Recitation, Speech, Debate

Back in early October, a regional recitation and speech contest for junior-high school students was held in Hinokage, a town that is not far from Takachiho. The winner of the speech contest and the first- and second-place finishers in the recitation contest advanced to the next round, which was the state-wide competition. The state-wide competition was the end of the road for the competitors in the recitation contest, but the top three finishers in that speech contest advanced to yet another round. As far as I know, these competitions are held once a semester, one for junior-high school students and one for high-school students..

My school sent five kids to the regional contest in October. Three participated in the recitation competition and two in the speech competition. And I'm proud to say that one of the five, the only guy, advanced to the all-state recitation contest (he was not one of the six "winners" there), and one of the girls took third place in the speech contest.

Contestants in both categories are judged on such things as pronunciation, intonation, and delivery. But in the end, no matter what the subject of the speech or recitation, the bottom line is, the winner is the one whose English is best. Period. That's why I'm not much of a fan of these contests.

Another reason: I didn't notice much of a difference, if any, between the recitations and the speeches. For the recitation contest, each student had to memorize an excerpt from a story of their choice and recite it from memory as well as possible. And for the speech contest, each student supposedly wrote his or her own speech about a topic of their choice and also had to memorize it and deliver it as well as possible. But the speeches were definitely not always the students' own work. Trust me on that one.

So what is the difference between memorizing a piece a literature and memorizing what someone writes for you to say? Not much, really.

Japanese high-school students also have the opportunity to participate in debate contests. I got to attend one in Miyazaki city at the end of October. My school sent two teams of three to the debate contest. The debate topic was whether or not students should have to attend school on Saturdays, as they once did in Japan. Each team took on two other teams, once arguing for and once arguing against.

The debate contest is a much better event than the speech and recitation contests. Even if your English is great, to win you also have to be able to argue your point, organize your thoughts, and think quickly, for example. And unlike at the recitation and speech contests, the topic for everyone at the debate contest is the same, which levels the playing field.

Ka-Ka-Kagura, Ka-Ka-Kagura

Last Thursday, one of my colleagues told me about an event that was happening that night in a couple of the villages surrounding Takachiho. The event was kagura. Kagura is a type of traditional, slow-paced, theatrical dancing that is rather famous around these parts. For instance, the Takachiho shrine holds a daily one-hour kagura performance (that I have yet to check out), and one or two kagura dances are usually performed at the various festivals that are held around here. (I have seen some of those.)

But there was one big difference between the kagura being held Thursday night and those other "kaguras." See, Thursday night's kagura was the real deal. What do I mean by that? Well, how does all-night kagura sound? Yep, they start dancing around 7 p.m. and don't stop until about 7 a.m. Apparently, the magic number of dances is 33. Think about it: If each dance lasts 20 minutes, that's 11 hours of dancing! But I saw one dance that lasted for almost one entire hour! Holy cow!

When my colleague mentioned the dances to me, he gave me quite of bit of interesting background information about the whole activity. For example, the dances are usually held at someone's house. I'm not quite sure how someone gets chosen to host the event, but whoever does get chosen ends up hosting for something like 30-40 years! Which means the lucky homeowners are forced to renovate their place to accommodate the large amount of people who watch the event.

Furthermore, guests commonly bring one or two bottles of shochu (which is kind of like gin, or schnapps minus the fruity taste) and/or some money in exchange for the opportunity to watch the dancing. In return, the hosts provide food and drinks for the onlookers all night long. Also, each village has its one day during the year that it hosts the event, so you have the chance to go from village to village during the fall/winter months to watch lots and lots of kagura. There is even some sort of official kagura calendar that lists things such as date, location, start time, amount of people that can be hosted, and the amount of cars that can be accommodated!

Anyway, my colleague gave me a rough idea of where to find the two or three performances that were going on that night. So that night I drove around the outskirts of Takachiho for a while and, sure enough, I found a couple of locations rather easily. But neither was all that appealing, because even though I saw was a bunch of cars in a parking lot and lights at both places, I didn't see any people. Obviously, I was in the right place, but I felt uncomfortable about walking into some stranger's house. So I drove off.

