English Speech Contest:

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent the day at a regional English speech contest. I was chosen as the head judge for this contest here in Nagoya. It was a regional championship with the winner going on to Tokyo for the national champion.

It is always interesting going to these speech contests. I remember going as a coach of students many years back. Not much changes. I saw coaches there this time as well. The theme of the speech contest was "family". It was interesting and even very touching to hear high school students give a speech on what family means to them. I heard of a lot of personal stories and the content of all the speeches was absolutely incredible. I was very impressed. Of coarse there was a big difference between students who had coaches and student who didn`t. It was very easy to understand. Some students were over coached. Meaning their gestures and tone of their voice was just too much and was not natural at all. Some of the speeches were more like a theater performance than a speech. Other speeches were maybe very natural but lacked some proper pronunciation or grammar.

Still it is always refreshing to see and here these students. But I am always proud of all the students who challenge a speech contest. No matter the outcome everyone is a winner because everyone studied and learned while getting ready. I really enjoy being involved in these type of activities whether helping a student prepare or judging the students. Its a great atmosphere and even though I am a native speaker, I usually walk away from it learning something.

Its Friday night about 12:00 midnight. Me, Andy who came over and my friend jump out of the car and its freezing cold!! I was surprised how cold it was. The night was clear and the stars were bright. We put on our gear and turned our headlamps on and started up the mountain. We started at stage 5. It tool only a few minutesfor us to reach stage 6. When we got there I thought to myself "this really isn`t that bad. No big deal". When we got to stage 6 there was no onethere. We did see other climbers on the mountain above us. We could see their lights. We took the wrong trail at stage 6 and instead of climbing up we noticed the trail was actually taking us down and around. I thought this couldn`t be right. We stopped and talked about it for a minute. We decided to hike back to stage 6 and make sure we took the right trail. Well we didn`t! We ended up wasting about 20 minutes trying to figure out what was going on. We had to hurry because we wanted to see the sun rise.

The hike from stage 6 started to get a little tougher. I found myself starting to breath heavy and needing more and more rest. We understood that we wasted too much energy on the previous stage. So the hike started to get a little slower. But we finally were able to find our pace and kept continuing up the mountain. I learned the trick is to slow it down and stay consistent in pace. I wish I would have learned that earlier like when wes tarted. Its about 3:30am and we are at Stage 7 now. Its getting windy and some mist and fog is rolling in. We rest for a little bit and start up for stage 8. We are going along for about 20 minutes and pass some people coming down. Iask them how far to stage 8. They tell me they didn`t know because it was so windy they gave up. When I heard that I thought..."great this is goingto get fun now". So we kept going and little by little the weather started toget worse. The wind really started to get strong and the mist was very heavy. My jacket started to drip water from the moisture in the air and it was getting colder and colder. I was getting really worried about Andy. But he was really hanging in there.

Stage 8 took forever! We hiked and hiked. It seemed to never come and then finally we made it. We rested for a few minutes and ate some food. My friend and Andy fell asleep for a few minutes and I refused to sit down. I knew if I sat down I would be dead. So I just stood up and ate some nuts and chocolate. After about 15 minutes we decided to start up to stage 9. We know that was going to be rough also. The wind was really bad now and we passed more people going the other way. However, by now the sky was getting lighter. We hoped maybe we could still make it to the top for the sun rise but also wondered if the mist would clear to see a sunrise. We got to stage 9 and we had a little more energy. But I was having a hard time breathing. My friend took out his little O2 tank and took a few breaths. I had one also but the wind was so crazy and the mist was starting to feel like rain so I didn`t want to take off my pack. I just stood up again and ate a protein bar and drank some water. I knew again if I sat down I wouldn`t get back up. So no sitting. We knew there was only 1 more stage and the sky was getting lighter. So we started up. After a while we were able to turn offour head lamps. It was about 6:30am. We knew we missed the sunrise. I was disappointed. Still the weather was so bad we knew the sunrise would not bevisible anyway. But we thought we should at least get to the top since we climbed so much. The wind was really bad and the mist was now rain. The rain was falling sideways in our face and really blowing into us. I was so happy I spent some money on good rain gear. We were completely dead now. We saw some people coming down. My friend asked how much longer before we get to the top. He said "its about another 15 minutes right"? The guy looked at us and said "no its about another 45 minutes from here and with this weather it could take you much longer". I about died. Andy almost died too. He said "thats not what I wanted to hear!!" Part of me felt to just give up and leave. The other part said just finish it! So we decided to finish. We finally made it on top about 7:45am.

