Mini Volleyball Tournament

At the beginning of December, we had a mini-volleyball tournament in town, I was amazed at how many people showed up.

１２月の最初にミニバレー大会があった。たくさん人が来た。

In Japan, you know there’s a ton of people when all the shoe lockers are full.

ロッカーがいっぱいだったら、日本にはたくさん人がいる事がしてる。

A practice shot.

練習の写真。

I got to take some pictures of the guys’ team first.

男のチームの写真。

My team, but one person is missing.

私たちのチーム、１人がいないけど。

After the games, it was time for a party.

ミニバレーの後にパーティの時間。

The ladies’ team.

女のチーム。

Both teams together.

一緒に。

BOE Sobetsukai

Recently, M-san left the BOE to go work at the school lunch center. The BOE had a going away party for him.

最近、Mさんの送別会へ行った。Mさんの新しい仕事は給食センター。

These are the people who came.

この写真に教育委員会の人々。

The most awkward conversation of the evening: (if you’re reading the Japanese, theirs was definitely more fluent than I’m conveying right now)

気まずい雰囲気の時は：（多分私の覚えたの日本語より皆行った事の方がペラペラ）

How long have you been here now?

今ここで何年？

Me: I just started my 5th year.

私：５年目。

She’s thinking of staying longer.

彼女はもう少し日本に住みたいらしい。

We should find her a Japanese husband!

日本人のだんなさんを探しよう！

Anyone at the BOE?

教育委員会の人？

Nope.

ない。

Anyone at the JHS?

中学校で？

How about X-sensei?

X先生？

Me: No. (In my head, do they realize that this person is about twice my age???)

私：いいえ。（考えた事はこの人は二度私の年齢だ。皆これが分かる？？？）

Conversation changes.

会話が変わった。

Something I didn’t understand . . . marathon (which is basically any race in Japan).

分からない事　。。。マラソン。

Me: No I didn’t get to run the marathon this year.

私：いいえ。今年できなかった。

Superintendent: X-sensei. He runs marathons.

教育委長：X先生。マラソンを走る。

Me: X-sensei????

私：X先生？？？

Superintendent (in English): He’s a nice guy.

教育長（英語で）：He’s a nice guy.

Me: Um, you do realize he’s closer to my dad’s age than to mine, right?

私：X先生はお父さんの年齢のほうが近い。

(Note: X-sensei wasn’t present and has never expressed that kind of interest in me).

（X先生はいなかった。多分その事全然言わなかった。）

Dinner with the lady teachers

On my last eikaiwa-less Monday night, I went to dinner with the lady teachers from the high school.

最後の英会話がない月曜日に高校の女の先生と夕食へ行った。

We got the set meals, so we got dessert! It was a bit weird to have strawberries (summer) and pumpkin pie (fall) together.

デザート！びっくりな事は苺（夏）とパンプキンのパイ（秋）一緒があった。

My tea. Aren’t the plate and cup pretty?

私の紅茶。　皿はきれいだよね。

It was a ton of fun. I wish I got to talk to these teachers more.

とても楽しかった。よくこの先生と話したい！

M-sensei’s birthday, part 2

M-sensei is the leader of the choir. On Tuesday night we celebrated his birthday. (The second time for me).

M先生は合唱の先生。火曜日にパーティした。（私のため二回目パーティ）。

Blowing out the candles before dinner.

バースデーケーキのろうそくを吹き消した。

The cake – it was delicious!

ケーキは美味しかった。

The whole group.

合唱の全員。

Another year of eikaiwa finished

Another year of Eikaiwa classes (my adult evening classes) has finished. Here’s my group of students that made it from October to June. It was a fun year.

もう一つ英会話の年が終わった。　この人は１０月から６月までできた。今年は楽しかった。

After dinner, we had dessert.

晩ご飯の後にデザート。

Surprise Party!

On Friday, it was my friend, Aya’s birthday. On Saturday, We had a surprise birthday party for her.

金曜日にあやの誕生日。　だから、土曜日にサプライズのパティをした。

A small group of us went out to the cottages near the lake and prepared.

３人は準備をした。

This is Tomo.

とも！

This is Ami.

あみ！

Preparing. They decided that her birthday should have a graduation-like ceremony. Ami is making a list of the things that are going to happen during the ceremony.

