Today was the day of the long-awaited regional speech contest. Much to my delight, my third year girl was good enough to walk away with a third-place award. And as for the ichi and ni nensei boys...they both received nothing less than first place! Shimowada was absolutely thrilled. But I sincerely think every heart in the room that day was warmed by my first-year student's delivery. He's one adorable kid. He worked his butt off for this day; and it paid off.
The entire afternoon, once the winners and runners up had been announced, Yuki Nakazato, first-year student at Yamazaki Junior High School, seemed to be trapped in a haze of pure bliss. We went to Joyfull, a local "family-style" restaurant for celebration ice cream and, the entire time, I watched as the immense smile on Yuki's face refused to fade. As happy as I was for Keita, the second-year winner, I could not help feeling a surge of especial pride and empathetic satisfaction at Yuki's achievement. Keita knew that his speech was good. Yuki, I think, up until this afternoon, had been completely oblivious.
So now we're off to the province-wide competition in Utsunomiya; which means two more weeks of after-school rehearsals and drilling. But I'm so happy for Yuki and Keita. And I'm happy for Ms. Shimowada, too. After hearing the results of the judge's decision today, she told me with enthusiasm: "Let's go to Utsunomiya and win the big cup! Then we will come back home and fill it with beer!"
And pretty much all the time, too. Today I have the day off, though, to compensate for having to come to school on Saturday for Rindosai (School Festival). Yamazaki's Rindosai, from what I understand, was not as exciting as those of some of the larger junior high schools in Moka, but it was still much better than an actual day of work. I even got to participate in some of the activities with the kids and it was one of the first days that I actually was able to walk around and just chat with some of my students.
Tomorrow is the long-awaited speech contest (at last!). Two of my students are actually quite good and that sort of worries me. You see, the first and second place winners both get to go on to the state-wide competitions, which would mean more preparation and more time after school listening to the same words and the same awkward intonations repeated over and over again. Ms. Shimowada and I keep joking with each other that we hope our students will all get the third prize. We want their hard work to pay off, but we're done.
In further news, I got a sewing machine! It's been great fun so far making little things to decorate the house. Pictures of my handiwork to come later.
For now, please enjoy this video clip of a "traditional Northern dance" that several of my students performed last Saturday. They did it twice, and the second time I was coaxed into joining them. My thighs burned for two whole days afterward.
Finally home after a long day at work, blogging is just about one of the last things I feel like doing. It seems that every morning, as I ride my bike through the vast fields of dirt that up until recently were filled with tall stalks of rice, I'm full of interesting thoughts that I just can't wait to sit down and relay to all my eager readers. But, when the end of the day finally rolls around and I've got the time to sit in front of my laptop for a bit, I'm too exhausted to feel inspired.
Suddenly I think I've gained a little insight into why Japanese people as a whole don't seem to be all that creative: they work too damn much.
Nevertheless, I find ways to reassure myself that I am, in fact, a human and not a robot. I spend my spare time at work designing hand-drawn picture cards and worksheets for elementary school lessons. In class, when the other teacher is lecturing in Japanese and I'm left standing against the wall like a painting, I fantasize about interesting little things that I can create when I get home. Like a crocheted afghan for my bed. Or Halloween decorations for our party next Friday. Or a time machine that will transport me to some time after speech contests are over.
They're just everywhere. All the time. This weekend there seemed to have been a surge in activity among the praying mantises in the area around my house. The following picture shows me as close as I was willing to get to the enormous one outside my neighbor's front door.
Besides the excitement with this exceptionally beady-eyed and unsettlingly observant green insects, the majority of my weekend was preoccupied with sitting on my living room couch with a tissue in one hand and a cup of hot tea in the other, combating the sudden onslaught of a cold that took hold without warning on Friday night. I was alone in the house, since both my roommate, Jennifer, and my friend Josiah left for the weekend to take part in a home-stay rice-harvesting festival. I was pretty jealous of them for getting to go to this, especially as I was the only AET who didn't get invited. But not having any plans for the weekend ended up meaning that I had ample time to lie around my house sniffling and groaning as I waited for the sickness to subside.
Today (Monday) we have the day off on account of National Sports Day. I have yet to work a full five-day week since starting teaching at Yamazaki. For as work-obsessed as the Japanese are, they certainly have a lot of national holidays. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that all of my teachers aren't at school anyway today, finding some task that they absolutely have to complete or some school club that absolutely must meet even on a holiday. Luckily, they don't hold us foreigners to the same standards.
was amazing. Thom Yorke is a dancing machine. I really wanted to stand up and dance with him, but Japanese people don't really dance; they just sit politely and clap and cheer when appropriate. Our seats were just about as terrible as it gets but, wow: what an amazing show.
For further details, please see my Picassa photos (right sidebar).
Today the weather was beyond perfect. The sun was out, but the air was mild. It was a day where I could sit outside in jeans, a t-shirt, and sandals and be perfectly comfortable. So that's what I did. For pretty much the whole day. Sublime.
This supremely relaxing Saturday differed significantly from last Saturday, when I made my first visit to Japan's capital, Tokyo. Tokyo is quite possibly the most bizarre place I have ever been in my life. Walking down the street in the neighborhoods of Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Harajuku, I realize that my small effort to dress nice for the day has fallen flat on it's face. Amid the throngs of young, beautiful people dressed up to the nines in the hight of modern Tokyo fashion, I fit in--at best--with the many haggard-looking tourists scattered throughout the crowds. In Moka, I'm "kawaii" and "kakkoii;" little children and old people stare at me and my European genetics make me constantly something of a novelty. In Tokyo, I'm just another under-dressed white tourist; nobody takes the slightest interest in my presence and waiters in restaurants speak English to me.
If a visitor's only impression of Japan were Tokyo, it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that Japan is a nation of young people; hardly anyone looks like he's under thirty-five. But the truth is, Japan is the world's oldest country, you just have to get outside the big city to notice it. Here in Moka, there's hardly anyone my age. On the bus, everyone's over sixty. At my school, several classrooms go nearly completely unused because, for the past few decades, the student population has done nothing but decline.
All-in-all, this translates into a very peaceful existence for me. I can spend long hours reading at home or crocheting on my front porch because, in the whole town, there really isn't anything else to do. Sometimes this makes me feel antsy; but, for the most part, I enjoy these quiescent weekends.
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