Luckily, however, I'm not completely without an adventurous spirit. So instead of driving straight home, I decided to try to find a different place that was hosting the dances. Almost immediately, I found a sign pointing to another performance. Again, however, I wasn't completely sure where the house was. But after a few seconds, I saw lights off in the distance, up on the side of a hill. So I tried my best to find the house. But it was dark, the roads were narrow(!) and windy(!), and I had no idea where I was going.

I ended up driving down a road that was apparently taking me to a village that I had been to once before. (I like to explore these back roads on occasion, and I think I am therefore getting a feel for where they lead.) And then I saw lights! "Cool," I thought. "There must be some kagura going on over there!"

I eventually recognized the side road I was on and knew exactly where I was. And when I got to the main road, I knew I had struck it rich. For one, the street was decorated for kagura, which means there were red, green, and white decorations hanging. For two, there were people walking to a central location. And for three, there was a crowd of people milling around up on the hill. Bingo!

So I parked the car and walked on over. (One thing about parking here: Street parking is practically non-existent in Japan! Then again, almost anything goes here. So for events like this, people park on the side of the road. Even if that means parking only a few feet away from a tiny police station. And you really don't have to worry about getting a ticket. Oh, and another thing about parking: When you buy a car, you have to "own" a parking spot for the car. Since street parking is practically non-existent in Japan.)

I felt right at home right away. See, the dancing was going on inside the house. But the house had these nice sliding doors that opened all along the side, so a lot of people were watching from the outside as well as the inside, huddled around a couple of fires. So I made a beeline for one of the fires. (Despite the freezing temperature, I felt more comfortable standing outside than sitting inside, especially since sitting means not on a chair but on the floor on tatami, which are woven straw mats.) And because as a gaijin I'm almost an instant focal point whenever I walk into a crowd, since we are so few and far between, I was offered some shochu and conversation(!) right away.

The Japanese are a fairly creative folk. So it was no wonder that the shochu was being warmed in long, thick stalks of bamboo held in the fire and served from those same stalks and poured into bamboo cups. How cool! But I don't like shochu, so I passed. Besides, there is absolutely zero tolerance here when it comes to drinking and driving.

But I didn't pass on the conversation. I talked for quite some time (in both Japanese and English) with several locals of all ages as well as a bunch of funny, older guys from as far away as Miyazaki city and Fukuoka (both about 3 1/2 hours away), almost all of whom suggested we meet again some day. But you never know how sincere such suggestions are when they are given to you by half-drunk people.

Anyway, I watched about five hours of the dancing. Most of the dances are rather slow-paced and rhythmic, and they are almost all accompanied by slow drumming and flute playing. Sometimes the dancers carry swords, and they often shake these tamborine-like sticks. Dancers sometimes even wear masks, often with wigs attached. There are solo acts, as well as performances with up to about five dancers. And sometimes the dance is more like a play. And all the performers where these white yukata-like outfits, usually with some red and green decorations attached. Oh, and traditionally all the dancers are male (with very few exceptions).

I'm happy I got to enjoy the "real" kagura! The drum beat is somewhat mesmerizing and I found myself often whistling to the sound of the flute. I kind of wanted to stay all night long to get the full experience, but at 2 a.m. I decided to go home. (Hopefully, I'll have a camera by the time I go to watch kagura again this weekend so I can add some pictures to this post.)

The hidden and missing surprises one encounters while driving in Japan

Today, I did quite a bit of sight-seeing by car. Early in the morning I saw a sign that piqued my interest. (I'm slowly able to recognize more and more kanji, so I'm able to read more and more signs.) 2 kilometers off the main road there was an elementary school. I decided to head up that road, which is one of countless narrow, winding roads that can be found here in this hilly area. I can't recall seeing more than one or two one-way roads in all the time I've been here, but almost every side road is so narrow, it's hard to believe they aren't one-way roads.

