夢のように A Dream Come True

たくさんの日本人とアメリカ人の男子の夢は野球選手になるということでしょうね。僕もその夢がありましたが、中学校の頃に野球を辞めました。僕はアメリカで少年野球やっていたが、その頃からあまり野球していません。今年は友達との草野球チームに入りました。平均月一・ニ回週末に試合しています。あまり上手じゃないですが、プレイするだけで楽しいことだと思います。

Many Japanese and American boys dream of being baseball players when they grow up. I had the same dream when I was younger, but I quit playing when I was in middle school. I played little league baseball in America, but since then I haven’t really played at all. This year I joined an informal baseball team with some of my friends. Usually we play about one or two games a month on the weekends. I am not very good, but for me it is just fun to be out there playing.

それで、うちのチームが年一回大阪京セラドームを借りて、試合します。今年の１１月末に僕が初めて参加しました。プロ野球スタジアムで試合するのは二時間僕の少年の夢が現実になったようなことでした。スタジアムに入ったら感動しました。または、試合には僕がファーストを守っていたので、やりながら「このスタジアムでこの位置は阪神のシーツ選手と一緒やなぁ」と思い込んでいました。そして、安打一本できて、二塁を盗塁したから嬉しかったです。僕は野球そんなに上手じゃないし、今は年取りすぎて、プロ野球選手の夢がもう散てしまいましたが、二時間だけで夢を試すのは気持ちよかったです。

Once a year my team rents out the Kyocera Dome, a professional baseball stadium in Osaka, to play a game. This year at the end of November I played there for the first time. To be able to play in a professional baseball stadium for two hours was like my childhood dream had come true. When I first walked onto the field I felt a chill down my spine. Also, in the game I was playing first base so when I stood out there I realized, “Wow, this is the same place where the Hanshin Tigers’ first baseman Andy Sheets stands!”* Then, I was able to get a nice clean hit into center field during the game and then steal second base so I was happy. I am not that good at baseball and by now I am too old to break into professional baseball anyways, so my dream of being a professional baseball player is far gone. But for two hours I was able to pretend like I was a pro baseball player and get a taste for what my dream would have been like. It felt good.

*Andy Sheets is an American who plays firstbase for the local favorite professional baseball team the Hanshin Tigers. The Tigers play some of their home games at the Osaka Dome when their primary stadium (Koshien) is being used for the National High School Baseball Championships in the summer.

夢のように A Dream Come True

たくさんの日本人とアメリカ人の男子の夢は野球選手になるということでしょうね。僕もその夢がありましたが、中学校の頃に野球を辞めました。僕はアメリカで少年野球やっていたが、その頃からあまり野球していません。今年は友達との草野球チームに入りました。平均月一・ニ回週末に試合しています。あまり上手じゃないですが、プレイするだけで楽しいことだと思います。

Many Japanese and American boys dream of being baseball players when they grow up. I had the same dream when I was younger, but I quit playing when I was in middle school. I played little league baseball in America, but since then I haven’t really played at all. This year I joined an informal baseball team with some of my friends. Usually we play about one or two games a month on the weekends. I am not very good, but for me it is just fun to be out there playing.

それで、うちのチームが年一回大阪京セラドームを借りて、試合します。今年の１１月末に僕が初めて参加しました。プロ野球スタジアムで試合するのは二時間僕の少年の夢が現実になったようなことでした。スタジアムに入ったら感動しました。または、試合には僕がファーストを守っていたので、やりながら「このスタジアムでこの位置は阪神のシーツ選手と一緒やなぁ」と思い込んでいました。そして、安打一本できて、二塁を盗塁したから嬉しかったです。僕は野球そんなに上手じゃないし、今は年取りすぎて、プロ野球選手の夢がもう散てしまいましたが、二時間だけで夢を試すのは気持ちよかったです。

Once a year my team rents out the Kyocera Dome, a professional baseball stadium in Osaka, to play a game. This year at the end of November I played there for the first time. To be able to play in a professional baseball stadium for two hours was like my childhood dream had come true. When I first walked onto the field I felt a chill down my spine. Also, in the game I was playing first base so when I stood out there I realized, “Wow, this is the same place where the Hanshin Tigers’ first baseman Andy Sheets stands!”* Then, I was able to get a nice clean hit into center field during the game and then steal second base so I was happy. I am not that good at baseball and by now I am too old to break into professional baseball anyways, so my dream of being a professional baseball player is far gone. But for two hours I was able to pretend like I was a pro baseball player and get a taste for what my dream would have been like. It felt good.

*Andy Sheets is an American who plays firstbase for the local favorite professional baseball team the Hanshin Tigers. The Tigers play some of their home games at the Osaka Dome when their primary stadium (Koshien) is being used for the National High School Baseball Championships in the summer.

サンクスギヴィングデー Thanksgiving Day

アメリカではサンクスギヴィングデー（感謝祭）という特別な行事を知っていますか？１１月の第４木曜日にあり、家族と過ごし、七面鳥などを食べる祝日です。今年僕は日本にいるので、この日は家族と過ごすことができなくて寂しいです。でも、偶然に東京に出張された間に素晴らしいサンクスギヴィングディナーを食べられました。

As I am living in Japan this year I was sad that I wasn’t able to spend Thanksgiving Day with my whole family. But luckily I was able to eat a wonderful Thanksgiving Day dinner in Tokyo while I was there for a work trip.

