SPEECH CONTEST.
English speech contest is a big deal here. Like club sports, they have district, prefectural, and national level competitions. Basically, there are two categories "Speech" and "Recitation". For those competing in the Speech category, students write their own original speech; it can be a story, a "lesson learned" type of thing, or just speaking about something that interests them. For the Recitation category, students simply memorize a passage or story from the textbook or some school literature. I had students from my 3 schools (Kubo, Kudamatsu, and Suetake) competing. These kids practice EVERY DAY for hours on this, some started as early as May of this year, if you can imagine. So much effort. And it sucks because only 4 out of 35 students in each region make the cut to the prefectural competition. I worked a bunch of overtime after school coaching these girls on their pronounciation, intonation, delivery, and so on. Most of them don't really know what they're saying, because they wrote it in Japanese and often their teachers translated it into English for them.



Team Kubo: Saori, Mio, and Mikiko. Honestly, Mikiko is about the cutest kid I've ever seen in my life. She says in her speech, "my smile is the barometer of my heart" and if this is true, she must have a heart of gold. I had to leave before I heard Saori do her speech, but both Mio and Mikiko spoke very well.



Team Kudamatsu: Maya, Chie, and Mami. OK, maybe Mami is the cutest kid I've ever seen. In any case, they all worked really hard. Chie is one of my favourite kids; she was the one who did The Todd high-five with me at the Karyo English Camp.


From Team Suetake: Mizuki, the reigning district champion! She is half-Brazilian and half Japanese, but totally Japanese at school. She's really good. As you'll see in the next few pics...


This is the venue for the speech contest. A grand ol' concert hall. It made the kids nervous.



Annnd the results?? Mizuki took FIRST PRIZE... again!! And Kento, the other Suetake student, took 4th which means he qualifies for the prefectural competition. I will post Kento's speech sometime; it's absolutely hilarious. Congrats to Mizuki and Kento! Good luck at the prefecturals, AIIIGHT~

MIYAJIMA - World Heritage Site.
Brett and I made a day trip to Miyajima, outside Hiroshima, to the famous floating shrine and arch of Miyajima island. The weather was gorgeous. I cannot stress this enough. We were both in such good spirits even before we got to the island just because the weather was so perfect. If you want to visit Japan, COME IN SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER. Anyways.




The first thing we saw as we got off the ferry was: tourists. And then, scampering between the tourists, and sometimes assaulting the tourists, were DEER. Of all sizes and temperaments. There were little DEER FOOD stands (like hot dog carts, but with packets of biscuits for the deer) all over the place. The biscuits aren't that tasty though, I don't see why it's such a big seller.


A huge old shrine sits atop a hill. The massive woodwork, worn down to a dark brown…floorboards polished from centuries worth of footsteps…old old faded artwork painted on boards were suspended from the ceiling (see next pic). Everyone was quiet and spoke in hushed tones. We sat on mats and were treated to a performance by a woman (cultural interpreter?) dressed in traditional kimono who played a thingey (like a Japanese guitar with a piece of flat wood instead of a pick) and sang too. When she first spoke to introduce the piece, her voice was soft and gentle and barely audible, but when she sang, it took on a new power. It was haunting, spacious, and altogether beautiful music. Behind her, you could see the mountains of Miyajima covered in trees rising up behind her while a hawk circled and soared...




These are, for lack of a better term, sake kegs. It puts the Canadian kegs to shame, doesn't it. You almost don't even want to tap it, it's so beautiful.



Here is a bit of the inside of the floating shrine. It was low tide today so you could see the gravelly sand a few feet beneath the boards. The shrine was first built 1600 years ago...whoaaaa...


This is me doing a lame pose beside the famous arch which is waaaay bigger than it looks from the ferry ride to the island. The bottoms of the posts look like tree roots are reaching into it; it looks as if they built the arches out of trees that grew there...