So many of the roads around here, even some of the "main" roads, are so windy and narrow that at just about every turn there is at least one pole with a round mirror attached to it so that you can see if there is any traffic coming. I've never seen so many of these mirrors on roads before, but I tell you, they come in handy. Of course, you end up looking at the mirrors so often, you have to learn how to drive without looking at the road! But that's not such a good idea, since another danger lurks: ditches!

Yes, there are ditches along the side of most roads. It's insane. I'm not talking ditches that you can drive into and possibly back out of, either. I'm talking drainage ditches that appear to be just wide enough to swallow your tires whole! It's pretty damn unnerving to tell you the truth. A video of me driving into one of those damn ditches, hearing this awful screeching metal and a loud "BAM!" and coming to a sudden standstill constantly runs through my head as I drive alongside these dangerous obstacles. Ahhhhhh! Luckily, the video has yet to be filmed and I hope it never does make it to a theater near you!

Another surprise along these roads is that you can find a drink (never food!) vending machine just about anywhere, so you don't really have to worry about dying of thirst in case you do happen to drive into a ditch. I swear, just about every five or ten minutes there'll be a drink vending machine somewhere along the road. You can find vending machines at fairly obvious locations such as bus stops and rest stops, but you also find them at just about every pull-out along the road as well as under random trees just off the road. Why don't we have this many drink vending machines in the U.S.? Oh, and in case you're wondering what types of drinks you can buy: Mostly about 10 varieties of tea and coffee, along with one or two sports drinks and usually one variety of coke, too.

Just hope that the machine you find isn't as old as the one pictured here! I really doubt this one still works, but it sure would be cool to refurbish it, eh? I found this one in the middle of nowhere. I went exploring down a road one day and boom, there was this ages-old vending machine. Crazy! The machine sure would make for a nice souvenir, don't you think? Do you dare me?

Ditches and vending machines aren't the only surprises you get, though, when you venture down the path less driven. Some of the roads are so old, they aren't really maintained anymore, so they are slowly becoming overgrown with brush, bamboo, branches, and whatnot. Which means you have to drive slower than slow, not just to navigate the narrowness and windiness! It's really nuts!

I found such a road today. I headed down one road that seemingly led to two towns, since their names were clearly posted on a big, blue road sign, in both kanji and romaji (the latter being English for all intents and purposes). What a road it turned out to be. The first odd thing I noticed was that all of a sudden there was a sign on my half of the road directing me to the left, off the "main" road and onto a tiny road that was serving as a detour. Huh? Since there was no traffic whatsoever, I slowed down almost to a halt and noticed that the "main" road appeared to be washed out or something. Hmmm...

Anyway, I took the detour. After about 30 seconds, I noticed the second odd thing: The road (path?) I was driving on was running alongside a beautiful, brand-new bridge. But the bridge wasn't quite finished. Despite the fact that there were polished signs with the name of the bridge on both ends, tall light poles in place to light up the bridge at night, and shiny guardrails along the sides of the bridge, one thing was missing: The actual road bed! It really looked like the construction crew vanished into thin air before they finished their project.

Anyway, after about another minute, the road/path I was driving on rejoined the "main" road, so off I drove. I couldn't help but notice how the road on that side of the bridge looked like it had been paved only a few weeks ago. But I also couldn't help but notice how the road was slowly becoming overgrown with brush, bamboo, branches, and whatnot. Just when I started to think that maybe I was on the "Road to Nowhere," guess what happened? Yes! The road ended! Unbelievable! I just don't get it. Did the construction workers run out of money? Did they go on strike? Were they on their lunch break? Did they all get kidnapped? Say what?

Come to think of it, I've experienced this before in Japan. You see, down near Nobeoka, there are about six or seven huge support structures in place, running perpendicular to the highway. They have obviously been built to support a roadbed, most likely for a freeway extension. But there's no roadbed, nor does it look like one will ever be built. I just don't get it. What a strange country! Anyway, happy trails to you!

