The 文化祭 at my old 高校

なんか、ちょっと日本人の友達と話して、みんな｢ブログは英語ばかしやから読まれへん」って言っているからこれから毎回英語も日本語も書くことにする。下手やけどなんとか頑張るわ。

Hey, so it's been a little while since I've written. I'll chalk that up to being too busy for my own good, and to not having time to upload photos (currently #1 on the "How Can I Improve My Blog" poll). I promise I'll put up some pictures soon!

ちょっとお久しぶりですね。右のアンケートの一番皆が見たいって言っている物は写真なのに、最近忙しくて、写真をアップする時間がなかなか時間出来なくてさ。でももうすぐ載せる、約束する！

Last weekend was the culture festival at the high school where I used to teach. It was great. I haven't been there in a long time, and I only knew the 3rd year students, but it was so cool to be there. At these festivals, each class puts on some sort of production - usually the seniors do plays, and the other students do either performances like dances and taiko drumming, or they set up a room in the school to be a cafeteria, nail art salon, horror movie special effects studio, movie theater (showing a movie they made, of course), house of horrors, costume play photo studio, or anything else they can imagine. I wish we had such cool events back when I was in high school! By the way, this particular school always does an outstanding job with their school festivals (the cultural festival, the music festival, the athletic festival) - they are all pretty standard events, but I've taught at other schools and wasn't nearly as impressed. The scale of the projects, the quality of the work, and the passion these kids put into what they do is extraordinary.

先週末前の教えていた学校の文化祭に行った。チョー懐かしかった！なんか、今の三年生しか会った事ないけどそれでも、文化祭に行くのは懐かしかった。劇とかダンスとか和太鼓とかを見て、いつもちょっとうらやましい。アメリカの高校ではこう言う事見た事ない。しかも、特にこの高校は文化祭や音楽界や体育祭は毎年すごく頑張る！ほかの学校でも教えたことがあるけどぜんぜん違う、雰囲気が。この学校にめちゃあたまええ子いっぱいおるし、みんな毎日一生懸命夜遅くまで頑張るし！

I noticed one thing, though, and this wasn't just an artifact of this year's festival, but this year I particularly noticed it. I saw two plays and two dances, and all of them involved guys cross-dressing as girls (and sometimes vice versa too). I guess this was the first time I realized it was sort of a standard thing here. That must say something about Japanese culture, and the role that costume plays in defining identity or something, but that's the sort of thing that humanities majors write about so I don't think I can come up with anything too deep. I think it says something about the flip side of conservative Japanese society, and it also shows, I think, how much they lack the homophobic undercurrents here that flow through American culture.

そのとき、一つの気付いた事がありました。今年だけの事じゃなかったけどただ今週初めて気付いただけ。劇を二つ見て、ダンスも二つ見て、その中で女の服着ている男性やたまにその逆も多かった。そして思い出して、確かに毎年なんかおかまのことが多かった。それは、何か日本の文化の深いことかも知れへんけど、それは文系の人の書きそうな論文。理系だから深い結論はできないけどなんと言うか、日本の控え目な文化の裏側の一部だし、比べるとアメリカの文化の方の同性愛をの嫌われている事をはっきり分かるって感じ。

It was great to see my old students and coworkers again. A number of alums were there, too, who had been students back when I first started teaching. It was great to catch up with them, although it also made me realize that I really need to keep studying Japanese - there was like a 20-minute stretch of conversation about politics that I couldn't follow at all!

I actually started Japanese class this Tuesday, so hopefully I'll be able to work up to that point. Anyway, like I said, I'll post pics soon. Right now I'm busy getting ready for our big camping trip this weekend!

元生徒と元同僚に久しぶりに会ってよかった。卒業生も数人いたし、最初に日本に来た時からの友達もいました。いろいろ話してすごく楽しかったけど、やっぱり20分ぐらいの政治的な会話をまったく理解できへんかった。勉強がんばる！

実は、火曜日日本語の授業が始まったからそのレベルまで上がれるかも。わかんないけど頑張る。兎に角、もちょっとしてからまたブログにいろいろ写真貼ると思いますから楽しみにしていて。今は今週末のキャンプの準備しているからその後でまた何か書くね！