Work, Cafe Kumfa, and Bajikoen Horse Show

March 11, 2013

So today it has officially been two years since the Tohoku earthquake. There was a city wide moment of silence during the minute in which it occurred. As I used to live in a city that was affected by the earthquake it sort of turned into a free-for-all “barrage Kim with questions” time which was pretty interesting—especially since I came to Japan after the earthquake so I couldn't really tell them much. But in any case, I wish the city hall could get together a group to volunteer up there or something, but I suppose we can't have a bunch of people just taking off work, because there would be no one to man their posts. Plus we all know Japanese people don't use their vacation days so that's not likely to happen anytime soon. 

今日は東日本大震災から２年間が経った。市内では時間通りに黙祷があった。前はその地震の影響をされた市に住んでいたということで「キムに聞き放題時間」になって、結構面白かったーーそれは特に、私が地震の後に来たし、殆ど何も伝えられなかったからだ。どうであろうと、役所がグループが集まってそこでボランティアをやればいいと思うんだけど、人が勝手に仕事を休んだら誰が代わりに待ち場を守るかということでやっぱりいけないよね。それに、日本人は年休をあんまり使わないしね

Well, I've seriously failed at writing anything lately. As the decision making period for re-contracting ended in February I've been a little stressed, and work has been more hectic than usual. Since the end of March is the end of the fiscal year here, everyone is trying to finish up their current projects which means whatever they've finished, I end up translating. Plus I've had my usual work and events going on on top of it and this month I have several business trips. I mean going on trips is nice because I get to leave the office, but when it takes over a weekend and a holiday it's just not the same.

最近、何かを書くのをマジで失敗しているんだ。契約更新の決断時期が２月に完了したからちょっとストレスが高くなったし、仕事は普段より忙しくなった。３月末は年度の終わりなので皆はプロジェクトを終わらせようとしていて、それが終わったら、私が訳する。それに、普通の仕事やイベントのほかに、今月はいくつかの出張があるの。旅に行くのは事務室から出られるからいいけど、週末や祝日でも仕事中というのは旅行と同じじゃないよね。

So here is my attempt at catching up on everything since a month ago.

これで１ヶ月前からのまだ書いていないことを取り戻してみま～す。

---Work Related Things---

On February 12^th I gave a presentation for the Tateyama International Society. This was my third presentation for them. The first was just an introduction to Ohio such as what sort of people live there, what the scenery/climate is like, etc. The second was about the Presidential Election, and I explained how the electoral college works, what a swing state is, and why Ohio is a swing state. This time around, I decided to talk about Black History Month since the presentation was in February. The society members seemed pretty interested in the topic as they had never even heard of Black History Month before. Though they did lead to some random questions about prejudice in the U.S. such as, my opinion on gay people and what I think husbands' rights are. (Though I think this last one was more of a joke, or maybe I was being hit on? I'm not really sure what that was about...) Forgetting that Japanese people don't understand sarcasm since we were all speaking English, I mistakenly responded, “Don't be silly! Husband's don't have any rights!” only to realize my mistake when his face turned serious and he said, “Do you seriously think that!?” I of course assured him that I was only joking. (*.*) I was like ohhhh this is one of those times where even though someone understands the language, they really don't understand because of cultural differences, huh.

２月１２日は館山国際交流協会のためにプレゼンをした。それは３回目だった。１回目はどんな人がオハイオに住んでいるか、背景や気候はどうなのか等をオハイオ州の紹介に説明した。２回目は大統領選についてのプレゼンで選挙人団やスイングステートやどうしてオハイオはスイングステートなのかを説明した。今回は２月だったので黒人歴史月間について発表した。協会の会員は黒人歴史月間のことさえ知らなかったので、面白そうに聞いてくれた。アメリカでの偏見についての質問をいっぱい聞かれたが。。。例えば、ゲイの人たちについて私はどう思うか、夫の権利はなんだとおもうか（この最後のはジョークか何かのナンパ？意味わかんない～）で、英語を喋っていたから、日本人は皮肉があんまり分からないってことを一度忘れちゃって、「馬鹿なこと言うな！夫には何の権利もないよ」っていう風に答えてしまって。。。その人が真剣な顔をしたところで私がつい気づいていて、「本当にそう思うの！？」って質問がきたんだ。もちろんそれはただの冗談のように安心させたんだ。(*.*)これはぜったい、言語を分かっても文化が違うからやっぱり言語は分からないというものだなあと思っていた。

The following Thursday was the last day of the English class that my office manages which is taught by two of the ALTs in my city, so they held a potluck dinner for the last lesson. It was fun to stuff our faces and chat with some locals. I even met a women who wants to learn how to ride horses! I'm going to take her out to my barn sometime in the near future.