As I got to the top the wind was so bad it was almost hard to stand. The rain was coming down hard and you could see nothing. Everything was closed because hiking season was over. We stood next to a wall of a small building trying to get some shelter from the wind and rain. But that didn`t work. We saw standing there in the rain on top of Mt. Fuji a guy in tennis shoes, a light nylon jacket with no hat, no gloves, and jeans. I couldn`t believe it! He was shaking so bad and his face looked almost panicked. I asked if he was ok in Japanese and learned he wasn`t Japanese. I think he was Chinese. My friend and I knew he was in trouble. It was cold, wet, and windy. I was wondering if the rain was going to turn to snow. It was that cold. I thought this guy could die up here very easy. But there was nothing we could really do for him. He started down the hill shaking and looking really bad. We decided to follow him down after a couple minutes. We were only on the top for about 10minutes and decided to get down. So we left. We tried to look for this guy but never saw him again. I really wondered if he was ok but nothing on the news so I guess so. No news is good news. Still I can`t believe how stupid some people can be.

About halfway down the weather broke. The wind died down and the rainfinally stopped. My feel and hands were soaked. The sun felt so good. Werested at stage 7 again for a few minutes and ate some food and enjoyed thesun. It actually started to get hot now. I pulled off some clothes andpacked them up. It felt good. But I was upset because now the weather was really nice and we couldn`t see anything on top. Oh well... we continued back down and finally made it to the car.

The last stage down the mountain almost killed me. My body was so stiff and my muscles were tight. I have never been so happy to see a car in my life. We got some fresh clothes outof the car and changed real quick and left. I was so happy to finally sit.It was the first time I sat down since we started to climb up. Driving back down to the hotel I was trying so hard to stay awake. My friend kept talking to me and I was trying to listen but found myself closing my eyeslonger and longer. He stopped at a 7-11 and I bought a coke and a niku man.That kept me awake until we finally reached the hotel.The hot hot shower never felt so good. I tried to stretch my legs and back in the hot water. I should have went to an onsen. But I was too tired to do anything. I got out of the shower and laid in bed at around 4:30pm. Ataround 6:30 I woke up and was hungry. So I went and got some pizza and spaghetti at a near by restaurant (which was good!). After eating I went back to the hotel and fell asleep at around 8:00pm.I woke up around 8:00am and my body was stiff. My legs ached so much and my throat was sore. But I was ok. We went up to the top floor of the hotel toeat some breakfast. From our table we had a great view of Mt. Fuji. As welooked I said how disappointed I was we couldn`t see the sunrise or the topwhile we were there. It was quiet for a few minutes, I then said well I guess we have to come back next year and do this all over again. So we decided thats what we will do. Everyone told me that in Japan people say "a person climbs Mt. Fuji once but a fool climbs it twice". I will be that fool as long as my body gets back to normal in the next couple days.

Are you ready for some football??!!

Finally!! Football season is here. This is always a great time to be home in the United States. Football is an exciting time. I got myself ready though. I bought the whole season of games on Yahoo to watch and also got my satellite so I am completely covered. But one thing... no football food and no football weather. It feels strange to watch a game and its still so hot and humid. I am used to it getting much cooler and dry in Utah. But its ok. The games are on and I am still happy. My team won their opening game in exciting fashion so I am ready for next week. Ahhhhh I have something to look forward to...

Well on another note the US Open was kind of a drag. Roddick lost again. Nothing new. Nadal lost also. Feder won again and the coverage was terrible!!! Next year I need to do something different. wowwow sucks.

I was going to go climb mt. Fuji this weekend. But it looks like rain. So I will put it off. Maybe in two weeks if its good weather. But its so late in the year now I am not sure. But I want to give it a try so I hope the weather is good in a couple weeks. I will go. This weekend just looks terrible. Maybe every weekend for the next month will not be so good. Somebody told me now I can expect more rain. Man it rains too much here!!! But I spent a ton of money and got some gear so I need to get out and use it.

I guess thats it for my sports life right now. I kind of miss my life back in the US. But things are good here too. I look forward to having some free time to get out and do somethings. All work and no play makes todd a dull boy. But hey... Tomorrow is Friday!!

Its Monday morning... the last week flew. I had my boss and some other guys from the U.S. here last week. I was with them all week and it was refreshing!!! Really nice to be around guys with the same thinking. But this week they are gone and I am back to being the lone American in the office. But its ok. Still it was nice to have some guys understand for real what I am feeling here. Its tough but has been interesting so far and I think I have learned a lot. But I have never worked in such a tense and stressful atmosphere in my life. So in many ways I am wanting my old life back. But that will come I know. So I am just trying to focus on the current situation.

I have been watching the world track and field championships in Osaka the past week. Very exciting and its really amazing to see what some of these people can do. So that was last week. This week is the US Open. I got the wow wow channel to watch the us open. But really disappointed!!! Only a couple hours of coverage every night. But starts at midnight and not all the matches are shown. I thought there would be more. So I find myself on the internet trying to get all the news. I wish I could find a way to watch online. I will just have to keep looking.