Did everyone have a nice Christmas and ready for the new year?

Well, I enjoyed my Xmas very much and have been enjoying my relaxing vacation so far. I'm excited about the new year in 2014! Tim is working out great and students like his classes. And he is doing a great job for HILLTOP! From November, a new receptionist has been working at HILLTOP on Wednesdays. She is Yuuki Kamiya and is currently a HILLTOP student and a freshman at Nanzan University.

From this spring, HILLTOP is going to start an NPO with 9 other small to mid-size English schools like HILLTOP from the Mikawa Area in Okazaki, Anjo, Chiryu, Kariya, etc. I'm super excited about the NPO English Program we are going to launch. I will update you on the program and hopefully we will get this in full swing from April, 2014. Until then, mum's the word. ( ^ __ - ) Stay tuned!

I wish all of you a wonderful new year to come and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Summer vacation is over and I'm looking forward to fall!
Lee will be leaving at the end of September and Tim will take over for Lee.

It seems like I'm just updating the school homepage every 4-6 months. My apology to you all. But at least I'm not doing nothing. :-)
My summer wasn't exciting but I did go to Osaka for a couple of days and had a great time! This summer was wayyyyy tooooo hot!

I'm sad to say that Lee, who has been with HILLTOP for the past 2 years will be leaving. He's been a great teacher for the students. We will all miss him very much! After Lee, Tim ( Hilario ) will take over as the full time English teacher. He grew up in London and he came to Japan in May. We're all looking forward to having him. Good luck, Tim!

We will have our annual Halloween party again this year. The date is not set yet. But it will most likely be on Sunday, 10/27. Looking forward to that as well. I'll close for now. I hope fall will come sooner than later and can't wait till this summer heat is gone!
Take care and be good! Peace!

Spring is here and so is hayfever! 春がきた！花粉症も！

Hi there! Hope everyone's doing well in their first quarter of 2013. Me? Well, the hayfever season is kind of killing me. But I'm trying to take care of it. I've also decided to continue to work as Anjo City's ALT, along with running and teaching my school, HILLTOP. I've been doing both job for the past three years. So I might as well continue. But most importantly, the JHS students are really good this time. They wrote amazing and wonderful memos and letters for me. I was so touched that they gave me the will to continue. Thank you, ALL!
Hope everyone is doing well. Keep in touch!

１１－１９－２０１２
My SUPER SUPER SUPER BUSY period is finally over....for now.

Since the end of September Hilltop is usually busy as usual. But at this time of the year, I start to help with junior high school students' speech contest papers, practice and coaching. But it really paid off this year. 9 of the students I help, 8 of them got a prize! 3 of the 4 students who represent Anjo City as the best speakers to go to Nishi-Mikawa Speech Contest were my students! 4 other students who entered the Toho High School Speech Contest, 3 of them won a prize and 2 of them were the best speakers! All the nights staying up and burning candles paid off! I am so very very proud of these students!
On the private side, all the hard work paid off but it took a toll on my body. :-( My body began to shut down. My mind told me to never stop working but my body tells the true story. Since mid-November, I'm starting to take it easy...for now.
I hope everyone's doing well. Stay warm. Winter is here!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Summer is here! And so is the humidity! 夏だ！！暑い！！

Hello everyone! I hope you all have been doing well dealing with this summer heat. After 17 years in Japan, I'm sorry, but I STILL CANNOT stand this hot weather. (Winter as well !) Everyday I try to keep myself cool.
For the next 6 weeks I can actually sleep in!! No Junior high school work! YEAH!! But Erika has summer school from Monday to Saturday starting tomorrow at her juku. Kids in Japan are just way tooooooo busy!
Anyway, have a great summer vacation! But stay cool ! Take care!!

Sorry I haven't gotten in touch with everyone!　だいぶ遅れてすみませんでした！

I can use "too busy" for not keeping up. But it is so true. I've been quite busy preparing for taking 8 kids to America for HILLTOP's homestay program. And all the preparation it really paid off! All the kids enjoyed so much for their stay. 　3 of the students had never been on an airplane! So you can imagine how excited, yet anxious they were. We left on March 23rd and cam back on March 31st. Taking care of 8 kids wasn't easy BUT I did it! But not without the help of my assistant, Emi Sensei. Thank you so much for your help, Emi!! (See the pictures in the HOMESTAY SECTION)
And I'm already getting requests for the next one. Wow!
Now I can start to concentrate on my work again. From April, I'm back in Anjo, doing ALT job for the same JHSs I was at 2 years ago. I do miss all the Kariya JHS students, though.
As for Hilltop, a new Reading & Writing Class has started and the new JHS Class has also started. I'm excited about the new students who have joined HILLTOP from April. Welcome to HILLTOP and I wish you the best in enjoying learning English at HILLTOP!

Happy New Year, everyone!!

It's the Year of the Dragon!! Both of my parents are born on the Year of the Dragon. So you can figure out how old they are. (*_*) I'm always excited about the new year because there's a full of unexpected events that will happen. Every December, after Christmas, I reflect upon myself on what significant events and things that happened to me that year. This way, I can think about how I can improve myself and also appreciate the good things that happened to me the past year. Yuko and I celebrated our 12-year anniversary. (WOW!) And Erika turned 10 years old. Really! How time does fly! I still remember the day she was born and now she is almost as tall as Yuko. She may even grow taller than Yuko by the middle of 2012.
I wish every one of you will have a wonderful, prosperous and healthy new year to come. In the meantime, keep yourself warm. Brrrrr.............!!!!!!
Oh, and one last thing. I'm so excited about this Spring. This March, I will take 7 kids, from 5th grade in elementary school to JHS 2nd grade, to USA!!! It's been 5 years since I've taken students to America. I will take them for Hilltop's homestay program, which includes attending regular school and classes with the local kids, stay with their host families and tour of SF, guided by me (George) and a Japanese staff. I'm very excited and looking forward to this event! Until the next update. Take care!