The long and intricate mysteries of school lunches (Part II)

But even before I sat down, I had to get my food. First you grab some chopsticks and a tray. Then you grab your rice bowl and fill it with rice. But for some reason, that day there were rice bowls as well as plates. I grabbed a rice bowl, but the lunch lady told me to grab a plate. I never figured that one out. Eating rice from a plate? Weird.

Yeah, so when I had my food, I started heading toward the table the lunch lady instructed me to sit at. But the principal was at that table and I didn't exactly want to sit with him. So I headed away from the table, but guess who intercepted me? The lunch lady! That was the only time she ever told me where to sit. I don't get it.

Oh, and we fried up our own steaks. Each table had a little grill, big enough for about three steaks. So we all took turns. That was cool. And we got to use a fork and knife! But it seemed that most everyone was using the silverware only for the steak. When they ate their rice and salad, they used chopsticks. I guess you can call that digital multitasking.

As is often the case during a meal, someone, this time the principal, mentioned how well I use chopsticks. (Before coming here, we were told that the Japanese often use such a remark as a conversation starter and I've already heard it a number of times.) I just sort of shrugged and said, "Thanks." But then the principal asked me if I had ever used chopsticks in America. It sort of blew his mind when I told him that using chopsticks in the U.S. is rather commonplace. And then he asked who taught me how to use them and I told him I think it was my mother. Again, he was sort of flabbergasted.

Then the principal asked me about the steak: "Do you like Japanese beef?" (Yes.) "Which is better, American beef or Japanese beef?" (They are both good.) "How often do you eat steak here?" (Rarely.) "How often do you eat steak in America?" (Not very often.)

And I also get this a lot: "Can you eat rice?" I lay off the sarcasm and simply say, "Yes." (I have a feeling that most Japanese seem to think that Americans never or only rarely eat rice.)

Another question that comes up all the time: "What do you prefer: Rice or bread?"

Anyway, yesterday, for the first time, I did not take any rice! I told you I'm sick of it, so I just skipped it. Only one or two kids seemed to notice and when they did, they were kind of surprised. But they quickly forgot.

Oh, and the rice gods must be listening! Because today we actually had something called "takikomigohan," which basically means some sort of flavored rice. I didn't recognize everything that was in the rice, but the main added ingredient was chestnuts, a popular fall food in these parts. (Here's a picture of a different type of mixed rice from back in September.) Man, it was nice to finally have something in the rice! Yeah! But you know what that means: It'll be a while until I'll be eating rice again!

The long and intricate mysteries of school lunches (Part I)

This isn't a picture of yesterday's lunch. It's a picture of a lunch we had some time ago. But that doesn't matter. What matters is what's in the picture. Or what's not in the picture? Look in the lower-left corner and you'll see a super-sized hot-dog-bun-shaped piece of bread! Yes, bread. Instead of a bowl or rice! I guess I'm back to the topic of rice...

As I mentioned before, we only have bread for lunch about once or twice a month. I am so sick of eating rice, I was sooooo thankful to have bread for lunch yesterday! Hallelujah! The world is safe again! Of course, it's not a perfect world I live in here, so what were served was white bread, not wheat bread. What's better, white rice or white bread? Hmmm. I don't know what's healthier, but I know what I prefer: white bread!

I can't stand white bread. I bet I used to eat it every day until I took a nutrition class in college and found out that white bread is basically a worthless, nutrition-less substance. Since then, I've done my best to eat avoid white bread. The same goes with white rice, though, right?

Before I came here, I didn't eat rice that often, but I did eat it. And I probably ate more white rice than brown rice or wild rice. But at least I know that brown rice and wild rice exist. Sure, brown rice and wild rice cost more than white rice. But why can't we have something other than white rice at least once a week, for crying out loud! Can you tell I'm getting sick of rice?