東京都にある米軍隊に限定されるThe New Sanno Hotelでは大きなサンクスギヴィングデー・バイキングがあります。このホテルはとても大きくて、きれいですが、非常に珍しいところです。米軍隊か米軍隊の家族じゃなかったら、そこに泊まることが禁止されています。バイキングでも米軍隊か米軍隊の家族と一緒に行かないなら入られません。アメリカ人の僕でも普通に入られませんよ。

In Tokyo there is a hotel called The New Sanno which is specifically reserved for American military and their families which holds a huge Thanksgiving Day buffet every year. The hotel is big and luxurious, but it is such an oddity in Japan. If you are not a US military service member or a card carrying family member of one you are not allowed to stay in the hotel. Even as an American I cannot go into the hotel by myself. For the buffet dinner you must be invited and accompanied by a US military service member or a card carrying family member of one.



そして、「バイキングはどうだったの？」と聞きたいでしょう。本当に最高でしたよ！米軍隊のホテルだから、食べ物は完璧に伝統的な味でした。または、何でもありました。僕はいっぱい食べて、満腹になったのに、「まだ全部味わってないから、もっと食べたいなぁ！」と思っていました。サンクスギヴィングデーは家族と一緒に過ごせなくて、残念ですが、美味しくて、懐かしいアメリカ料理を食べられて十分嬉しかったですよ！

So you are probably wondering how was the food right? It was truly the best! It’s an American military hotel so the food is really traditional. What’s more they had just about anything you could have wished for. I ate so much and was so full but I still thought, “I want to eat more, I still haven’t tried everything.” It was a shame that I couldn’t spend Thanksgiving Day with the whole family, but I was plenty happy to be able to eat real American food.

Old MacDonald マクドナルド祖父ちゃん

This week I went to one of the local elementary schools where I was asked to talk to the kids about American nursery rhymes and songs. Since its been affirmed by almost all of my friends that I have a terrible singing voice I made the easy choice to just bring a CD of children’s songs with me. I was able to find a great website that has free downloads of most of the traditional songs I used to sing as a child (www.freekidsmusic.com). I went around to all of the four 4th grade classes at the school and I played songs like; Wheels on the Bus, If You’re Happy and You Know It, and Old MacDonald, etc. They have a Japanese version of If You’re Happy and You Know It so the kids were already familiar with that one. They liked Wheels on the Bus because I had them act out all of the actions that are sung about in the song. But the funniest thing was when I played Old MacDonald. I explained that it was a song about a farmer with lots of animals. Most Japanese kids are also familiar with this song too but the only part that they actually know the words is the ‘ee I eei oh’ part from “Old MacDonald had a farm, Ee i ee i oh!” That’s because it sounds almost exactly like saying, “iya iya yo” in Japanese, which basically translates as “that’s disgusting!” Like if you were disgusted with something someone said and you wanted to completely deny it by saying “that’s disgusting!” So when we were singing the song the kids got really into that one part of the song and a few kids started squeezing their noses with one hand while waving the other and singing “iya iya yo.” When I asked them what was so offensive they said that they were saying “that’s disgusting!” because it was so stinky from all of the animals. I thought it was so funny and I was totally cracking up every time we sang it and all 30 of the kids starting holding their noses and waving their hands while singing “that’s disgusting!” Ah, the surprises of cross cultural exchange!

Also, Old MacDonald turned out to be a good little English lesson because of all the animal noises. In Japanese the onomatopoeia for animals is totally from what we use in American English. For instance in Japanese; cows don’t ‘muu’ they ‘moo’ (pronounced like mow in mowing the lawn), and dogs don’t go ‘arrff-arrff’ they “wan-wan”. They thought it was crazy that American pigs sound like ‘oink-oink’ because Japanese pigs sound like ‘bu-bu’. All in all it was really a really funny day and pretty productive as far as international exchange goes.

今週、僕が地域小学校で子供達にアメリカの童謡を教えることになりました。僕は下手糞な歌手ということが殆どの友達に確認されたので、童謡のCDを持って行くことにしました。あるインターネットサイトでたくさんの懐かしい童謡を無料にダウンロードできました(www.freekidsmusic.com)。小学校四年生の４つの教室に回って、色んな曲（Wheels on the Bus, If You’re Happy and You Know It, Old MacDonald等）を聞かせました。If You’re Happy and You Know Itという曲が日本語では「しあわせなら」があるので、子供達もう知っていました。そして、Wheels on the Busはバスのアクションと乗客の運動の真似をさせたので、子供は好きでした。でも、Old MacDonaldを聞かせるのが一番面白かったです。音楽を流す前にマクドナルド祖父ちゃんがたくさんの動物を持っている農業者の話を説明しました。日本人もこの曲が知っているらしいが、歌詞は一つの部分しか知らなかったです。それは“Old MacDonald had a farm, Ee i ee i oh!”の中の“Ee i ee i oh!”です。なぜなら“Ee i ee i oh!”と日本語で言うと「いやいやよ」と聞こえます。この歌詞だけですごく盛り上がり、一緒に歌いながら、２，３人が手で鼻を詰めて、他の手を振っていました。僕が「何がいやだの？」と聞いたときに、子供が「いっぱい動物がいるから臭くて、いやいやよ！」　それは非常に面白くて、３０人の生徒が手で鼻を詰めて、他の手を振って、「いやいやよ」を歌っている姿を見たら大笑いしていました。国際交流が面白いなと思っていました。

そして、Old MacDonaldという曲が動物の鳴き声があるので、いい英語の勉強になりました。アメリカの英語と日本語の動物の鳴き声の擬声語が違います。例えば、牛が日本語で「モウ」だけど、英語で「ムウ」で、犬は「ワンワン」じゃなくて、「アルフアルフ」を鳴きます。豚の鳴き声が英語で「オインクオインク」と教えたときに子供達が「ありえない」と言っていました。結局面白い一日で、かなりいい国際交流ができました。

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!