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.
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