Pointless Labour 無意味な労働

Did we ever get a huge snowfall the other day. Wow. We’re talking Canadian-style drifts, although I’m sure everyone up in Aomori is just sick of it. Anyway, since there was massive snow, instead of hiding in the staff room or AV room like I usually do after lunch, I went outside. Surprisingly enough, instead of playing in the snow, two kids were shoveling the front driveway. The front drive is huge, so I grabbed a shovel and began to help them.
昨日は本當に大雪が降った。凄い。「カナダ式の吹き溜まり」だったと思うけど青森縣に居る民族は多分もう嫌でしょう。とにかく大雪だったので普通の職員室や視聴覚室で隠れる行為より外へ出た。ところが雪で遊んでいるより二人の子供達が校門の道を雪掻きしていた。校門道はとっても廣いので掻きを持ってきて手伝いはじめた。

But before that, I was at another school, and I saw that the students were making some really nice representations of their names.
とりあえずその前は他の小学校に行って、生徒達が名前から本当に綺麗な絵を描いていたと見た。



I haven’t taken out the paper in a really long time. Hope they take it! 本当に久しぶりに紙とかを出しに行った。大丈夫ならいいな！


This week is the one time of the year when the Japanese acknowledge that they used to share the same calendar with the rest of East Asia. It's Setsubun-no-Hi, Season Change Day, and at the school some students put on devil masks and I whipped peanuts at them. Everyone in the class went nuts going after the peanuts. It was great. Devil out, luck in!
今週は日本人が東亜と同じ暦を使っていた事を認める年の一つの期間だ。節分の日だから生徒達が鬼の面を付けて朕が豆（実：ピーナツ）を投げ込んだ（悪笑）。生徒の皆が狂ってピーナツを受けてみたので大変楽しかった。鬼は外、福は内！


Anyway, back to the snow shovelling. Instead of playing in the snow, I helped these two kids shovel. When cleaning time started, more kids filed out to shovel, including a few teachers. Except ... there was zero organization. I think I managed to shovel more than everyone else combined, but only because everyone else was doing it so haphazardly. And they were using pickaxes to chop away at the ice under the snow. So you'll resort to kids wielding heavy mining implements but you won't salt the ice? Not that it mattered - the heavy snowfall ensured that all our work was for nothing. So WHAT WAS THE DAMN POINT of making the kids go shovel?
とにかく雪掻きの話に戻る。雪で遊ぶの変わりに二人の子供達の雪掻きを手伝った。掃除時間が始まると雪掻きをする為に生徒達と先生達がもっともっと出てきた。しかし・・・体制は全然なかった。殆ど皆がとても出鱈目的に雪掻きをしていたから朕が自分でもっともっと雪掻きできたと思う。そして氷を破れる為につるはしも使っていた。子供が重い採掘な道具を使うのを許可するけど塩を掛けない？どうでもよかった；雪がそんなに多かったので朕們の労働は無意味だった。結局子供達を雪掻きさせるのは何の目的だったかい？？？


On the way home I slid on some ice with some students. And thus the day had meaning.
帰る内に生徒達と一緒に氷滑りをした。それで日に意味が掛かった。


Seriously, though, lots of snow.
真面目的に言うけど、雪が一杯降っていた。


Sign warning motorists of an accident closing the highway between Tsukidate and Furukawa.
築館（つきだて）から古川までの道が閉まっていると示している看板。