精華中学校発表会 Middle School English Recital and Musical Concert

今日、私と精華町の姉妹都市交流員のクリスさんで精華中学校の発表会を見に行きました。生徒の英語暗唱コンクールを審判するために学校に誘われました。去年も同じ発表会に行って、面白かったので楽しみにしていました。中学生として、発表者はかなり英語が上手で、びっくりしました。学校全員の前で発表するのが大変で、皆が一生懸命練習したそうで、よく頑張ったなと思いました。各学年一人の優勝者しか選べなかったので、審判するのが難しかったです。

そして、吹奏楽部発表もありました。去年も同じことを考えていたが、今年も中学生として、すごく上手です。吹奏楽部がパイレーツ・オブ・カリビアンの作曲を出演し、それが一番好きでした。僕は中学校で楽器を練習すればよかったなと思っていました。

Today Chris, Seika’s Coordinator for Sister City Relations, and I went to Seika Middle School to watch the English Recital and Musical Concert. We were invited to come and judge the student’s English speech contest. Last year we did the same thing which was really interesting so I was looking forward to doing it again this year. I am always surprised by how good the student’s English is for only being middle school students. I know it’s hard to do any presentation in front of the whole school, but the students seem to have practiced hard and really were able to do their best. We were only aloud to pick one winner from each of the three grade levels so it was pretty hard to pick the best, since everyone was so good.

Aside from the English speech contest the school’s brass band also performed. I thought the same thing as I did last year; these kids are really good for their age! I was most impressed when they played the theme song from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean.” After seeing the band all I could think was, “man, I wish I would have learned to play an instrument when I was in school.”

２００７年度精華町こども祭り 2007 Seika Town Children’s Festival

１０月２０日（土）毎年行っているこども祭りがむくのきセンターでありました。子供のためのイベントで、色々な楽しみがありました。保育所・小学校・中学校の音楽団体がそれぞれ開会式で発表したし、料理教室やブーメラン作りなどがあったし、精華町の子供はすごく楽しい一日を過ごせました。僕はせいかグロバールネットと一緒にスタッフとして参加しました。外国の習慣と遊びを体験させたかったからハロウィーン・マスク（仮面）の製作と”Pin the Tail on the Donkey” （ロバに尻尾をつけよう！）というゲームなどをしました。仮面作りが一番人気な行動で、子供達はすごく面白い仮面が出来ました。今年僕はこども祭り二回目で、去年から殆どの小学校に行っているから、子供達が僕のことを知っているので、挨拶しにきてくれて、楽しかったです。

On Saturday October 20th the annual Seika Town Children’s Festival was held at Mukunoki Center. The event is for children so there was lots of fun activities. Musical groups from local nursery schools, elementary and junior high schools performed at the opening ceremony, there was a cooking class, boomerang making and other activities so the children had a really fun day. I also participated as a staff member with the Seika Global Network. We wanted to show the kids foreign customs and games so we set up a corner where the kids could make Halloween masks and play ‘pin the tail on the donkey’. The mask making was the most popular and the kids made some really great masks. This was the second year that I helped out at the Children’s Festival and since I have been going to the elementary schools in town it was more fun this year because I knew a lot of the kids and they all came and said hi to me.

ベランダの田んぼが出来上がった！ My Own Private Rice Harvest

６月に「楽農体験ツアー」の田植え活動と同時に僕が稲を貰って、アパートのベランダのプランタで稲を育て始めました（当ブログに写真が載せられた）。４ヶ月大事にしていて、やっと収穫しました。量が少ないけど、自分が育てた米を食べるのを非常に楽しみにしています。今ベランダで乾かしているから、まだ一週間くらい待たないといけません。結局どのくらいの米をとれるのかなって楽しみです。たぶんお握り一個だけのかな？でも自分が育てた米だから今までの人生の一番美味しいお握りと期待しています！

As I have posted previously on this blog I started growing my own private rice field on the balcony of my apartment back in June when I received some rice sprouts after taking part in the Agricultural Experience Tour. After looking after them for four months I was finally able to harvest. The volume of rice is pretty low, but I am really looking forward to eating rice that I grew myself. I cut the rice and now it is drying out on my balcony so I will have to wait about a week before I can actually eat it. I am wondering exactly how much actual rice I will get once I finish. Maybe only enough for one rice ball? But because it was rice I grew I expect it to be the best rice ball I have ever eaten in my life!

楽農体験ツアー （稲刈り） Agricultural Experience Tour (Rice Harvesting)

平成１９年６月９日（土）に僕が初めて参加した「楽農体験ツアー」の話をこのブログに載せました。その時は精華町乾谷区内水田ほ場で田植えを活動しました。農業体験のない僕はかなり興味深くて裸足で田んぼに入って、昔のように手で田植えしてみました。そして、先週末その同じ田んぼに収穫しに行きました。山田荘地域農場づくり協議会事務局及び精華町役場事業部産業振興課が主催される毎年のイベントで、今年は約４０人が参加しました。若い子からお年寄りの方も来て、楽しい経験になりました。
On June 9th, 2007 I participated in the Agricultural Experience Tour which I have written about in this blog. At that time we planted rice at the Inuidani Farm. Having never had any agricultural experience I was pretty interested in trying it out, so I jumped in the muddy field barefoot and planted rice by hand like in the old days. Then last weekend I went back to the same field to harvest the rice that I helped plant. The Agricultural Experience Tour is organized by the Yamadasho Regional Agriculture Association and the Seika Town Industry Promotion Division and is held every year. This year there were about 40 participants ranging from young children to senior citizens. It was a fun experience for everyone.

今回も昔のように手で稲刈りをしました。以外としんどかったです。稲刈りしてから、コンバインに入れて、米が自動に袋に集まっていきました。終わった時に収穫出来た量にびっくりしました。その面積の田んぼで最もいっぱいとれると思いました。約９つの３０キログラムの袋が収穫できました。大体４人の家族の一年分と聞きました。そして、稲刈りをしながら木村町長が偶然にいらっしゃって頂いて、素敵なスーツの格好で思い切って田んぼに入って、皆さんと握手なさいました。
This time we harvest the rice by hand like they did in the old days. It was much more tiring than I would have thought. After cutting the rice plants by hand we fed the plants into a combine machine and the rice grains were automatically separated from the reeds and neatly sifted into bags. When we finished I was surprised by the amount of rice we were able to harvest. I thought that for a rice field of that size we would get a lot more rice. We ended up getting about nine 30kg bags of rice. I was told that that would be enough to fed a family of four for one year. Also while we were harvesting the rice Mayor Kimura unexpectedly showed up and daringly jumped into the muddy rice field in his nice business suit to shake hands with everyone who was working.

収穫がおわってから、乾谷ファミリに炊き込み御飯と漬物をいただきました。田んぼで苦労をしたから食べ物がとても美味しかったです。今年楽農体験ツアーに参加してよかったなと思います。来年皆さん参加いかがですか！
After we finished all the work the Inuidani Family treated us to takikomi rice (rice steamed with vegetables) and tsukemono (pickled vegetables). After laboring in the fields the food tasted really good. I am really glad that I participated in the Agricultural Experience Tour this year. Next year why don’t you join in too!