Jr. High Sports Festival! ("Undokai") (oon-DOUGH-kah-ee)

Every junior and senior high school has what is called a sports festival at the beginning of the fall term. The kids practice their routines, their games, their competitions for a solid WEEK and then "present" to their parents, family, community, etc. in a day of games and stuff. I decided to go to the Kudamatsu jr. highschool one because it's closest. Amazing! The creativity of the games were unreal...like camp games or something. And all the families out to support, despite the rain in the morning...the field was all sandy muck. The kids went barefoot and most were splattered with mud by the end.


Here a group of boys perform various feats of strength, each manoever is cued by the banging of a huge taiko drum.


A bunch of girls did a dance to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now". Seriously. Queen is big here.


There were three teams: White, Blue, and Red. Each had a flag that was flown mightily by these boys during the various games.


This was fun. It's hard to get the scope of this tug of war, but it was epic. The rope was at least 150m long. Before it started, groups of kids from each colour ran around the perimeter of the field to the spectators and were yelling and cheering ...at first I thought they were beseeching the crowds to cheer for their respective colours...but then I realized they were asking spectators to join their team for the tug! I'm not sure why, but this tug of war thing made an impact on me. The day was rainy, the field was mud, and yet parents and siblings and aunts/uncles, grandparents all came out to support their kids. It was great to see them out their mucking about in their nice clothes and shoes, coming back all sweating and splashed with mud. It was an eye-opening experience...the way families are with each other, how the community is together.

KARAOKE night out...
Machi (girl I work with at the office) organized a little karaoke night with some of our fellow JETs in the area....fun times!
Machi is the only Japanese person my age that I've met so far in Yamaguchi, so hopefully she's a gateway to some more Japanese friends....


Mark and Brett.


Daihachi (who dropped his pose when the first flash went so he looks unprepared when the photo actually took) and Machi working the mic. Daihachi has been to Canada before and speaks good English; he also likes to challenge himself by singing Red Hot Chili Peppers at karaoke...which most native-English speakers would have trouble with, let's be honest.


Sherona sings. Marko to her right, is a second year JET, along with Tammy on Sherona's right. Marko's a cool guy, willing to chill with we young ones (he's 36 i think)...Tammy's from Alberta and she's a karaoke machiiiine.

Hiroshima con'td.


Castle from a distance.


The oddness of this picture speaks for itself. Why would someone lock a bike rim to a garbage can? Unless there was a bike attached to the rim long ago...


A lady reads in the lobby of the Hiroshima Museum of Art.


When we were walking along the path I saw a single turtle swimming and I got all excited: "Look, guys! A turtle!". I turned around and Brett was down by "shore" of the pond with like 30 turtles all in front of him. You can see his hands and camera at the bottom of the pic.

HIROSHIMA. Brett, Katie, Ashley and I took a day trip to Hiroshima this past Saturday. We didn't visit the Peace Park this time (I'll do that another day), but we did see some amazing stuff. It's quite a city.... and if you stop to think that it's basically a young city (at least physically, if not historically and culturally) so few years after being scorched to the ground, it's even more remarkable.


This is a beautiful old Catholic church...


...and these are the front doors.


In front of the church was a huge stone block with the inscription: "UNKNOWN CIVILIANS KILLED IN WAR". This is the story of the Memorial Stone.


A beautiful little oasis in the middle of the city, it was first built in 1620...it's a "mini-landscape", that is, a smaller version of what could be miles and miles of land...the little chunks of land are islands...the pond is a great lake. Tons of turtles and fish in there...


Kids posing in front of a massive old castle (sadly, a rebuilt version) with their ma taking the pic.

Yamanashishi. The great place of my grandparents, Ojiichan and Obaachan!

I got off the train and found Ojiichan (whom I was expecting) AND Wataru (age 20), one of my cousins (whom I was definitely NOT expecting!) waiting for me! I guess Ojiichan and Obaachan had called my cousins and invited them up for a mini-cousin reunion. Taiki (23), the eldest bro, came the next day. Yoogi (18), the youngest, could not make it but I talked with him for a bit on Wataru's keitai... We went straight from the train station to the top of a nearby mountain where a famous onsen (hot springs public bath) was awaiting us. Maaaaaaaaaaaaann....I just melted in there...gorgeous view of the city below us, with mountains surrounding the city...on a clear day, you can see Mt. Fuji. The time in Yamanashi-shi was well spent; relaxing, eating, chatting...I took a bunch of videos, but not too many pics...


