Survival Japanese Language and History Lesson Meetup!

Hi, everyone,

Hope you had a great weekend.

It was really fun having survival travel Japanese classes last week.
I made some scripts and did roll playing, and I'm still in the process of typing the texts that I compiled for the travelers to Japan, but I really enjoy the process and hope I can finish soon and do more classes. And I wanted to do that every day last week, but sorry I couldn't.

Well, this time I got another idea.

I'm a history buffl. I like history. I like to read and learn about history, and I was teaching history to Japanese students, too. Then I thought how about giving you guys some brief lesson about Japanese history as I believe it would be useful for you to have some kind of knowledge about Japanese history, especially when you visit Kyoto, Nara, and actually everywhere. Knowing some historical facts would probably enhance your Japanese trip, but I have a feeling that you've never had a chance to learn Japanese history form a native speaker before...I could also teach you the correct pronunciation of many places or people.

And my motto as an instructor/teacher is that learning should be fun! So I'll make the lesson something enjoyable even for people who have no knowledge at all about Japanese history.
So please join if you want to learn something new.

Originally I scheduled this for tomorrow, July 1, but I'm changing it to Wed. July 2.

Oh, BTW, my son went to Japan last Thursday and seems like he's having a great time homestaying at a family near Nagoya and going to a Japanese high school and having intensive judo training. He said hi to everyone.

It can be your turn next!

Happy learning,

Sally

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Regarding the location of the meetup, three members have requested somewhere in West LA or Downtown, so I've decided to do it in Santa Monica. It's at a coffee shop called Interactive Cafe near the beach and they have Internet connection.

Since this is a trip-planning meetup, I thought it would be better to have Internet connection as I plan to bring my laptop to show you all kinds of Japan- and travel-related information as well as my Japanese blogger friends' sites so that I can hook you up with them to start communications between both sides of the Pacific even before you actually go to Japan! My friends in Japan have been all waiting anxiously for us to visit them!

Two more reasons why I picked up this place were that Barbara, the owner of the cafe, is very nice and also the food and drink are very reasonable. Before going to Japan we'd like to save money, right?

And I changed the time from 6pm to 3pm because Ramon, who came back from Japan, is available only until 5pm. We all want to hear him talk about his experiences and take a look at many pictures he took in Japan, don't we?

My son's going to Japan from June 26 to July 17. My schedule is not finalized yet, but I'll definitely try to go there while he's staying, and I'll let you know the dates as soon as possible.

Let's have a fun meeting. Oh, please bring your own travel guidebook also if you'd like to share it!

Happy Planning

Sally

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How are you doing?

My son's going to Japan at the end of June for three weeks...He will homestay in Nagoya area, and practice judo with Japanese high school students. So I'd like to go there together, but not for three weeks. Maybe go with him and come back earlier, or I go later and come back with him....

And Ramon came back from Japan and he'd like to share stories and pictures too.

So we're going to have a meetup to talk about the possible trip together if you could join me (details to be determined later though). This is a casual get-together, so even if you're not traveling soon, please join and let's talk over some good Japanese food.

The meetup venue is in somewhere in WLA or South Bay or Downtown. I'll decide in a few days and tell you, but if you have any suggestions or request regarding the area, please let me know.

Thank you and hope to hear from you soon!

Sally