Guests from STEP(Society for Testing English Proficiency) have just visited us. STEP is Japan’s largest testing body and a leader in international education. JD is excited about conducting joint testing research with them starting in 2008. Good luck! Notice: no ties allowed in our house! :) We enjoyed their company. Thank you for the wonderful dinner at Haiku Gardens, too! Gochisoo sama desita! By the way, the handsome guy on the far "right" is available, ladies!

Our recent family get-together....

Shen and D playing together...

We enjoyed hiking at Hauula Loop (on Oahu). It was so beautiful.....

Thanks to my friend from college, Ms. Fumiko "Pan-san" Kanematsu, I recently had a wonderful opportunity to conduct a workshop on Japanese pedagogy for members of JTM Tokushima Nihongo Network. Arigatoo gozaimashita! JTM is an organization (established in 1997) that provides support for Japanese-as-a-second language learners in Tokushima. The group regularly holds meetings and workshops to improve themselves as professional teachers. I was impressed by their needs analysis survey report based on 296 informants (!). They have recently published the second edition of Konnichiwa Tokushima." Congratulations!!

With my former TUJ (Temple University Japan) students....We enjoyed walking, talking, and eating in Kamakura.

Thanks to my friends from college (Sayo-chan and Tamura-san), JD and I had a wonderful time in Hokkaido this summer. Osewa ni narimashita!

JD and I enjoyed dinner with my nephews. They are such cool kids! My sister is a working mom who is soooo good at cooking, She made this b-cake for me. She is an amazing woman.

Mayumi-chan, thank you for the lunch in Shinjuku! I've known her for years!

JD Brown's selected work

JD enjoys his work and...

loves (dark) chocolate.

After all, JD was born near Hershey, PA...

Shen's selected work

We are hoping that Shen will get a real job someday soon...just kidding :)

Randy's hot dog!

This big guy also makes these very tiny 2-gauge buildings!

Where can we order them, Randy???

My friend and colleague, Sandra McKay (the one in the middle in the above picture), and her husband Gerry invited all of us (including students from East Asia) to their lovely house for thanksgiving. Gerry is cutting the turkey that he and Sandy prepared...it was so delicious! Gochisoosama deshita! Everyone but the turkey had a great time! :)

Gerry baked this pie (among others), too! It was so yummy! (He is the only busy lawyer I know who can bake so professionally!)

Ili in China. JD says she looked like a "marshmallow in a raisin bin." Ili used to be a multilingual person speaking English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.

Once upon a time, JD's mom was a beautiful stage actress and...

She is still beautiful!

Thank you, Hideaki & Sanae...we enjoyed the barbeque in your beautiful backyard. JD is not in the picture because he enjoyed the barbeque too much.

My daughters-in-law when small, were like dolls and they still are..

They were celebrating the traditional Japanese Hinamatsuri (girls' doll festival day)

Hawaii is alway our home....

Kaneohe Bay