I also know that butter and rice tastes better than plain rice. But do they ever serve butter? Nope. And I know that soy sauce on rice tastes better than plain rice. But don't even think about putting soy sauce on rice here. People will look at you like you're nuts!

Once time for lunch when we had a particularly delicious sauce with our main dish, I poured some of it on my rice. Sure enough, I got a couple of those strange looks that time, but I didn't care! That was some good sauce and I wanted it on my rice. But I quickly found out another reason you don't put any sauce on the rice they serve here, besides the strange looks you get: The sticky rice loses its stickiness, and good luck eating non-sticky rice with chopsticks.

Last week was quite a week in the dorm cafeteria. Tuesday was "Food Appreciation Day." My predecessor mentioned that we would be "celebrating" that day once a month, but since we didn't have such a day in August, September, or October (or was I out of town each time?), I figured they must have trashed the idea. Boy was I wrong.

Just before lunch, I found out from a teacher that we were having the "hungry menu" as he put it. "Oh, no, not Food Appreciation Day!" I thought. Crap! See, on Monday I felt really sick at lunchtime so I gave away most of my food. By Tuesday, I had regained my appetite and was ready to chow down. Why couldn't Monday have been Food Appreciation Day!?

Tuesday's menu was soup, salad, two tiny fish about the size of sardines, and, you guessed it, RICE. I happen to like sardines, so I expected the fish to at least taste good. Wrong. I'm not sure exactly how the fish were prepared, but they were dry as a bone and just about as crunchy as a potato chip.

The teacher I was sitting with (good ol' Moto!) told me that the kids at our table were talking about how the lousy food was having the wrong effect on them. Instead of them thinking, "Geez, I sure am thankful for all the other days when I have such delicious food in such large quantities," they were thinking, "This food sucks! We're hungry!" I have to admit, I was thinking pretty much the same thing. I mean, I wasn't just thinking about how hungry I was, I was thinking that the kids must be pissed!

The weird thing is, you could eat as much rice, soup, and salad as you wanted, as long as it lasted at least. Isn't that sending sort of a mixed message? You can eat as much as you want at just about every meal, as a matter of fact. Nevertheless, I hardly ever go for seconds. Tuesday would have been the perfect day to go for seconds, but I was so put off by the food, I stuck with my one serving and suffered.

Wednesday's meal was back to normal, but I would rate it rather high on the scale. And then, well, you can't beat Thursday's meal: Steak! What the heck is going on here? On Tuesday we were made to suffer and two days later we're being treated like royalty? Say what?

Of course, the steak meal was not without its adventure. Half the school, the senior-high-school students and their teachers, was having steak on Thursday, whereas the other half, the junior-high-school students and their teachers, was having teriyaki fish. On Friday, the process was reversed. I didn't quite understand that until Thursday. That's why when the "lunch lady" asked me on Tuesday if it would be okay if I had steak on Thursday and fish on Friday (Fish Friday!), I said, "Sure."

Most of the time, the students sit in the cafeteria by grade. 1st-graders sit in the back of the cafeteria on the left, the 6th-graders sit in the back on the right, and the other "-graders" sit accordingly, in a U-shaped pattern. Normally at lunch I sit with the junior-high-school students, because I work with them way more often than I work with the high-schoolers. But since I was having steak, the lunch lady directed me to sit with some of the high-school teachers. (To be continued...)

A funny thing happened on the way to the ... school

Actually, more than one thing happened and nothing that happened was really funny. But what happened was different. The differentness of my day started this morning because I left my apartment early. Early means 7:30 a.m. Usually, I leave around 8:00 a.m. Why did I leave early? Because one of my neighbors, Moto (short for Motohiro), asked me last week if I'd be interested in walking to school with him. (All of my neighbors either work at the school or are married to someone who does.)

I've been walking to school since I moved from Takachiho to Gokase. I'm not sure exactly how far from school I live, but I estimate the distance is around 2 km, and I need about about 20-25 minutes to walk to school. For the most part, even though there aren't sidewalks along the entire route, the walk is pretty safe. The last 10 minutes are the safest, since during that time I walk along a back road with very little traffic. (Here's a picture of us, on that very back road, taken on December 11.)

