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April 29th: Hi Jordan. Its been a long time since we've heard from you. Can you tell us about what you are up to in Japan and how things have changed since the earthquake? Hope all is well.

March 11: Jordan! We heard there was a huge earthquake in Japan. We are glad to hear that you are ok! Can you tell us about what is going on there now.

March 1: Hi everyone! Thank you for liking my photos, I'll try to answer all of your questions! I got so close to the pigeon by walking up the stairs beside it while holding the camera by my knee. I took a couple pictures, but this one turned out by far the best. The writing on the skeleton was graffiti in a department store in downtown Seoul. The bowl of food was called Bipnbap. The bowl was hot so it cooked the food for us, it was delicious! The monkeys at Lotte world were animatronics, so no they weren't real monkeys, they were robots! Being at the border you could feel how serious the situation really was. There have been things that have happened in the past where people did cross the border, and it usually resulted in a small fight between the two guard services. I think between 5 and 10 people have lost their lives defending the border in the past 50 years. You could ask the tour-guide guard any question you wanted but there were some things they couldn't talk about for security reasons. The ROK(Republic of Korea) soldiers wear glasses in order to not show any emotion at the border. North Korean soldiers have tried to provoke the ROK and American forces into a dangerous situation. So, to show no emotion, the ROK and American Soldiers wear sunglasses and keep a neutral facial expression at all times while at the border. Most people are not allowed to go into North Korea, and if they are allowed into North Korea, they are escorted by government officials at all times. The way we got to the border was through what is called the DMZ or De-Militarized Zone. In this area, there are no weapons, but there are land mines throughout the area to defend against an attack. We got there on a tour bus. If someone rushed over the border from North Korea to South Korea, the American and South Korean forces would defend that person with their lives. I don't know what would happen if someone went the other direction.

I don't think a shrimp would bite someone, I think they're more scared of us than we are of them. All the shrimp in the pictures were dead, and we did buy the little one and had it barbecued for lunch.

I don't know much Japanese but I do know how to say Hi my name is Jordan in Japanese. Konichiwa, watashi wa Jordan no gozen.

Thanks for all your questions guys! Keep them coming!

Jordan = = = February 24: Hi Jordan, = = = = Hi, how are you lately? Very nice pictures. We have a few questions for you. How did you get so close to that pigeon? There was writing on that skeleton, was that graffiti? That food looked really good, kind of like stir-fry. At Lotte world, are those monkey's real? Was it scary being by the border? Would you have asked one of the security guards a question, like "Where is the bathroom?" Why do the security guards wear those glasses? Are people allowed to go to North Korea? If you do get in, would they let you back out? How do you get to the border? What do you think would happen if someone fell over the border? If someone's child fell on the other side, would they have to stay there? Would a shrimp bite Julia? Was the shrimp dead or alive? Did you buy any of those shrimp or eat any? Do you know Japanese? How would you say, "Hi my name is __" in Japanese? =

February 17: Hey Class, I hope everyone is doing well! I had a great trip to South Korea! We went for lots of different kinds of Korean Barbecue where you cook the food yourself on a barbecue in the middle of the table! I uploaded a couple pictures for you guys to take a look through.

Lotte World is a lot like Disneyland or Disney World. It's in a massive building where there's rides, a skating rink, and a whole bunch of other things! I took a couple pictures of a performance that they were doing while I was there. I figured you guys would like the mascots.

Some of the pictures are taken of the DMZ area of South and North Korea. That means that there is an area between the two countries that both sides guard to protect themselves from the other country. I got the chance to go and stand in North Korea and take a picture of the cement barrier that divides the two countries.

We also got to go to a fish market. There were all kinds of seafood there. Lobsters, crab, all different kinds of fish, eels, and sting rays. It was pretty cool. I took a couple pictures to show you how big the shrimp are here.

I'd love to hear how you guys are doing and how school is going! Please write me back soon!

February 10: Hey Class, sorry I haven't written lately. I'll be traveling to a city called Seoul this weekend. Seoul is in South Korea and should be very different than Japan. I will take lots of pictures specifically for you guys and I'll post them so you can see them by Wednesday of next week! Take care and have some fun in the snow for me guys, I do miss having snow around.

January 19: Hi guys, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break! As a matter of fact, Japan does have earthquakes, I can't say I've personally felt one (there's a chance I've slept through one though). Earthquakes happen when two tectonic plates move against each other. Japan has a lot of neat things that happen because of the way the land and tectonic plates are. There are lots of active volcanoes and some of them have gone dormant, but there is lots of volcanic activity here. One thing that is pretty cool that is a result of volcanic activity and the tectonic plates is natural hot springs. They are called 'Onsen' here and they are made into spas for people to bathe at. The water that is in the 'Onsen' usually has minerals from deep underground and the water is very good for our skin. I have had a lot of fun going to the Onsen.

Did you guys talk about how the earth can change slowly? Like in forming the Rocky Mountains or the Appalachian Mountains? How about the Red River Valley?

Sometimes other things happen because of the plates moving. If the plates move out at sea, sometimes a very large wave called a Tsunami is formed. They can be very dangerous!

I'll hopefully have some more photos for you guys soon! Look forward to hearing from you!

January 14: We really liked your pictures of the Volcano. That got us talking a lot about the earth and how sometimes it can change very quickly like in a volcano. We talked about earthquakes as well. Do they have earthquakes in Japan? Are you having fun? How are you doing?

January 10: Hi Jordan!! We loved your pictures! They are great! Thank you for sharing. We are back into the swing of things at school.

