Seiritsu International Education

Happy holiday and season’s greetings!


December is a time when you just want to sit, wrapped up in a blanket, under the Christmas tree. The hectic pace of life seems to just pause and you feel like you want to be surrounded by the many tiny lights forever.


I extremely enjoyed my holiday with my fiancé. We checked out many restaurants in Koreatown and dined on one-to-many Korean set meals within a short period. Since our first grilled pork belly (Samgyeopsal-gui), our appetite for meat was never really satisfied. The best part was the side dishes that came with the meat and rice.




Complementary Side Dishes




(Too) Addictive Pork Belly




Appetite Whetting Grilled Pork Belly


Besides enjoying grilled meat and time with my loved ones, I also spent some time preparing for a seminar down in Kyoto early next month.


Cheers!

Teresa

writer: staff  date: 8:01 AM | Life at Seiritsu

Hello everyone! JET teacher Laurence here.


Last year, I didn’t go back home for the holidays. I decided to stay in Japan and then go on a short trip in Indonesia. While it wasn’t a bad vacation, I did miss spending that time with my family a lot. In Canada, Christmas is a time people usually spend with their families, unlike Japan [PW- in Japan, the big family event is New Year's Day and has a similar feeling to Christmas elsewhere]. So even though I had fun, I definitely felt something was missing. All of this to say that this year, I will be going back to Canada for the Holidays! I am really looking forward to it! I don’t have a lot of space in my luggage for presents, so I decided to write everyone a card and give them an omamori I will buy at Sensouji temple soon![PW- an omamori is a small protective charm which looks like a very small cloth bag. You can have an omamori for many different things: Marriage, road safety, success in exams, health, wealth, and many more. You can buy them in most temples.]


Christmas cards are surprisingly hard to find and expensive in Japan! I guess it’s what you could call a “foreigner problem”, isn’t it? That being said, their designs tend to be very beautiful and detailed, so I don’t mind paying for them.
Wish me luck with my shopping!!


Laurence

writer: staff  date: 9:21 AM | Life at Seiritsu

In November, I went to a soccer game in Komazawa Daifuku.

Everyone in our school went there to go cheer for the soccer club. The grade two students had to go there after taking one period of class at school. We went there by train and then walked to the soccer ground.

Seiritsu lost the game by one point but I had a really nice experience cheering for the soccer team as a student from the same school. After that, I had lunch with three friends. We went to Saizeria and hung out there for about three hours.

I had a really nice day and I'm happy that I'm in Seiritsu or else I wouldn't have had an experience to do a zenkou ouen ("zenkou ouen" means the whole school went to cheer for the team).

writer: staff  date: 8:31 AM | Life at Seiritsu

Today we had a football (or soccer as we say in Canada) game at our school. Our school is pretty strong at football. We walked there from our school because it's very close. It was like a field trip because we had to go together as a class. I was kinda mad that we couldn't go individually haha. But anyways we won the game. These are some of the pictures I took from the football game.

One day, me and my dad watched a movie. This was called 'Wansei Back Home'. This is a documentary about Wansei. Wansei refers to Japanese who were born in Taiwan during the colonial period. In WWII 1945, Wansei people were sent back to Japan. Since then, many people lost their friends, loved ones, and even family members. It doesn't only tell the stories of Wansei, but also tells stories of friendships and a family's bond. It made me more aware of the fact that these kinds of things really happened. Because these things happened, we can live now and we can have the things we have now. People who sacrificed their lives because they had to, it wasn't their choice. I am very glad that I watched the movie, because I also realized how blessed we are.

There was another soccer game for our football team in Seiritu. Sadly we couldn't win the game. At least we got to cheer for them and make good memories.

Me and my friend Julia went to a restaurant where we really wanted to go. Finally we went! I was really happy and the food was really great. I have a peanut allergy. We ordered a dessert that had peanuts but we didn't know and asked them if it had peanuts? And they said yes and they bought the manager. The manager said that they will make it from start. I don't know why but I can't forget about it. It was very thoughtful of them.

writer: staff  date: 8:12 AM | Life at Seiritsu

Many people all over Japan took the JLPT (Japanese-Language Proficiency Test) yesterday.





We know most of them study very hard in order to pass the test. Our international students usually put a lot of effort into getting a passing score. So for all of you that studied hard and then took the test, "Otsukaresama Deshita!"

writer: staff  date: 4:14 PM | Life at Seiritsu