the results are in

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!"

I gotta love her.