CROSSROADSCROSSROA DS Language StudioÊsS tudioÊs Newsletter November,November , 201
20 1 3
Mount Alberta (3,619 m), located 80 The crux of theirkilometers southeast of the town of Jasper,is the sixth highest peak of the CanadianRockies. To this day mountaineers regard
this peak with considerable respect owing
to major difficulties involving weather,loose and falling rock, and ice covered
cliffs. The upper tier of cliffs offers nocouloirs or gullies through it.
Mount Alberta was among the last of
the major peaks in the Rockies to beclimbed. Its first ascent in 1925 wasconducted by six members of the JapaneseAlpine Club with three Swiss guides. It
was the first expedition by the club into
mountains outside of Japan.
At first it seemed the expedition would
not even get started because of forest fires
burningintheAthabascavalley.
Undeterred by this, the expedition left
Jasper on July 11th with 9 climbers, 5wranglers and 39 horses. As they
approached the burn site, the windchanged direction allowing them toadvance upstream despite being showeredwith ashes. Later that evening they got
their
first
glimpse of themountain which
loomed throughthesmokydarkness like agothic cathedral.
Gendarmes on Mt. Alberta

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SITE OF THE MONTH:
You can follow a group of climbers along the “JapaneseRoute” on Mt. Alberta in this video: vimeo.com/66053376

climb was a 4-meterover-hanging
cliff
which required an
unusual maneuver toget by. One climber
was tied to the wall Aerial view of Mt. Alberta from SSE
while another climbed up on his back andHensonRecording
USA the first climber’sanchoredhisStudios,legs LA,aroundshoulders. Then a third climber climbed up
the human ladder and stood on the second
climber’s shoulders in order to surmount thecliff. Even the skyline ridge would be no easy
stroll. Here they encountered gendarmes
which required great care and skill to getaround and held back their arrival at thesummit until 7:30 pm, 16 hours from basecamp. A bivouac on the summit ridge was inorder. On reaching the summit, the party
ceremoniously planted an ice axe into the snow
to be left as a monument to their efforts.
Over the years the legend of theembedded ice axe on the summit of Mt.
Alberta grew in local lore. Some claimed it
was made of solid silver; others said it
belonged to the Japanese emperor, carried
to the summit with his blessing. In time it
was removed from the summit. The top half
was taken to the U.S.A. in 1948 and thelower half to Japan in 1965. But in 1997, ata ceremony in Tokyo attended by theJapanese Prime Minister, 800 members oftheJapanese
AlpineClub,andrepresentatives from the Alpine Club ofCanada, the two halves were reunited.
Plans to carry the fabled axe back to the summit
by a joint Canadian-Japanese expedition in theyear 2000 were foiled by unfavorable conditions.
Perhaps the 100th anniversary of its first ascent in2025 will mark the occasion.

Article by Kenneth

Joshua Says: This month we are going to have our End-of-Semester
party. It will be held on the 30th. I hope many of our students willattend and enjoy the food and drinks. Our teachers will prepare
some of their country’s food specialties, but we invite everyone tobring along something special to share with everyone else. Invite
your friends and families to join in with us. See you there!

Junko Says: How many of you have a “Face Book” account? Use“Twitter”? Log on to other social network services? I’d really like to hear
about your experiences because I’ve been thinking of opening a Face Bookaccount myself. In fact, I’ve had this idea for a long time, but I never seemto get the time to start. Perhaps with your encouragement, I might!

Kenneth Says: We recently drove to Ishizuchi-san via Kumakōgen, theOmogo valley and Omogokei. The fall colours were at their prime
throughout the lower valley up to the gorge, but well beyond prime on thetrail to Ishizuchi. With the summit enshrouded in mist we were content tohike partway to the mountaintop and savour the fresh perfume of cedar along the way.

Adrienne Says: I would like to continue talking about the book, “How toImprove Your Marriage Without Talking About It”. The author states thatwives should not expect their husbands to want to talk to them about theirfeelings the way that their girlfriends do. The truth is, according to Dr. Love,men do not feel closer and more connected to women by talking to them. Men
will only talk to women AFTER they feel emotionally connected to women.

Stephanie Dit: Novembre est un mois déprimant en France carsynonyme de pluie et de vent froid. De plus, la Toussaint est unefête peu joyeuse et la nuit tombe vite après le passage à l’heured’hiver ! Ici, Novembre est le mois des érables rouges et du retour dela fraîcheur tant attendue après un long été. C’est agréable !

… CONTINUED FROM LAST MONTH…..
… I moved from the hotel I had been staying at in August to the university’s
dormitory at the beginning of September. My room is smaller than I had

University students atbreak time

expected, so I had some problems when my luggage arrived: I couldn’t getsome of my luggage into my room. On September 9th, my university classstarted. The Chinese language course I take is very international. The students
are from many countries such as America, England, Austria, Italy, Russia,France, Kazakhstan, Spain, Korea, Germany, Poland, Japan, and so on. Someof them are from countries I don’t even know. My class’s Chinese level is much

A park in theuniversity’s campus

higher than I’d expected. Actually I was even shocked! Other students canspeak quite well. I’d heard we Japanese have an advantage because Chineseand Japanese use similar characters. But I didn’t feel any of it after theuniversity class started. I sometimes feel like being cornered when my teacher
speaks to me in front of other students in the class, because I can’t understandher Chinese. This university class pressures me to study hard!

People at the train stationgate in rush hour

Usually around rush hour, especially on weekends, there are so many people. A lot of people makea big queue in front of the train station. It made me exhausted! In spite of such conditions, I kept
going on small trips to nearby parks.. … TO BE CONTINUED

By Yufuko Ooura

During the winter of two years ago, when I went into the garden for the first time, the tree had no leaves so I thought it was acherry tree because the trunk was like a cherry tree. But when I went there again, I found a little apple under the tree, so I realized it
was an apple tree! After that, I rented the house with the apple tree in the garden. At first I worried that the tree might be deadbecause it had no leaves and looked dry, but when spring came I saw a lot of beautiful green leaves on it and this made me very
glad. Then it bloomed! There were a lot of pretty pink buds and white flowers. After the flowers fell, the tree had a lot of small fruits.
It grew up little by little every day and when summer came, the tree became bigger and greener. In October, the apples became
red and it was very cute! I felt happy and I loved it so much. I was able to pick 30 apples. I made jam and a cake with them. Inwinter, all of the leaves fell but I was not sad because I knew the tree would rise again when spring returned.
This spring, a lot of leaves appeared on the tree again, and it grew the same as last year. But I noticed the baby apples werelarger than the year before. In October the tree was full of little red apples. I picked and counted them again. To my surprise, therewere 200!! I boiled them with sugar and I will make many sweets from them during the winter.

* The „EndEnd of Semester Party‰
Party will be held on Saturday, the 30th of this month. We start ataround 7:00pm. Invite your families and friends to join us, and letÊs have some fun together!!!
Don’t forget… Our SPECIAL 1+1 Campaign offer! Up to 50% off!!
See our notice board, or ask Junko in our office, for the details.