3rd International Understanding Festival / 第３回国際理解フェスティバル

  Now in its third year, the International Understanding Festival, sponsored by the Seika town office and Seika Global Network, is a chance for people to come and learn about all the different international events and activities in Seika. It serves both as a review of last year’s activities as well as a preview of what’s to come. And this year’s International Understanding Festival, held on April 17th in the Seika Exchange Hall, was chock full of information.

  精華町と「せいかグローバルネット」が共催し、第３回を迎える国際理解フェスティバルは町内の国際交流行事や活動についてさらに知る良い機会です。このフェスティバルでは去年の活動の一部と、今年度の計画を知ることができます。そして、４月１７日（日）に精華町交流ホールで開催された第３回国際理解フェスティバルは情報満載でした。

  Seeing as education is obviously the most important thing out there, the event started off with a presentation by a teacher from Seihoku Elementary on their international activities. Starting this month, English classes have become mandatory for all kids in grades 5 and 6 (ages 10-12). To prepare the kids for this, the folks at Seihoku Elementary have been holding occasional English classes combined with courses on International Understanding to get the kids ready for the switch. Although I have not seen the English courses in action, I was the one teaching the International Understanding course and I can say that most of the kids were really open to learning more about foreign cultures and languages. Japan occasionally catches flak for not having the greatest English abilities or teaching, but the desire to learn is definitely there, so I can only hope that starting the kids off early will help them be more excited about learning English.

  はじめに、最も大切な教育について、精北小学校の先生の国際交流活動の発表から始まりました。今年から、外国語活動が小学校５年から義務教育に導入されるので、生徒達の準備として精北小学校で年に数回英語の授業と国際理解授業を行っています。私は英語の授業を見たことがありませんが、国際交流の授業を教えて、ほとんどの生徒達が外国の文化・言語について興味もっているようでした。日本人の英語力が低いとたまに言われますが、向学心はあるから、子どもの早期英語教育が子どもの英語に対する関心を引き出すと期待します。

  Next up was the Seika West Middle School International club who, with the help of yours truly, presented on Seika’s sister city, Norman, Oklahoma. The kids had worked long and hard on the presentation, and they had even given precious hours of their spring break to help out, so it was good to see it go off well. Although we covered a lot of aspects of Norman’s history and famous things in Norman, we also got to tackle stuff like what Norman kids eat for school lunch. People were more than a little surprised to see tacos, pizza, and sloppy joes on the menu.

  次に、精華西中学校の国際交流部と私は精華町の姉妹都市ノーマン市について発表しました。国際交流部の生徒達は大切な春休みの間でも、本当に一生懸命努力したから、うまくいったのはよかったです。ノーマン市の歴史や名所を説明しましたが、ノーマン市内の小学校給食など面白いことも紹介できました。タコス、ピザ、スロッピジョーなどのメニューはびっくりでしょうか。

  Following this was a speech by a young Miss Cho, a participant in the 9th Foreigner Message Contest. The person originally scheduled couldn’t make it, and Cho was nice and brave enough to step forward and give a speech on short notice. Discussing cultural differences between Japan and China, Cho focused on the differences in public transport, and trains in particular. I did chuckle when she mentioned all the times she had gotten on a train going the wrong way, or overslept and missed her stop, as I have far too many of those same experiences. Most impressive though, is how far her Japanese has come in just a few months. Having met her when she first came to Japan and listening to her speech now, it is mind-blowing how much she has improved. At this rate she’ll pass me up in a few months, so it’s time to take drastic measures, i.e., actually studying again.

  それに続いて、第９回外国人によるメッセージコンテストに出場した張さんはスピーチをしました。もともと予定された方はこられなくなったから、突然でしたが張さんはやさしく勇敢に発表してくれました。交通機関、特に電車を中心に中国と日本の文化の違いについて語りました。電車を間違ったことや寝過ごしたことを説明しながら、私も同じ経験が何回もあるから笑いました。しかし一番印象的なことは、数ヶ月間に日本語の向上です。一屏さんがはじめて来日した頃に会ったから、今の日本語と比べると、どれぐらい上達したかにびっくりしました。この調子ではもうすぐ私をすぐ追い抜くから、私は勉強しないといけないですね。

  After Miss Cho was a speech from a Mrs. Hasegawa, who raised her children in America, and put forth that there were some things that Japanese could learn from the American system. Not having kids of my own on which to judge, I can’t say which country has a better system, but it was nice to see someone so open-minded about such a serious topic as child rearing. It reminds us that both countries still have a lot to teach each other.

