Stimulating cold winter times

Yes, we have had a great time hosting a friendly, funny and interesting English teacher from Toschigi near Osaka Japan .

His appreciation of the simple things ( warm open fires in the fireplace, garden out back , going along to choir and footy) that were just part of our lives, was a great encouragement for us to not take anything for granted and to enjoy those things even more than we might have otherwise .

Great too to share about how we use words , limit our vision of cultural values ( he enjoyed reading English literature . I shared with him a bit of Chesterton and Keillor ( Book of guys ),and he even sang a popular folk tune on Radio .

A master of understatement , he reflected on how islands ( talking about his own ) can breed insular attitudes ( now there was something to take home ---on our big island )

He honored us more than we deserve, dancing the waltz of the frogs ( we went out in bright green kermit overalls to study some stud sheep-- nothing to do with flowers ) without any hesitation ( young lad providing the incentive on the piano with his excellent rendition of tchiakosksy's masterpiece

If you get the chance, support this great initiative of the Japanese government to encourage their people to move beyond english grammar ( the normal limit in education )to really understand the spoken word and language . Not for the feint hearted -- the experience will be memorable .