Horseback Archery Contest 流鏑馬大会 青森

Oomori　Yasuki　大森さん
Originally uploaded by Mihai Florin Apostu Oota

Every year in September, on the Gappo Park beach, a horseback archery contest ( 流鏑馬　大会) is organised and contestants from all over Japan are gathering here. It was my first time to see an archery contest and I really enjoyed watching it, taking pictures and even speaking to the contestants. The weather was kind to the contestants( but not to me)- the sky was covered with grey clouds all the time. The horse that Mr. Oomori was riding was the attraction of the day( to me it was) - it was all spotted like a dalmatian.

Preparing
Originally uploaded by Mihai Florin Apostu Oota

The contestants had to ride the horses on a 200 meters long track and hit three targets set on their left side on the way. The distance from the track to the targets was about 5 meters.

Japanese Speech Contest in Aomori

I arrived at work and was surprised to hear that there is an articol in the local newspaper about the Japanese Speech . I was impressed by the other competitors knowledge of Japanese and of their fluency in speaking. The first prize was obtained by the malaysian Competitor- " Japanese and Malaysian gastronomical culture" . When first arrived in Japan she was surprised to see Japanese eating cold food during summer and hot food during winter. The first time she didn` t find it that tasty, when eating cold noodles, but after a while, tasted it again and enjoyed it. Her feelings were expressed clearly and fluent.
The second prize obtained by the romanian competitor- " My son, my good rival" . There were explained the feelings of a romanian father, whose son` s japanese is getting better than his, even if the boy is only 3 years old.

Source: Toonippo newspaper

Japanese Speech- Busy weekend

Sunday? Emotions, repeating the speech, dressing up, preparing to speak in front of almost 100 people. I debutated in the 12th edition of the local Japanese Speech Contest for foreigners living in Aomori and in the nearby areas. A few friends of mine joined the competition and I had the chance to meet other foreigners from China, Egipt, Russia, Phillipines, England. I was the only one from Romania.

Everyone picked their favorite theme and had five minutes to debate on it. All the themes had interesting titles . It was good to meet all the other participants before the contest. We all gathered in a room next to the hall where the contest took place. Some of us were eager to meet and talk, some of us had emotions just like before a contest when tens of people are waiting for you to speak. It was fun to speak to everybody. To some of them I was speaking in English and to others I was speaking in japanese. Don` t know why. Free choice?!?

I was the third one to enter the stage, after Alex from England( "Friends") and Son from China("One night in Tokyo"). Amazing! Fluent japanese, good introduction, beautiful theme, polite ending and smart responses for the jury.

And... here I am, on the stage, with the microphone that was near my chest. I had bend over to speak in it( not too smart to adjust it to my mouth). The name of my theme was- " My son, my good rival" . The crowed laughed a few times and then, off stage.
All the following speeches were original, funny, to the subject and well thought. I was standing in the middle of the hall, right in front of the stage. Even for me, a competitor, it has been interesting to see the others make their speech. A few times I couldn` t stop from laughing. If the next time I won` t be competing I will sure be standing behind looking at the competitors.

When the speech finished, the jury gathered in another room to decide the winners, while we had the chance to see a nice Hula Dance Show.

One competitor from China was nominated with " Beautiful performance" prize.
The competitor from Philippines was nominated with " Amazing Voice".

3rd place for the competior from France- "Mountain Hakkoda"
2nd place for the competitor from Romania- "My son, my good rival"
1st place for the competitor from Malaysia- "Japanese and Malaysian gastronomic culture" .

At the end of the competition we swapped telephone numbers. I would like to meet everybody now in a while and talk about... everything.

Today I took a trip to Hakkodate for an urgent visit.

Tommorow back to work

Did I tell you that Saturday after work I went for just two hours up the mountain? Yes I did, it is the previous post :D It was great, but from what I` ve heard from my friends, today and on Sunday, there was so much powder, almost 4 metres. No way to go off course.

Have a nice week!