  張さんの後に、アメリカで子どもを育てた長谷川さんは、日本人がアメリカの子育て制度から学ぶことがあると発表しました。私には自分の子どもがいないから、どっちの国がいいか判断できませんが、長谷川さんみたいに子育てのような大切な課題についても広い心を持つ人を見るのはよかったです。両国はまだお互いに教えられることがたくさんあるでしょう。

  By now though people were getting restless, and about ready to move onto something besides speeches. Thankfully the folks at Seika Global Net had planned a fun activity. By taking classic Japanese songs like “Sakura” and giving everyone the English lyrics, we had a good old fashioned sing along. Unfortunately, as the sole native English speaker, this meant I also had to lead everyone in song, which is just below flamenco dancing on the list of things I never want to do in front of a crowd. Still though, it was fun, we got to sing in Chinese too, and no one seemed to mind that I sounded like a tone-deaf badger.

  客さんはすわすわして、そろそろスピーチ以外のことをやりたくなったようでした。そして次に、「さくら」などの伝統的な日本の歌の英・中国語の作詞を皆に渡して、皆が一緒に合唱をしました。英語のネイティブスピーカーの一人として、恥かしくて皆の前で歌いましたが、中国語でも歌ったし、だれも私の下手さに気付かなさそうだったし、なかなか楽しかったです。

  The event was capped off with representatives from Seika Global Net explaining all the fun things they do throughout the year, which include hiking tours, Japanese lessons, and even the chance to farm your own vegetables. Hopefully everyone who came learned about the opportunities for international exchange here in Seika and decide to come out for more events during the year!

  最後に、せいかグローバルネットの各部会代表たちはハイキングツアー、日本語教室、農業などの主な活動を紹介しました。来てくれた人たちは町内の国際交流活動について知って、今後のイベントへ行きたくなるといいですね。

Cherry Blossoms 花見

  There is perhaps no better sign of spring beginning than seeing flowers bloom. Seeing that first flower open lets you know that winter is finally over, and that life is coming back to the world. The advent of spring in Japan however, is less a subtle opening of one or two daffodils, and more a massive explosion of pink that sweeps over the country-side like some kind festively decorated army. Of course I’m talking about Sakura, the famous Japanese Cherry Blossoms, that cover the landscape of Japan from starting from late March to early May.

  咲いている花ほどの春のきざしはないと思います。最初開けた花を見ると、冬が終わって、世界がすぐ生き返るということを知らせます。しかし日本で春の訪れは花一個か二個が開くことよりピンクの爆発できざしされます。もちろんこれは桜の話をしています。

  Long considered an important symbol of Japan, Sakura trees exist in great numbers everywhere from Okinawa to Hokkaido, and their flowering is met with much rejoicing and excitement. When the Sakura trees are in full bloom, many Japanese go out and enjoy hanami, literally, “flower viewing.” Hanami can range from a relaxing stroll under some Sakura trees to a rowdy picnic and party in a park, but whatever the method, the practice is extremely popular in Japan.

長い間大切なシンボルと思われている桜は沖縄から北海道まで多数あるが、開花期は興奮して受け入れられます。そして桜が満開になると、多くの方が花見に行きます。花見はのんびり散歩から騒々しいピックニックとパーティーまでもあるが、どんな方法であれ、日本では大人気な瞬間です。

  Since the weather was so nice this past weekend, a friend and I trekked down to Nara to wander around and do some Hanami. We were clearly far from the only ones with this idea though, as Nara city was jam-packed with people enjoying the Sakura and weather.

  先週末天気は凄く良かったから、友達と一緒に奈良で花見しに行きました。行こうと思っていたのは私らだけじゃなくて、奈良市が桜といい天気を楽しむ人達でにぎわっていました。

  Seika has quite a few Sakura trees as well, and they’ve even bloomed in front of the Town Office.

