Moon-viewing with the Goons

Today I attended the staff meeting hoping that I could put in my two cents in support of having an English speech contest at Yoshino Junior High School during the school's Culture Festival. However, it turns out that such an endeavor would be only self-servicing, as in only individual students would benefit from their hard work. This was not really in line with the motives of the event, namely to have the students and their clubs shine through teamwork, primarily via the acapella competition. It got me thinking about why I wanted to hold the competition, and I suppose it could wait for another time. I've still got the rest of this contract year to think about it. Meanwhile, Mrs. Okada (the Japanese Teacher of English, or JTE, I work with at Yoshino JHS) and I will think of something for the students to produce and display at the event.

Afterwards, I came home and threw together a quick stir-fry and headed over to Claire's. There, we Goons (the nickname for the ALTs in the Yoshino-gun, or district) plus Michelle's Polish male friend ate, chatted (mostly about Polish swear words), and chilled. It's great having everyone back together again. Everyone was so over the place during the summer.

Afterwards, we headed to the nearest convenience store, grabbed snacks and made our way to this tiny bridge in Oyodo spanning the Yoshino River. The water level wasn't as high as it was during the typhoon, but the current was still pretty fast. We tried holding our breath and walking the length of the bridge, as in Spirited Away,

Source: http://www.animegalleries.net/

and I was the only person to make it half-way across. 

Here we are hanging out.

Time to study some translating and interpreting!

Before and After

On September 15, 2013, Tropical Storm Man-yi, or Typhoon 18, ravaged many parts of Japan. One of the most heavily rained on areas was actually the Kinki Region, which Nara Prefecture is a part of. The Yoshino River, which passes through my town, was full to the brim. It didn't overflow in my area, but did a little further west in Gojo, Nara.

The picture to the right was taken when I first arrived last year. This is what the water level looks like more or less on a day to day basis.

The picture on the bottom right was taken today, and shows the water level a few days after it's peak, which is still ridiculously high. I'd say it was about 2-3 meters away from the road at it's highest.

Practices for Japanese Sports Festivals Have Begun

After talking with some of my friends, I have decided to give this blog another shot. I'm sorry to all those that I've kept waiting. I'm going to do a better of job of posting things here.

Today, I thought I'd post something cultural. In the fall term, elementary and junior high schools in Japan are very busy with their sports festivals. These festivals are to celebrate physical education in schools, and make for a fun way to compete with your fellow classmates. Running races, obstacle courses, tug-of-war, and dance are some of the events that you can see at these events. As the title indicates, the practices have just begun, meaning the actual festival should be just around the corner. Pictures will be posted more later.

In other news, I've begun my marathon training this month. I hope to be able to run the full Nara Marathon in December, as it's been awhile since I've run this far.

Aikido is also going well. In August, I passed the 4-kyu (4th degree lower belt) test, and am on my way to get those oh-so-stylish hakama along with the 1-dan (sometime in the future).

Once again, my apologies for not keeping up with this, and I hope to share more of my tales here in Japan!