December 22: Hi class! Sorry for not posting recently, I've been busy with every day life here. I'm sure everyone is excited for Christmas and Christmas holidays! People in Japan don't celebrate Christmas typically. They believe in Buddhism mostly. There are some Christians in Japan, but there are far more Buddhists than there are Christians. I know there are a few celebrations going on over the next couple days here in Japan. There's the emperor's birthday festival tomorrow. It's a lot like our Victoria day holiday. There's also going to be a lot of New Years Eve parties. New years is supposed to be one of the biggest celebrations here, so I'm really looking forward to that! I'll try to post some pictures but I don't know if I'll have time. Take care everyone have a safe and happy holidays!

December 17: Hi Jordan! We haven't heard from you in a while and we were just wondering how you are doing? We are a few days away from Christmas holidays and we are getting very excited! What are you going to do on Christmas? What do people in Japan do on Christmas?

December 8: Good Morning class! I'd really like to see a video of you guys singing your christmas song if that's possible! I'm sure you're all amazing singers!

I don't actually have a compass here, I have to rely on being able to relate which direction I'm looking to a point on a map. Mostly I can tell where I am by looking at the way the roads are on the map. I learned how to do this by spending lots of time with a map and a compass and when I was little I would read the directions from a map to the hockey rink I was playing at, even if my mom knew where it was, just so I could get more practice. The cars in Japan actually all go slower than the cars at home because the speed limits are lower. I tried to take a picture that only had streaks of light from the cars, it's called a long exposure shot. It's pretty hard for me to explain how it happens without boring you guys, so lets say for now it's a photography technique to show speed and motion.

In my next post, I'll try to have a video that I can show you how small the doorways are, I actually hit my head again on the doorway at home! We'll talk soon guys!

- Jordan

December 7: Good Evening Jordan! We are very glad to hear that you arrived alright and safe, even if you missed your flight. Are you using a compass to help you find your way around? The hotel room that you stayed in looked really small. Those were super cool pictures! We loved them! Some of us thought that the picture you took from the plane with the clouds looked like heaven. We have a question about the picture in the city with the cars. How fast do cars go in Japan? That car looked like it was going so fast, because we can only see the streaks of light. Why does that happen in pictures? Paige suggested that you take a picture of yourself standing in or next to a doorway, to show us how short the doorways are. That would be interesting to see. They all laughed really hard when they heard you hit your head in the grocery store. Also think it would be really cool if you could link video to the Wiki.

We are getting ready for our Christmas concert here. We are singing a song called, "We are the Reindeer." We are also finishing up our animal research projects.

It was so good to hear from you! Looking forward to hearing and seeing more!

December 7: Good morning guys! Hope everyone is doing well since the last time we talked!

I don't know if my sister told you or not, but I actually missed one of my connecting flights in Tokyo! The bus I was on, to transfer between airports, was running late and I missed the last flight of the day to Kumamoto (the city I'm staying in). The airline switched my ticket to the first flight in the morning, but that still meant I had to find a place to sleep for the night. Being in a strange place, it's really important to be able to navigate and read a map. I found this out very quickly! I had to get onto the monorail train and then walk for a few blocks to find my hotel. I asked some people in the area for directions, but they spoke very little english and couldn't give me much help. I was able to find my hotel shortly after I talked to the people.

I'm really glad you guys had a good talk about what you would want to do in a new place, I've actually done most of the things you recommended! I got to meet some of the other English teachers and made some new friends, I've gone for sushi a couple times and explored the neighborhood to get an idea of the things around me! I've gone shopping a couple times, but it had mostly been for groceries! One of the things I'm looking forward to the most is being able to go to an onsen. An onsen is like a Japanese hot spring that is like a spa.

I definitely will miss all of the things you guys mentioned you'd miss! One thing that I really don't like about Japan is that some of their doorways are really really short! I have to duck to get into them. I'm 6'1" and I hit my head on lots of signs in Grocery stores and have to duck to get in and out of most rooms in the apartment I'm staying in. The good thing about being tall here though is that I can see over top of all the crowds!

I'll post a few photos from my experiences so far in the Pictures section, so enjoy and let me know what you think! - Jordan

December 2: Hey guys, I leave today for Japan! I have to say I'm a little nervous about going. I'm going to miss my family, friends and my dog. I'm really looking forward to getting to Japan, but I'm not too excited about the flight over there. I have to spend 15 hours in a plane to get to Japan! I left Winnipeg at 7am so I had to get up at 4:30 to be at the airport early enough for me to catch my flight, but I'm sure the experience I get to have will be worth it!

If you were leaving on a long trip, what do you think you'd miss most about home? What would be the first few adventures you'd want to have when you got to a new place?

- Jordan

December 2: Hi Jordan! We hope you have a safe trip. Being on a plane for that long doesn't sound like a lot of fun. We are very excited to hear about your adventures though. We talked as a class about what we would miss from home and here are some of the things we said: We would miss our pets, family, friends, beds, food, music, TV, games and having everyone speak our language. Seems like a lot of things, but we thought you would bring games and music with you and maybe some of the TV there would be in English.

We had a great discussion about what we would want to do in a new place. The first thing would be to make new friends and meet new people. We would want to eat new food and explore the neighborhood. We thought it would be fun to go shopping and sit in a hot tub and go swimming at the beach. Finally, we would want to learn the language and hire a maid! ha ha ha.

One of the questions that the class wanted to ask Julia is, "When teachers are sick, do they have substitute teachers in Japan?"