  精華町に桜が結構多いし、精華町役場前にも咲いていました。

Osaka Powerlfting Tournament 大阪府パワーリフティング大会

  As I wrote a while back I'm into weightlifting, but recently I had been having trouble with motivation, as my training, though enjoyable, didn’t really have a goal. So a while back I competed in the Osaka powerlifting championships. Despite the fact that powerlifting is about as popular in Japan as sumo is in America (not very), there is a devoted community of lifters here in Japan. Although there were not many competitors at the Osaka Powerlifting Championships, the atmosphere was great, and it was cool to meet people into the same stuff.

  前に書いたとおり、私はウエイトトレーニングをしていますが、トレーニングが目標がなかったので、最近動機が少しなくなました。だから４月３日に大阪パワーリフティング大会に出場しました。日本ではあまり人気がないのにも関わらず献身的なリフターの共同体があります。参加者は少なかったですが、いい雰囲気があって、同じ趣味を持っている人と会うのは楽しかったです。

  The tournament was held in a community gym way down in the southern part of Osaka, with about 30 or so people coming out to compete. Powerlifting, for those of you who’ve never heard, is a sport where you test strength across three barbell lifts, and the person who moves the most weight wins. Simple right?

  大阪府の南のほうにある体育館で行われ、約３０人が出場しました。パワーリフティングというのは、ウエイトトレーニングの３種目で、バーベルを持ち上げ、その重さを競うスポーツです。簡単でしょう。

  The three lifts are the squat, where you put barbell on your back and squat down, the bench press, where you lie on a bench and press the bar up, and the deadlift, which is just picking up the barbell from the floor. Competitors are split up into weight and age brackets, and though technically a competition, for most people it was more about breaking their own records. Still, it seemed like every other lift was an attempt at a Japanese record, and 40 were actually broken.

  ３種目には、バーベルを背中に背負って、そのまましゃがむスクワット、横たわりながらバーベルを胸に下ろして、上に押し挙げるベンチプレス、そしてバーベルをただ床から持ち上げるデッドリフトがあります。選手は体重・年齢で分かれていますが、表向きは勝負ですが、多くの出場者にとって、自分の記録を破る方が大事そうでした。それでも、一つずつの試技が日本記録に挑戦するようで、４０の全日本記録が破られましたよ。

  The competitors ranged from 15 to 63, with many in their 40s and 50s. People of all strength levels and experience showed up, and though many competitors were part of school clubs or gyms, there were a lot of other folk competing by themselves. I was clearly on the lower end of both strength and experience, but many of the experiences folk were more than happy to talk and explain things. Competitors would go up to do their lift, get intensely fired up, and have everybody in the gymnasium cheering for them as they pushed themselves to the limit to lift the bar.

  本大会の出場者は１５歳から６３歳まで、多くの方は40代か50代でした。経験の有無やレベルに関わらず幅広い人が出場して、多くの方が学校のクラブやジムなどの団体として参加したが、個人として競争していた人も結構いました。私は筋力、そして経験において下端でしたが、ベテランたちが優しく手伝ったり、説明してくれたりしました。各選手はステージに上がって、燃え上がって、ジム内の皆に応援されながら自分を極限の追い込み、バーベルを持ち上げました。

 

Also, a young guy apparently ranked third in the world for his weight class showed up, and it was really cool to see someone at such a high level competing. Also, the fact that his legs looked like two beluga whales was kind of terrifying. I felt about as weak as possible when he, at about 160 lbs, deadlifted 570 lbs and squatted 500 without too much strain, but I guess that’s just how world class guys are.

  そして世界三位の若い男性も出場したから、そういう世界レベルの選手を見るのはとても面白かったです。彼が体重74キロで、260キロを持ち上げて、230キロをスクワットしたので、あぜんとしました。さすが世界レベル。

  Sadly I didn't win anything, as the only other guy in my division broke every single Japanese record for our weight and age group, but it was still good to participate and see where I stand in comparison to other lifters. Seeing where I lagged behind, as well as what my strengths are, has lit a fire under my bum. So I'm back in the gym, working on what I need to, and aiming to do much better next time round.

  私の年齢・体重別階級に入っていた人が日本記録全部破りまして、残念ながら私は勝てませんでしたが、参加して、他のリフターたちと比較して、自分の立場を分かるのは良かったです。自分の弱点、そして長所を分かってきたから、やる気が出ました。だからジムに戻って、弱点を強め、今度の大会にもっと力を発揮できるように頑張っています。