その次の木曜日は内の課が経営している英会話の最後の日だったんだ。その英会話は市内の２人のALTで教えられているので最後のレッスンはポットラックになった。地域の人々と雑談して、いっぱい食べていたのは楽しかった。乗馬をやりたいという子も会ったよ!近いうちにクラブに連れて行くかも。

---Kumfa---

The following evening a friend introduced me to a cafe in Tateyama called Kumfa. The restaurant has Indonesian food, a full bar, a tropical themed interior, and several tables out on the veranda where you can eat dinner while relaxing to the sound of the waves. I ordered the green curry with coconut milk in it, which was pretty good. Of course the portion sizes were typical of Japan so we ended up ordering desert as well. The prices were pretty average for a trendy cafe. It was a little under 4,000 yen for the two of us with one soft drink, a meal, and a desert each.

Here's the restaurant's blog...http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/courage2629/4800728.html　

その次の夜は友達が館山市でのKumfaというカフェを紹介してくれた。そこのレストランはインドネシア料理でフールバーもあって、中身は熱帯のテーマで、外のベランダでは食べながら波の音が聞けるようにいくつかのテーブルが並んでいた。私が注文したのはココナツミルクが入っていたグリーンカレー。結構おいしかったよ。量は日本らしかったから、結局デザートも頼んだ。おしゃれなカフェとして値段は普通。二人ずつコーラ、食事とデザートを頼んで、全部で４，０００円以下の会計になった。

---Bajikoen Horse Show---

Skipping forward a week or so, I went to watch a horse show at Bajikoen in Tokyo. Some of the members of my riding club had entered, including one of my trainers, so I went to check it out as I'll probably go to the next show. As usual, I got a bit lost on the way and somehow thought that this high school was the horse park. (There literally wasn't a break in the fence between the school and the stables okay!) But luckily I called a friend who was already there and she informed me that the school is in fact not the horse park (ha~ totally thought it was some rich kid school or something). Anyway the show was really fun. It was really windy though so even though it was sunny out it was chilly. I feel like wind is the worst weather for a show too because then some of the horses end up spooking at the trees and brush boxes. Most of our riders were entered in the 80 cm and 90 cm divisions. Basically we ended up pretty much blowing everyone out of the water. Our riders placed 1^st, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th!

１、２週間を飛ばして、東京の馬事公苑での競技会を見に行った。内のクラブの会員と指導員がエントリーしたし、私は多分次の試合に行くかもしれないので見学のために行った。いつも通りちょっと道を迷って、なんだかある高校はその公苑だと思っちゃったの。（厩舎と学校の間、埒は切れ目がなかったんだもん！）でも、幸いなことでもう着いた友達と連絡をとって、友達がその学校公苑じゃないってことを伝えてくれた　（ハ～　これはなんかの金持ちな学校だなあと思ちゃった）。どうであろうと試合を見るのが楽しかった。風が強かったので日差しがよくても寒かったが。。。風は試合に最悪の天気な気がするね。というと木や障害の下にある植物が風で揺れていて、馬を驚かせるからだ。内の騎手の殆どは８０センチと９０センチに出ていた。内のクラブがなんとほかの競争者を打っ壊したよ～（誰か正しい日本語をお願いしま～す）内の騎手が優勝、３位、４位、５位と６位だった！

The show was also a lot of fun because I got to see equestrians from other clubs, and there were also several college riding teams there. (Young people!? In Japan!? Unheard of!) We also stopped in at the Cavallo tack shop which is about a two minute walk from Bajikoen. Also, it's the only tack shop that I've heard of in existence in Japan. I'm sure there are others but surely they're few and far between. After the show on Saturday we all went to get yakiniku for dinner. And it turned out that the table across from us was the Nihon Daigaku (University of Japan) Equestrian Team! So that was a lot of fun. It was nice to see some of my barn friends outside of the barn setting too. Everyone who was showing went back for the show on Sunday as well, but I had a lesson that day so I headed off to the club.

試合が楽しかったのもう一つの理由は他のクラブの騎手と会ったということだ。いくつかの大学の乗馬部も行ったよ！（若者！？日本に！？信じられない！）その後は２分ぐらい馬事公苑と近いカバロの馬具屋に寄った。日本にはこの馬具屋以外に他のを聞いたことがないね。確かに他のもあると思うが、日本にはそんなにないよね。土曜日の夜、みんなで焼肉を食べに行った。着いたら、うちのクラブのテーブルと向こう側には他のクラブもいた！かなり盛り上がってきた。それにクラブの友達と他の場面で会うのも楽しかった。その次の日はみんながまた試合に出たけど、私はレッスンがあって、クラブに行ちゃった。