This morning I was scheduled to be a judge at a speech contest being held at a local school – Harima Minami high school. I walked over in the morning, but upon arriving, I realized that I had no idea where to go or who to talk to. Fortunately, one of their students flagged me down and just started walking me towards a building.
The contest was sponsored by the Lion’s Club (I guess they are big here in Japan, too) and it was very interesting to observe. The judging panel was composed of three native speakers of English, and three Japanese English teachers. The teachers were very nice, and a little shy. They had no trouble communicating with us, and everything went very smoothly.
Ten students presented speeches, and overall, they did a good job. After each one we would solemnly write down their scores, and hand them in. There were about fifty people attending, and I think everyone was very nervous. The students talked about issues that were important to them, and they spoke for about five minutes each. Some of the students had a hard time, and one broke down into tears and totally wiped out. It was hard as a judge to just sit there and try to appear impartial.
Afterwards, we awarded three prizes, and the students were treated to a closing ceremony and some fanfare. I tried to walk around and thank each of the students, but they ran like rabbits when the event was over. I got to talk to some ALTs that came to support their own students, and it was nice to catch up with them. I talked about the movie Whale Rider with a teacher from New Zealand, I thought it would be interesting to get their take on the movie.
Finally, we got paid and we got out of there. Mr. Hayashi was there to support our students (who didn’t win – ugh). We went out to Kakogawa and picked up Miss Kageyama, and then went for lunch at a restaurant remarkably similar to Benihana in the U.S.
No fancy knife tricks here, just right down to the business of cooking. Mr. Hayashi cynically attributed the lack of flashing knives to the high cost of health care in Japan. We ate “hamburgers” which is just a fried hamburger patty with sauce, and then had some onions, carrots, and potatoes that had been fried up. The sauce was excellent, and overall, it was a very good meal. They had steaks on the menu, but the top steak goes for 10,000 yen – about a hundred dollars. Mr. Hayashi said that it tasted like a $10 steak – not worth even trying. I have found that here in Japan, if it is expensive, it is perceived as good, no matter what the flavor. I’ve had the same experience with wine in Japan – is that wine good? Is it expensive? If it is expensive, it must be good.
I’m back home now and getting ready to watch Survivor. Tonight I might meet Antoine in Kobe at our old favorite, Like like.
