英語クラブ

this is old news now, but. . .

my 一年生 (first year girls) got first place in the ken (prefecture) speech contest. . . that's the contest that was the same weekend as yosakoi in osaka. . . i felt so bad that i could be there. . . but they did a great job! (and if you can't tell by the picture, these two could have cared less if they got first or last place. . . they're hilarious!)

also, one of my 三年生 (third year) girls got fourth place in a different speech contest held the week before. . . she should have placed higher, but her speech was on the serious side while the judges seemed to prefer comedy. . . here is her speech. . . and unlike many of the other students who wrote their speeches in japanese and had their teachers translate them into english. . . yes, i'm bitter about that. . . kanako wrote her entire speech in english. . .i only edited it. . . (did i also mention that kanako passed level 2 1/2 of the eiken - english proficiency test? not very many junior high school students make it to that level. . . i don't think i'm allowed to have favorites as a teacher, but i will really miss this girl when she graduates in march). . . anyway, here is her speech. . .

Having a Broad View of the World

I’m interested in English and learning about foreign countries. I want to learn about other countries and be able to communicate more, so I study English hard. If we can speak English, we will be able to talk to more people and learn more about the world because English is used by many people in many countries. Then we can cooperate with people in the world for peace.

In my life, I have many chances to communicate with people from other countries. I’ll tell you about the two biggest chances.

First, three students from Mongolia studied at my school first term. They studied all subjects in Japanese. Sometimes, they couldn't understand Japanese, so we taught them in English. Then, I thought, English is useful when we communicate with people from other countries.

Second, I lived in Indonesia for a year when I was little. While I can’t remember everything, I can remember the beautiful nature and friendly people. I like Indonesia very much. My mother also likes Indonesia.

There were some big earthquakes on Java Island in May. I was very surprised and sad to hear this news. The earthquakes did great damage to the center of Java Island. About six thousand people were killed. Nine hundred schools and two hundred thirty thousand houses were destroyed. So, the people there haven’t been able to live normal lives.

Many volunteers have been working hard and doing their best for Indonesia. My mother started doing volunteer work too. She sold bags and hats made in Indonesia at Sunday Market. Many people in Kochi joined the volunteer work. My mother looked very busy, but she said, “This work is not a hardship. I don’t feel tired from it.”

I also joined the fund raising campaign at Hirome Market. I wanted to help, so I worked hard. I called, “Please help the people of Indonesia.” Then, many people came and donated money. Sometimes a little child came. I was very happy, and I said, “Thank you.” The child was smiling. I learned many things and found something warm in my heart.

I believe only learning to understand other countries is not good enough. Our actions are also important. When we are able to communicate and interact with people from different countries, little by little the world becomes more peaceful. This is why I want to have a broad view of the world.

よさこい と 誕生日２４

the following is a report of my weekend trip to osaka for よさこい (a.k.a. YOSAKOI! or 4351) . . . yosakoi is a japanese dance festival that began in kochi-ken (where i live) and has now spread across japan with the largest festival held each year in hokkaido. . . dance cream (my studio/ team) was the guest team. . . it was an amazing weekend with an amazing group of people (if not for their dancing skills, most definitely for their personalities). . .

friday night, we left dance cream at midnight. i was quite surprised to get on the bus and find that at least five people had bought beer for the ride. . . considering we were leaving on a five hour trip at midnight of essentially the same day we had to dance, i don’t know how their bodies had the energy to consume alcohol. . . i was one of the first people to fall asleep (although 小倉先生had put on the video of our dance performance at the ino paper art museum for me to watch). . . supposedly most others were out by about 3a.m. . . we arrived at the hotel in osaka around 4:15a.m. where gien, one of the team members, was delighted to discover a vending machine with haagen-dazs ice cream and could not be stopped in his purchase despite the time of day/night . . .we were soon led to our room (yes, the entire team slept in one room). . . the first night we had no futons, no pillows, no covers. . . just the tatami floor to sleep on and our bags and coats as pillows and blankets. . . i can’t say that i wasn’t annoyed. . . if someone expects me to perform (especially to perform almost non-stop for a twelve hour period of time), they better let me sleep properly the night before. . . but seeing as how we all have jobs (and could, therefore, not leave earlier) and how the studio has little money (and we, the dancers, didn’t have to pay for anything the entire trip), the first night was spent on a bus and tatami floor. . . thankfully, no one in the group snores. . . anyway. . .

