Busy Saturday Update

I have lots of pictures to post today from yesterday. In the morning I was out at Urimaku to see the Skating Taikai. Speed skating has its own little winter culture here in Tokachi (someone from the local area is even in the upcoming Olympics) and the event brought many teachers and parents out to watch to the students. There were twenty-seven heats in all; from kindergarten to adults. Most were a short 500 meters, but more professionally inclined participated in longer distances later in the morning. All my students got a chance to skate and - to be certain - they were fast. This is especially true around the corners which I found nail-bitingly tense. All the kindergartens received a prize, but the rest of the heats were quite competitive. The weather couldn't haven't been better, very sunny and warm, except when the wind crept up. Fires had been built so people could huddle around and keep warm. The general good mood was increased with free hot-sweet-milk-coffee (I would have personally preferred just hot chocolate myself) and piping hot Udon-noodle soup. In the afternoon I went to Shikaoi High School's brass band's first concert - ever (so there were no grade twelve's in the band) - and they were fantastic. On to the pictures! Please be patient, they have been resized and will eventually load and, with some fidgeting, you should be able to expand them.