Anyway, I usually leave my apartment around 8:00 because I am not required to be at school until 8:30. All the other teachers (and, from what I gather, the entire office staff) are expected to be at school and at their desks by 8:10. Getting to arrive "late" is just one of countless perks I have being an ALT, or assistant language teacher.

Yeah, so leaving at 8:00 to go to school makes perfect sense whereas leaving at 7:30 is crazy. But sometimes craziness is rewarded.

Moto is Japanese. I'm American. Moto is eager to improve his already good English. I'm eager to improve my beginner Japanese. I'm still a bit chicken to speak Japanese with Moto, since his English is so good, but I'm not chicken to ask him the ol' "How do you say (blank) in Japanese?" and I'm not chicken to ask him "What do those kanji (Chinese characters) mean?"

So today, on the way to school, instead of trying to learn Japanese on my own, from one of several books, I learned from a much better source: a human! What did I learn? I learned how to ask "Are you sick?" (Moto was sneezing) and how to say "Who's the girl on the left/right/in the middle?" (we saw several elementary-school students walking to school). And I learned the kanji for "kindergarten" (we passed the bus stop near the kindergarten). Stuff like that. What I learned may not seem like much, but every bit counts.

When we got to school, I had another new experience, thanks to arriving early. I saw four students standing in front of the main entrance to the school, greeting their fellow students as they walked past them on their way to one of the side entrances (since the kids don't enter through the main entrance). My first reaction was, "I guess this has been going on since I've been coming to school, but I never knew it. It's a good thing I came to school early for once to see this!" (I actually arrived at school at about 7:45 the day we went on the hike to Mt. Aso, but that was not a regular school day, so there were no greeters.)

From what I understood, those particular kids had that duty on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of this week. And I'm pretty sure they'll be there on those days next week, too. But I'm not sure how many weeks that duty lasts. Oh, and they start greeting kids around 7:45 and stop around 8:05 or so, or around the time most of the kids have arrived at school.

What I find a bit odd about the greeting duty is 1) we are talking about kids greeting kids, not the staff greeting kids, and 2) this is a boarding school, which means that the kids are being greeted just moments after arriving from the dorm, which is a two-minute walk away! (The walk is actually shorter for teachers always and for students heading to and from the dorm during regular school hours. For whatever reason, before and after school, when the kids walk to and from school, they have to take a slightly out-of-the-way route. It's a bit hard to explain, but basically, instead of taking a beeline from the dorm to the school, when they exit the dorm they have to take an exit stage right, go up a staircase, walk back downhill to the parking-lot entrance, and then take a hard left to enter the school grounds. There are other quirks like that that I hope to mention some other time on this blog.)

Yeah, and to cap off my morning, well, as soon as I walked into the teachers room, I noticed a few people in there who are almost always only in there for one reason: whenever we have meetings! So arriving early also meant that I had the pleasure of sitting in on a lovely teachers' meeting.

You can imagine how fun it is to take part in a meeting when you don't understand a lick of what's being talked about. Then again, for the most part, the meetings only last 15 minutes at the most and seem to be a great way for the teachers and staff to exchange information. Also, most teachers, including myself, get to sit at their desk during the meeting. So if I'm really bored, I can just study some Japanese or whatever. And before every meeting, the agenda is placed in our mailbox. So I usually grab it and ask someone afterwards if I missed anything important. 99 times out of 100 there's nothing of importance to me. But apparently in Japan it's important enough to attend meetings even if you don't or can't participate. So in a way, I'm did my share this morning.

(Sorry for not posting any pictures to this story. My camera died recently so the only pictures I can shoot now are those that I can take with my cell phone. Unfortunately, the quality of those pictures isn't that great. But soon enough I'll get a new camera. And I do have more pictures to post. It's just that I didn't think any of them really fit this story.)