卒業式見たい式した。

Here is the finished product, complete with all participants’ faces.

卒業式のリスト。皆の顔をかいた。

Here’s the “stage.” Complete with the paper flowers that are always used to decorate all Japanese graduation ceremonies.

これはスーテジ。日本の卒業式は紙の花いつもある。

After everything was ready, we had to take a few pictures.

準備の後写真を撮った。

Then Ami left to go get Aya. So we waited some more. (I had the camera set for time lapse so it could capture the whole of the ceremony, unfortunately I started it WAAAY to early).

あみはあやの家に行った。私たち待った。　（駒落した。はやすぎた。）

Then the ceremony began. Miyauchi-sensei gave a speech and a paper for Aya. I handed her the flowers that are in my hands in this shot. Apparently graduation ceremonies move quick enough that I should have had it shooting more than 4times per minute.

式ははじめた。　みやうちー先生はスピーチした。私は花をあげた。

Tomo gave a tear-filled speech. Actually, it was laughter filled, but faking tears made it less obvious she was crying.

とももスピーチした。

Be quiet Aya! Quit laughing! (Tomo was very strict)

しずかあや！笑わない！（ともはとてもきびしかった！）

The group shot.

皆の写真。

Birthday girl!

誕生日の女！

Apparently, 29 is the meat birthday. It’s a play on words, because 2 is read “ni” and 9 “ku.” Meat is “niku.” 29, isn’t read that way, but the two numbers separately are. This was dinner.

２９さいの誕生日は肉の誕生日。びっくり！

Aya with her birthday presents.

あやのプレゼンツ。

Round 2 for the meat birthday.

たくさん肉があった。

Aya and her cake.

あやの誕生日のケーキ。

The cake! It had blueberries.

ケーキ！

In the end, we stayed up until 4am playing cards. I taught them “Killer Uno,” but re-named it to “Crazy Uno” because I figured that’d be easier to remember (And how do you translate "killer" as a game name??). It was a lot of fun.

４時までUnoをした。私は「Crazy Uno」を教えた。とても楽しかった！

High School Welcome Party

This year brought some big changes. My main JTE from my first two years was transferred to a new school.

今年最初からの英語の先生は引っ越した。友達から、さみしい。

Somehow that means I get two new JTEs. One is a brand new teacher. She seems like she’ll be a lot of fun.

新しい先生はこの前に大学卒業した。楽しそう先生。

The next is a teacher who worked with a different friend last year. It sounds like his main job is to support my new JTE as she learns the ropes of being a new teacher.

次、去年に友達と英語を教えた。仕事は新しい英語先生の手伝うそう。

This was dessert. Isn’t it pretty?

デザトー。　きれいね。

After every one of the new female teachers did their intros, they asked “how about S-sensei?” (as in dating him). I had been thankful that I wasn’t a new teacher having to do an intro. Then all the previous teachers had to do intros. You know how this ends.

新しい女の先生の自己紹介の後、この２人は「S先生はどう？」と言いた。　私はその時に自己紹介しなかたから、安心した。　でも、その後、新しくない先生は自己紹介した。もちろん、その質問を聞いた。

Probably the most common sight at an enkai. Pouring more beer (or tea, if it’s my glass).

歓迎会にだいたいこれ見える。　

The whole group. It’s going to be fun to teach with these teachers for another year.

全員。　もう一年は楽しそう。

Homesickness

Every time I go home, the absolute worst homesickness is right after I come back. When I haven’t had a chance yet to connect with the people around me.

When I arrive back in Sapporo, it’s too late to take the train into town, so I almost always have to stay at a hotel and then come back to town the next day. Which means it takes me about 3 days to get from my hometown in Oregon, to my tiny town in Japan.

Friday was my first day back to work. The time was spent studying with flashcards and reading. Not much interaction with people.

When I got home I was very much missing my family, but I found out at work that I had a dinner party for the teachers at my base school that evening.

It was so good! After two weeks of not even thinking about Japanese and the fact that the party started at midnight Pacific time, my brain took forever to get back to being able to speak Japanese.

After a bit of caffeine and some listening practice, my brain started to make sense of the language around me and I had a really good time. It was a great way to end my first full day in town.