10/29/07 Ding Dong, the Speeches Are Over!

For about the last month or so, my work day has been pretty devoid of resting time. That big sports festival that I wrote about a few posts ago was consuming every minute of people's days, so much so that something else crept up on everyone. The dread Ashikaga City Inter-Junior High School English Speech Contest! (whew, that title is a speech in itself) So, being the American guy, a very large portion of speech related responsibilities fell on me.

Thursday we finally had the contest. I along with several of the other native english speakers served as judges for the event. Over forty speeches on topics ranging from global warming to "my pet beetle" were covered, sometimes more than once. One of my favorites explored the lighter side of a little girl who's dad drinks a lot, including an anecdote about how bad he snores. At the end of it all, some flashy trophies were distributed and I took a sigh of relief that lasted about an hour.

Presentation of a trophy. Much clapping and bowing was had by all.

And now for something completely different.

This is a sign in front of the video arcade that we frequent. Give it a click, its worth seeing closer. My favorites include: no flirting, no walking and smoking at the same time, and no groups standing in geometric shapes. Oh, and no hitting the machines with a baseball bat. A couple of the pictures leave me without even a good guess.

Well, now that things have settled down a bit, I can step back from the edge of insanity. Nice. As an added bonus, I will have more energy to write fun stuff. Check back later.