National Debate Contest

Okay, so this happened last weekend but it's taken me this long to get the pictures on my computer. My girls, as you know, qualified to go to the National Debate Contest in Nagoya. We had to leave separately as Bob and I get out of school much later than the rest of the people (and Fridays are my out of town days). Bob and I took the train no problem and arrived in Nagoya. I was disappointed to find that it was not going to be Bob's first Shinkansen ride but hey, we can work on that. Trains are super fast in Japan =D. We got a little lost because I'd never been to that part of the city where the hotel was but Aoki-sensei rescued us after I concluded that directions are not a good thing to have a language miscommunication about ("so I go south? or north? I've not gone east enough? I need to go west? WHERE IS WEST?!"). We had a grind session with the girls at the hotel to practice their speeches and make last minute adjustments and then it was time for bed. Leaving the hotel we set out for Nagoya Daigakuin campus where the tournament was being held. To be honest, the judging seminar was a joke - less training and more lecturing but I didn't have any doubts that Bob would do a fine job. It actually ended up that I didn't get to see any of the girls perform but maybe that's a good thing. They lost all of their matches on the first day =/
We went to a welcome party afterwards which was a little fun. Ikumi got teased for stealing Bob's cake and Kanako did a surprise performance of Wham's "Last Christmas." The next day went a little better, they ended up winning their last match, but of course only the strongest teams, those who won all of their matches or 3/4 could go one to the quarter finals and so on. There were some strong teams but I really feel like the competition was centered on high English speaking ability rather than actual strong arguments. There was one team who made it to the quarter finals that puzzled the hell out of me. Yeah their English was phenomenal but their argument had no strength!! Anyway, enough of me talking and more videos and pictures.
So here's a picture extravaganza to follow!

But before we go on to the Debate Contest (jumping right into the Welcome party since I didn't take any pictures before then) here's a Zen picture. This is actually right outside of our apartment. Usually there are buildings and stuff to look at but the morning fog can be so exhilarating. This very scene is what made me fall in love with Japan in the first place.









Insert the video of Kanako singing! It's pretty freaking awesome. This girl is so involved in EVERYTHING. She's part of Student Council, the choir club, and she's the president of International club. Kind of makes you wish you applied yourself in High School >>;



These are the girls and Aoki-sensei! From far left: Aoki-sensei, Ikumi, Kanako, and Akane. We got to the party late so we ended up just mooching a lot of our food from other people's tables.









This is the school where we did the debate. Despite my epic picture-taking abilities we did not do so hot, as I explained above. But we are pretty freaking awesome walking up into the building like this. And actually, I took this picture on the second day. Maybe if I had only taken this the first day we might have done better. Personally, I just feel bad for Kanako who reminds me so much of myself and ended up beating herself up most of the time.











Bob ended up judging a contest too - the contest that ended up letting the runner-up finalist get to the semi finals.











These are the finalists for the Nagoya Debate Contest: On the left, for the Affirmative side, is Keio Shonan High school, on the right, for the Negative side, is an international girls' school.

Check out the winner video below! Their reaction is so classic. The video is much too long for what it shows but you might as well get the honest experience, right? Life isn't about good editing! And Ashley is lazy?