our excellent night of rest finished around 6a.m. when people started getting into costume number one and doing their makeup and scarfing down a bit of breakfast. . . around 8a.m. we went began rehearsal on the indoor stage, by 9:30a.m. we were rehearsing on our outdoor stages, and a little after 10:00 the opening ceremonies began. . . the whole day was really quite a blur to me. . . not long after the opening ceremonies, we had our first performance . . . this was followed by a second and third performance with rehearsals and costume changes in between. . . by 1:40, i was famished and grouchy (from lack of sleep and food and breaks. . . seriously not even time for a bathroom run between 8:00 and 1:40). . . we all gobbled up as much of our おベンと (lunch boxes) as we could before our performance at 2p.m. . . . our last outdoor performance was, thankfully, around 3:30, as it was beginning to drizzle (the day had already been cold and dreary enough since we were running around in costumes designed for dance during the hottest part of summer in kochi). . . all the performances, sprints from stage to stage, and overly speedy costume changes ended around 4:20p.m. . . at this time, we were able to return to the indoor stage for one last cram rehearsal before the dinner show (at which we were the main event, being the guest team and all). . . the final rehearsal ended at 5:00, giving us a one hour break (the first of the day). . . unfortunately, half way through our haagen-dazs ice cream bars, we discovered that the one hour break had turned into a thirty minute break because we needed to be at the opening ceremonies of the dinner show. . . sorry this is getting lengthy. . .

once at the dinner show, we sat through a full hour of torture, watching everyone chow down on the banquet food and gulp down their beers. . . our team sat taking minute sips of water in order to avoid any last minute toilet runs while in costume. . .and then we were somehow getting our last minute pep talks backstage. . . and then there was dancing. . . and suddenly it was all over. . . and all that was left of the banquet was a meatball dish and a few pieces of rolled sushi. . . not the most rejuvenating meal after the day we had, but we were really just too exhausted to care. . .

anyway, regressing a bit. . . the dances themselves were quite an experience. . . i’m not used to dancing outside (especially in the rain. . . it reminded me somewhat of my high school cross county meets . . . i swear it always rained for regionals or state). . . anyway. . . i am also not used to being a very outward performer (modern dance tends to have a more internal focus). . .yosakoi is all about the crowd. . . our team had four dances. . . i was the only person who had to learn all four of them from scratch. . . did i mention that i was the only foreigner on my team? i tend to forget that because they treat me the same as everyone else, but everyone that talked to me in osaka seemed to point that out. . . the girl that dances next to me got upset because some guy in the audience apparently had his eye on me during one dance. . . after the show, she said all she had been thinking was ‘look at me! i’m dancing too!’. . . it was pretty funny. . . anyway. . . i was terrified for the first performance or two despite the fact that we had been rehearsing like crazy since june. . .by the final outdoor performance, i had relaxed a bit and was having a lot of fun. . . of course that all changed for our evening performance. . . the two dances that my teacher put me in the front row for were the two that i had the least amount of confidence in. . . for whatever reason (nerves, lack of sleep, lack of food, etc.), i was on auto-pilot for every single dance on Saturday. . . i.e. if i didn’t know the dance well enough before saturday, i was screwed on stage. . . the first dance went well enough, i suppose. . . since i was on auto-pilot, i can’t even remember what mistakes i might have made. . . the middle two dances (my front row dances) felt wretched (more than felt. . . i completely blanked out halfway through one dance). . . but the last dance. . .