Ojiichan cutting up sweet Japanese pear. Yamanashi is famous for its fruits, and Ojiichan and obaachan had stocked UP.


Wataru, preparing our dinner yaki-niku style. Basically a big round electric hot plate in the middle; a whole bunch of raw food thrown on, and you get some delicious food. Try it!


Huge peaches.

Mike and Anna! Mizuho, Gifu.
Best friends from Canada, reunited in Japan. Mike and Anna are teaching at a small private English school in central Japan. I came to visit for a short ... visit. They're doing very well; sweet aparment, good friends! Some of which are pictured here.




Mike and Anna with Akira (black sleeveless shirt) and his friend on a rocky river bank, chillin'.


Same friend beside the charcoal bbq that we roasted copious amounts of beef, fish, sausages (little breakfast sausages, not like the big german sausages that I crave whenever i see the word "sausage"in print), shrimp, and other little things.



Akira holding a stick of dynamite. He's Anna's student, he drives a Camry with all the hip hop toys, and listens to snoop dogg. Has excellent English and is an awesome guy.


Best restroom in Japan yet. We went for dinner and dessert with Miki, another of Mike and Anna's friends. She took us to Grandma's Kitchen, and this is the interior of the restroom. (I don't always carry my camera with me to the toilet, by the way...it just happened to be in my pocket - so small these new cameras.)


This is Miki. She drives a tiny bright green Volkswagon, listens to J-pop and J-tech, and is a kindergarden school teacher. She graciously took us around to some different places in Gifu.

Good times!

Our camp venue had a great view. My group members, Misa, Riho, and Misato.


Group A! Here are some of them displaying their works of art.

KARYO ENGLISH CAMP
Last week I taught at an English camp - 3 days of English fun with about 70 high school and jr. high students. Most were from Karyo Sr. high (Brett and Jen's school) and there were about 25 or so from my Jr. high schools. Good times! Note: there were only 8 boys in the entire camp - I asked why and people just said girls are more into these enrichment program kind of things...boys are more into sports it seems. The 8 boys that were there seemed either asleep or deathly ill the whole time.


I had a group of 9 jr. high girls. The first session, the students made posters of their ALTs (Assistant Language teachers, that's my title). Ayami and Rina drew this awesome poster of me.


Beard is the new black.


We had a movie night ("The Iron Giant"). I fell asleep. People took liberties with my camera.


Rina and Ayami. We had a session called "This is my treasure". We were to bring in something we treasured and make a little speech about it in English. In the end, one representative from the group, plus the ALT group leader would present their speech in front of the whole assembly. Ayami, with her "chick hat", lost a round of Janken (rock/paper/scissors) and was made to be our champion, much to her chagrin. Midway through her speech she put it on: "This is now my most favourite hat among all my hats." And then, to end: "I will wear this hat for a long time". People LOVED it!


Mark and his sumo minions. The uniform you see is that of Kudamatsu Junior high, MY students!

Back to the Tokyo Orientation for a bit - this is the main room where we had our mass sessions...I don't know if the photo does justice to the glitteriness of the room and the professional-ness of attire of those in the room.

"Kanada! Kanada!"

At an "nomihoudai" and "tabehoudai" (all-you-can-drink and all-you-can-eat, respectively).

Cellphones, "keitai". EVERYONE has one.

The gentleman on the right with the streamers on his head and the large plastic flashlight with no batteries and the blue shirt is Taka, our "tour guide" for a night on the town in the famed Shinjuku area of Tokyo. This was before any beverages were embibed. Nuff said.


Mount Fuji from my hotel room window one morning. It's true what they say about Mount Fuji: it's in Japan!


The three new Kudamatsu JETs: Brett (aka Ewan MacGregor), Jennifer, and me. Fortunately for me, they are really cool people. We went to see Pirates of The Caribbean two nights ago...


Lastly, a billboard in Shinjuku, Tokyo. I just took the pic because he was playing a Marshall amp.