which is made at AKASHI in HYOGO Prefecture, is older than TAKO-YAKI. In 1933, ENDO TATSUKICHI, a founder of AIZU-YA, started cooking baked dumplings with meat and KONNYAKU in them. They were called RAJIO-YAKI as their shap looked lika a button of old radios. One day, a customer told the owner that he had found AKASHI-YSKI dumplings with small pieces of octopus in them taste better. Mr. ENDO renovated his dumplings with octopus in 1935. That was the start of TAKO-YAKI history. AIZU-YA's dumplings had been seasoned with SHOYU as Western sauce was expensive at the time. So the new dumplings were seasoned with SHOYU, too. Today you can find various types of TAKO-YAKI, or TAKO-YAKI-like dumplings, even sweet ones. Those with sauce on them are, of course, the most popular TAKO-YAKI today. Now I and my daughters find small brown baked dumplings in front of us on a plate. They look rather like small sweet cakes sold under the name of BEBI KASUTERA (baby sponge cakes). Their SHOYU frangrance gives us, or at least gives me, nostalgic feelings, and reminds me of the days when Western foods were still expencive. Do you ask how they taste? Give them a try yourself! On our way back from AIZU-YA, we found the Royal Hotel selling small cream puffs with the toppings of chocolate and coloured sugar on them, under the name of TAKO-YAKI chou a la creme. The TAKO-YAKI history seems to be renewing itself.

Friday, April 06, 2007

March, 2007

I teach 3 English II classes and 3 English Seminar C classes in the school year of 2007. That is to teach reading classes, which is not my favorite. The fate is a gift of Heaven. I am supposed to train my teaching skills in reading classes. I have started working on English II and English Seminor C classes both to make the classes work and to build new networks. Can I make the most of the networks in the last decade of my teaching career? In English II classes, Intake Reading Method (IRM henceforth) is on agenda. IRM is going to be introduced into English II and I classes. In English Seminor C classes, however, any particular method is not meant to be introduced yet. The classes are supposed to provide the students with English competency enough to pass the entrance examinations of prestigious private universities. The task undoubtedly requires me to research the examinations, but it also suggests me to study the proper teaching method for the ESC classes. I am contacting Eire in search of a useful method, as well as proper exercises. Yotsuya's 55-grade coaching method gives me a certain inspiration too. Should I contact the school?

Intake Reading in Izumi High School

Ikeda High School of Osaka Prefecture has employed the Intake Reading Method since the school year of 2005. The school takes part in SELHi Program, and chose IRM as its research theme. The English education of the school is said to have achieved significant gains, however rudimentary the gains may be.
Izumi High School, in the meantime, has changed itself significantly, has given satisfactory educational showings, and is considered to be one of the prestigious public high schools in Osaka Prefecture. We could not, and would not, however, be satisfied with these elemental achievements, and are pressing forward to improve its classes farther to build a firm base to make its second century as great as the first century after its foundation.
English Department of Izumi High School has contributed to the school's success, and has provided students with certain English competence sufficient enough to pass the entrance examinations of prestigious universities. Needless to say, however, cramming is neither the goal nor the measures of the English education at public high schools. We are expected to provide multi-dimentional English competence to our students. Passing the examinations is only one aspect of it.
To meet the demands, we are to introduce the Intake Reading Method into our classes of English I and II. The introduction will inevitably enable us to improve the students' listening and reading skills on their course of understanding the text.