the last dance was the most amazing dance i have ever performed. . . granted i have absolutely no idea how it looked. . . it was simply FUN. . . as much as i love dance (and obviously cannot survive without it), i rarely have loads of fun on stage. . . but this dance was amazing. . . i was center stage in the second row behind my teacher, who always makes mistakes (a fact that makes me feel quite a bit better b/c i’m always so hard on myself when i mess up). . . anyway, every bit of his energy was in that performance. . . the crowd was cheering like crazy. . . it was impossible to be outside of the moment. . . there was never a point at which i was thinking at all or even wondering what was happening around me. . . i never knew you could get so completely lost in a dance like that. . . at the end, 小倉先生 and i cross paths. . . the energy in his face was great (i think he looks like a madman when he dances all out). . . it was AMAZING. . .

and on that note, my first yosakoi was over. . . five and a half months of rehearsals for one twelve hour day. . . the most stress i have probably ever had to put on my body (thus far that is, as i hope to do it again in the near future). . . the most amazing day. . .

after dinner, we all had our baths (japanese style, of course. . . shower first, followed by a dip in the public bath/hot tub. . .along with a sauna. . . not to mention the tokyo team members that gave massages later in the evening. . . can’t think of a better way to relax on a cold, rainy day). . .

the team even remembered that sunday was my birthday and surprised me (really surprised me b/c i didn’t know that i had told anyone about my birthday) with a delicious strawberry cake. . . and a really cute card that almost everyone tried to write in english. . . lots of phrases like “may all your dreams come true,” “i love you,” “i wish you many happiness”. . . and then one from a japanese tv commercial “”my house is a daiwa house! oh!” . . . they are all so amazing! i could not think of a better way to celebrate my birthday (well, the day before my birthday). . .

sunday was a bit sad because we had to leave the tokyo members behind and start heading home to kochi. . . however, we decided to hang out in kobe for most of the day. . . starting with a trip to an aquarium (including a dolphin show, sea otters, penguins, and nemo). . . everyone let me choose the restaurant for lunch, so we went to an indian restaurant called ‘gay lords’ (sometimes japanese people seem a bit behind the times. . . i felt like i was with a group of elementary kids as they all giggled at the name. . . but the food was good). . . finally, we went shopping at an outlet mall. . . if there is one thing i have learned over the past year, it is that one cannot take a trip with japanese people without taking time to shop (i cannot tell you how much time we spent shopping during our free time in korea). . . anyway. . .

sunday was probably the first time i have been with everyone outside of dance class, workshops, concerts, studio parties and performances. . . everyone’s personality really came out. . . ban-chan headed to all the frilly, girly shops, miki to the sports shops, gien to the kobe pudding specialty shop, etc, etc. . . good bonding experience. . .

on the way home, we started discussing our next show(s). . . i think a small studio performance in march . . . and then the kochi-wide dance collaboration in may(?). . . lots to look forward to. . . but still sad to have yosakoi behind us. . .

whew. . . sorry that got a bit lengthy. . . just wanted to report while the experience was fresh in my mind (for once. . . how many other events do i still need to go back and report on?). . . if you don’t already know, i will be returning to the states from december 22nd to january 7th . . .let me know what you are all up to (especially if you plan to be in the chicago area at that time). . . じゃ、またね！

竹馬. . .bamboo horse

this summer at dance cream (my main dance studio) i tried to learn how to use 竹馬 (kind of japanese stilts made of bamboo – hence 竹~bamboo and 馬~horse). . . anyway. . . i failed to succeed. . . both of the little kids (sakura’s sister who is a first grader in elementary school and another dancer’s daughter who is a third grader) can hobble around the studio on them. . . many of the adults can even do low arabesques and work their way up to a slow jog. . . i eventually managed to stand for two seconds and a few times succeeded in taking one and a half steps before falling off. . .i just can’t seem to make the same arm work with the same leg. . .

earlier this month, i attended the nursery school 運動会 (sports festival) to discover that my problem may not be due purely to lack of coordination. . . maybe more a lack of training from the time i was in diapers. . . see for yourself. . . my kids are the coolest. . .

this is what i call the pre-takeuma stage. . . the three year olds start on these little can like things, as you can see. . .

these are the five year olds. . . they can go a full 50 meters or so on those things. . . and, as you can see, some of them are set at a level as high as the kids themselves. . . すごいですよ！

just for fun. . .

