Boenkaku Tome

... they understand the meaning of their speech (thereby putting appropriate emotion at the appropriate times), and whether that meaning is being clearly conveyed to the judges. Pronunciation is important as well, but the focus is really on the former. Theres also a 5 minute time limit, after which you get points deducted. This part really sucks for the students, because right at 4 minutes they ring a nice, clear, loud bell, right in the middle of your speech, so it ...

... I see are that Japanese middle schools (and elementary schools to some extent) seem to be a much more important experience and central part of the life of a Japanese kid. At one time I asked Kasumi about a random Japanese "joke" line I heard on a cartoon, which the character was basically asking "whats your middle school?!?" because I didn't understand the significance of it. Turns out, as she told me, middle schools are a bit of a sense of community ...

... the grades together. First class was Red, second was Blue, and third was Yellow. From the pictures you can see the headbands, and also the teachers of their respective classes all dished out in the colors as well. I didnt have a particular class (Im not a home-room teacher like all the other teachers are, except for the nurse and my friend) so one of the teachers gave me a sushi-chef like headband, so I sported that. Everyone seemed to dig it.

So the festival started in a very ...

... creepy porcelin masks (if you've ever seen a picture before) and done very traditional, old style. Hard to explain, but pretty interesting. The masks are actually (usually) cut very specifically to each have their own emotion, or actually, range of emotion. See, the way they're carved casts certain shadows and ever-so-slightl changes the expression/emotion depending on what angle you're looking at it from. Now THATS craftsmanship.

The next and final day of Tome orientation we went to ...

... seats that all the children seemed to have brought with them.

After the lake we went down to a new favorite spot of mine, called Minnesota Cafe. As the story goes, the old owner (until about 2 years ago) drove around in America in his truck for about 6 months, then came back to Japan and built this place with his bare hands, so I guess you could say he put some love into it.
Its a little bit of a cabin feel from the outside, and the inside is a nice, cafe/small ...

... pack rat.

For my last real meal (breakfast and lunch tomorrow are going to be scavanged), I debated between Café Gati and my student’s family’s gyutan place. The latter won since I’m not going to have the opportunity to eat gyutan back home. Or hayashi rice, which is what I ordered (it had gyutan pieces). My student’s mother gave me watermelon as a sort of bonus when she found out that I was leaving. It made me ...

Friday night was my last cheap karaoke outing. T_T I'm really gonna miss it.

Saturday morning I got up at 6 AM to catch the bus to Sanuma because I was going to play taiko. Only there was no bus. I wound up calling a cab and being one of the first people at the place. The people in the group weren’t very friendly. Eventually the women warmed up to me, but the guys were ...

... a lot of songs. We were a good team. ^_^ I'm really sad I didn't get to hang out with these teachers more. T_T

Glossary
kakkoi - cool
ikemen - hot guy
kouchou-sensei - principal; kyoutou-sensei - vice principal
sobetsukai - farewell party; enkai - drinking (and eating) party
meishi - business card; in this case, "info card" is probably a better translations, and yes, cosplayers have them
nijikai - second party

... style of making myself known—slipping in and catching people off-guard. The same happens when I cosplay. Yep, I’m a ninja. :p

The teachers had a meeting after school about summer stuff, and the subject of the transparency of the girls' shirt came up. I think they were discussing bra or camisole colors because they mentinoed and no pink or blue (or rather, sky ...

... another part of Hasama). I had to be at the place early so that I could get help putting on my yukata. All the female ALTs, except Lucy (who was busy dressing us and acting as our TIFA liaison), wore one, and we all looked very pretty. There was a tree planting at the side of a hill that was hard to get down in geta. Afterwards, we had a barbecue and the Nippon Gakki Rangers performed. Amy also did hula. It was nice to see ...