michael lambe's scrapbook

This month’s word or 今月の言葉 went up in the classrooms this week.

失敗は終わりではない
その失敗を反省し
成功に結びつければよい。

失敗 shippai – failure, defeat
終わり owari – the end
反省する hansei suru – reflect, consider
成功 seikou – success
結びつく musubi tsuku – conclude, reach, result in

Failure is not the end
It is better to reflect on that failure
And finally reach success

And here’s a timely case in point! A couple of years ago, the school I used to work at, Lado International College Japan, went bottom up, largely due to mismanagament it seems. My old workmate Malcolm, obviously upset but undeterred by the sad demise of the school he loved, kept his pecker up, worked hard and now he has his own school! Good for you Malcolm!  You can check out the school’s website here: www.malcolm.jp

Just some pictures from the weekend:

Saturday was Mewby’s birthday and a full day it was, wandering round the Arts flea market on Sanjo, admiring the Nihonga exhibition in the Museum of Kyoto, buying our friend Setchan a wee wedding present, enjoying a nice cuppa surrounded by antiques in Cafe David and culminating in a gorgeous meal at La Table de Thierry. I still had one last inevitable surprise for Mewby at home though:

A girl’s gotta have a cake on her birthday, eh?
Sunday we had unexpected visitors and I got to hang out with my old friends from my days at Lado, Melinda, Trent and Yuki after a seven year interval. It was great to see them again. Years have passed but they didn’t seem to have changed at all. Naturally, much beveraging, reminiscing and karaoke-ing ensued:

I’m hoping we can catch up with Mel and Trent again in our projected trip to Oz next year!