around may or june the old gymnasium was torn down in order to build a new, earthquake safe elementary school . . . which naturally makes me feel safe to be teaching in the old one ;)

anyway, the construction guys have pretty much taken over the parking area in front of my place . . .the dormitory i live in is literally right next to the elementary school. . . as in i have to make all my curtains are closed when i’m getting ready in the mornings. . .

today was one of the rare days that i was able to go home to eat lunch and relax a few minutes away from students (and away from soji). . . as i left to return to work, this is what i found. . .

i found it amusing to see all the construction workers sprawled out on the parking lot and in their trucks. . . there were at least six or seven more of them, but this was the only picture i could risk without fear of being caught. おもしろいね.

quirks

japan is an odd place sometimes. . . they believe strongly in this appearance over reality concept. . . this leads to me sitting at work for hours or days at a time having to appear busy even though i really have nothing to do . . .

although i personally am not having problems with the appearance vs. reality thing at the moment (teaching at seven schools and dancing every night keep me busy enough), but i just left the junior high school where a staff meeting was in progress (i am so grateful that i am one of the alts that gets out of those things). . . most of the teachers are sleeping, making midterm tests, or grading papers. . . no one actually listens to a word being said. . . why bother talking if no one is going to listen? the training starts early on (as i mentioned in the blog about my over-worked students). . .

more quirks in the system. . .i recently had the choice of staying at work for an extra hour and a half to eat school lunch. . . or returning to my office early and grabbing my own lunch along the way. . . apparently my decision to cancel one day of school lunch caused my supervisor an extra hour of work. . . he had to call to cancel the lunch, make a second call to cancel the charges to my account, and was apparently rather distressed with the fact that my one little bottle of milk could not be cancelled. . . i.e. i will be charged possibly thirty cents for a bottle that someone else will probably drink anyway. . .

that’s all i have time for at the moment. . . still so much more to say. . .and so many pictures i need to post! for now, here is one of a fisherman at the beach last saturday (no, i don't actually know who he is). . .

小さいブログ. . .ゴメンね！

i know, i know. . . it's time for me to write a real blog reporting on all my amazing experiences in japan. . . and although it is my now my second year here (and i therefore have a much better understanding of my surroundings and the events taking place), i do still have exciting new experiences to report. . . the problem is in the fact that i have no time to report them . . .

i suppose the place to start is dance. . . as i believe you know, i will be dancing as part of the guest team at yosakoi in osaka this november (my birthday weekend to be exact). . . if you can read japanese, here's the info (dance cream is the name of the studio i dance at) . . .
http://sasso-japan.org/expo-vol2.html
http://park.expo70.or.jp/facil/facil_04.html#yosakoi
i'm not really clear on all the details. . . all i know is that we have numerous street performances and a couple of stage performances. . . i think we only dance on saturday (the 18th). . . we are leaving kochi around midnight on friday night. . . taking a bus to osaka (3+hours?) . . . and then dancing all day staturday. . . i believe relaxing a bit/ sightseeing on sunday. . . and returning. . . while i am obviously extremely excited, i am also getting pretty stressed out. . . as the only person on the team who has never participated in yosakoi, i have no idea how to use narko or maneuver my happi or scream random words in japanese (it's like trying to learning things like woohoo in english. . . よちょれ　and わしょい are not particularly useful for daily communication). . . aside from those challenges, my teacher put me in all four of the dances both in the street version (which everyone does) as well as on stage. . . since we started learning the first dance in june or july, two of the dances have been pretty well drilled into my body (including the chants and narko and happi). . . a third dance is coming along (although we spend very little time on it in rehearsals. . . as in running it once maybe every week? if that). . . the fourth, however, is my biggest source of stress. . . apparently my teacher has decided not to actually teach it to me. . .i finally asked him for a video of it (but have no time to watch the video). . . we NEVER practice it in rehearsal. . . i have no idea how he expects me to be in this dance. . . learning combinations is my biggest weakness in dance. . . so, yeah, that should be interesting. . .

okay, i know that's just a start, but i really need to go home and go to bed now. . .

