Speech Day

The 9th was National Sports Day. Every year there's an official National Sports Meet, and it changes prefectures every year. Dozens of sports are featured, so almost every city [think county] gets one. Wadayama's sport was handball. But instead of watching, I was off at...

The Senior High School English Speech Contest! All the SHSs in Tajima sent at least one student to compete. Matsuda, my favorite JTE, was in charge this year, so we'd been practicing since August. While English ability seems like the most important thing, you actually want to choose someone with performing ability. As in, someone who doesn't shy away from attention. Luckily, we had no troubles finding such a student. Shiho is incredibly loud, not shy at all, and is fairly decent at English. Um, well, at writing, reading, and understanding English. Shiho has an incredibly lazy tongue. See, Japanese sounds don't require nearly as much tongue/lip movement as English. Seriously, half the old guys here just mumble, yet everyone understands them easily.

Since the Speech Contest winner last year had some god-awful pronunciation, we figured we were ok. Shiho was lively, she had a good amount of gestures [gestures were HUGE last year], and her speech wasn't about her dream or interaction with a foreigner [these get done to death]. Instead, her speech was about her broken leg. Namely, how helpful friends and family were, and that despite the frustrations, she was thankful to realize how many kind people were in her life. Not the most important speech topic, but we thought it was fairly interesting.

Since the speech contest fell on a national holiday, many ALTs didn't attend. I was told that I wouldn't get a replacement holiday, so I wasn't required to go. Come on! I've been working on this since August-- there was no way I wouldn't show!

Well, sad to say, Shiho didn't win. This year the judges were more persnickety about pronunciation. And the Japanese love of mediocrity- Oops! I meant to say middle ground- gave 1st place to a speech about a girl's dream to be... a flight attendant.

Nada Kenka Matsuri

Only the largest fighting festival in Japan! And we're lucky enough that it's in our prefecture. There were about 6 shrines, hundreds of guys to haul them, hundreds [thousands?] of spectators, and most importantly, dozens of food stalls! Oh, and every last one of those hundreds of haulers were wearing... nada. Well, that's a big of an exaggeration. But they were wearing the traditional Japanese loincloth, so you do see a lot of cheekiness.

We got there around noon, wandered around, watched the shrines jostle and dance before entering the grounds. Mom and I were caught up in one of the rushes, but were pulled out. Hooray for not getting smooshed! After a few hours, we were getting a bit tired and impatient. I'd forgotten that no matter what the start time is, Japan is more about the build-up than about the pay-off. So we left before any shrines actually smashed into each other.

This was a great first outing for the folks. There was lots of delicious street food, plenty of action, drunken Japanese [really, if you go to Japan and only see sober Japanese, you are really missing a big chunk of Japan!], traditional costumes, and of course, lots of train travel.

The MAD Arrived...

The folks came to Japan for about 10 days. We took them on a whirlwind tour, thoroughly exhausting everyone in the process! I'm really glad they came in October, as fall has the most festivals and the best weather.

They got to experience true Japanese living by staying with us in our little apartment. The apartment is great for 2 people, okay for 3, and not quite big enough for 4 people with luggage. But since this overcrowding of the house is how many Japanese live, it's just a furthering of the experience!

Tsukimi

Yesterday was the full moon.

Japan has long celebrated full moons with Tsukimi [moon viewing], much like the Hanami in spring. There are organized events, with matcha and mochi to sip and snack, and music. While there were several organized Tsukimi around Wadayama yesterday, the weather was horrible. Rainy and cloudy. So Aaron and I traipsed down to Himeji [after checking the weather report] to watch the moon rise over Himeji Castle.

There were few other watchers, and no organized events. This left the Himeji Castle Park incredibly open and welcoming. We walked around in the moonlight, stumbling across a few other people. It was beautiful and serene.

In the Western world we talk about the man in the moon. I've never really seen it, but there you go. Here in Japan, it's the rabbit in the moon, and he's pounding mochi. I can see the rabbit, but I have a hard time with the mochi part. Pretty spiffy.

Eeeew!!

I saw Oyaji weiner last night. Horrible and yucky!

I was walking around a large building in Toyooka. The building curves a bit, and as I cleared the curve I was presented with a direct, straight-on view of a man holding himself against the building [but not shielding himself from the cars or pedestrians] with one hand; the other was um, rather firmly gripping his ... stuff.

I was so shocked. I know I musta had an "Oh, Good Lord, what the hell?" look on my face.

Yuck.

Keepin' Skinny

A lot is made of the healthy Japanese diet. While the traditional cuisine is super healthy, things have been changing. Instant noodles, fast food, and snacking is beginning to show its effects in Japan. [Some of my kids are kinda chubby. I love it, as I don't feel nearly so heifer-like] But the Japanese are generally still fairly skinny. How? Well, there's an old proverb about only eating til you're 80% full... but that's changing along with the snackables...

I chalk most of it up to the schools. See, all students eat the school lunch from Kindergarten to 9th grade. The Education ministry keeps the stuff fairly healthy, and the portions are kinda small. And what I think is the most important: P.E.

Japanese students have P.E. everyday of their school life. And unlike the U.S. where it's not cool to actually "work out" in P.E., the kids work at it. A good bit of exercise, everyday... sounds pretty healthy to me. And the various field days, National Sports Day, etc... it all adds up.