out of curiosity, who still checks my blog? is it down to just my mother? i know i've been neglecting my readers lately. . . sorry about that! i have so much to say. . . it's getting harder and harder to know where to start. . . anyway. . . hopefully more to come in the NEAR future. . . for now. . .おやすみなさい！





"well, art is art, isn't it? still, on the other hand, water is water. and east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. now you tell me what you know." ~ groucho marx




"every child is an artist. the problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." ~ pablo picasso

overworked

**tired staff costing japan $30bn**
a survey suggests tired workers are now costing the japanese economy $30bn a year in lost productivity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/business/5063670.stm

having worked in japan for a year, this article is not at all surprising. . . although i have to disagree with the guy who said it’s a “global problem”. . . i know that work hours have become ridiculous in many parts of the world, but i swear it’s not the same as japan. . . especially at a young age. . .

most recently, my junior high students have been falling asleep in class. . . not just drowsy, daydream sleeps but really deep sleeps. . . it’s really frustrating. . . when i first came to japan, i would get kind of angry. . . after working so hard to make these materials or plan this lesson, the students are just going to ignore us? and why don’t the teachers do something about it? . . . but after a year, you begin to see just what is expected of the students . . .and begin to feel sorry for them instead. . .

many of my students start their day around 5:30 or 6:00a.m. . . . some ride their bikes over 10km from their houses in the mountains to school. . . others take public transportation transferring from bus to train to bicycle. . . others are lucky enough to live in town . . . and a few (very few) are lucky enough to have parents who drive them to school. . . (this one rather chubby boy in the junior high school always conveniently ‘forgets’ his bicycle. . . don’t know how anyone can forget a bicycle, but that’s how it was described to me. . . so he calls his dad to pick him up every day. . .pretty funny kid). . .

anyway, at certain times of the year (late spring through fall), the sports clubs meet for practice at 7:00a.m. . . .classes start at 8:25 and run until 3:00 or 4:00. . . classes are sometimes followed by committee meetings (e.g. library, student council). . . or they may be followed by practice for extra-curricular activities outside of club (e.g. swim team, track and field, undokai/ sports day, kanji or english proficiency tests). . . finally, following all of this, the students attend their real clubs (english, art, soccer, volleyball, kendo, etc.). . . at the latest, i believe the students are supposed to leave school around 7:00or 7:30. . .

while that concludes the daily life of a junior high school student at school, their days are far from over . . . what do they do after school? some of my students take piano lessons. . . everyone has their school homework. . . and finally, most of them attend juku (cram schools). . . some begin attending in elementary school, and almost all students attend by their third year of junior high because they have to prepare for their high school entrance exams . . . at juku they study all of their main subjects (again) in smaller groups or private lessons (with teachers outside of the school system). . . correct me if i’m wrong since i’ve never actually attended a juku class. . .when i was asking about my students' plans for christmas day last year, one girl replied, ‘i have to go to juku. . . all day’. . . granted christmas is not a widely celebrated holiday in japan. . . but it was even on a weekend last year. . .

which reminds me, the students also have to attend club activities on saturday and sunday (every weekend, all year). . . as well as all through the summer. . .

so. . .what would you do in a classroom with a schedule like that (not to mention the whole no air conditioner issue with temperatures around 30degrees celsius). . . i would most definitely sleep. . . or drink tons of caffeine (which is not permitted at school anyway). . .

on top of all that, there are perfectionists or overachievers. . . one day at sports day practice i noticed a huge red, cross shaped scab down one girl’s forearm. . . when i asked her what happened, she seemed surprised and said, ‘you’ve never seen it before? we do it when we have stress’. . . she had scratched it into her own arm. . . i am no longer surprised to see junior high students developing grey hair. . . or hear stories about high school students whose hair is falling out. . . it’s so sad. . .

finally, here is a poem one of my english club girls wrote the other day. . .

study
let's start
sleep, sleep, sleep
it's already morning
cry

by kanako


to end on a happy note, here is a poem by another girl . . .

cows
clear eyes
catching, roasting, eating
how poor they are
delicious

by natsumi