It had rained the night before so when I arrived at about 7:50am the students were already out there soaking up some of the water with sponges. I sort of lingered here and there as I hadn't been given a task and saying good morning to everyone can take a while! After a brief teachers meeting we all headed out and that's when the sports day begins.
In true Japanese fashion the sports day begins with an opening ceremony involving each student in their respective classes walking around the perimeter of the racing track lead by the head student and the student committee. There are speeches that I don't understand by the principle, coordinator and some other important douchebags and the warm up begins. It's short lived and it's hilarious but eventually the students regroup into their perfect lines to run off through the designated field exit area.The various events throughout the day aren't so much 'athletic' in the traditional sense of the word and instead revolve around the students doing fun or unusual things with only a little bit of a skill involved. I was told as this gives every student a chance at winning and I fully agree with it! It's so much more fun and even complete genetic hiccups can still cross that line first. They often don't ... but they have the chance to!
I'll give an example; the first race involves students putting a baseball bat to their forehead and to the ground and spinning around several times, finding a treat in a big pan of flour by slamming their faces in. After this they dash over very narrow beams; throw a ball into a basket; they must bite off a piece of bread suspended in the air and then finally dash to the end.
You just wouldn't see that in athletics days in Australia! For us it's all sprints, hurdles, high jump, long jump, triple jump and several other events that actually require sporting prowess that I'm afraid to say that I just didn't really have at the time. I will point out though that at our sports days we were at least allowed things like face paint and ridiculous costumes in our house colours. Every student in Japan must wear the same uniform with only a headband / hachimaki to tell what class their in. Class 1 in year 1/2/3 all wore red, all class two's across the year levels wore blue and then there was only one extraneous class (2-3) that had yellow head bands. They didn't win though so forget I mentioned them.
Events during the day ranged from;
various relays;
An event involving one student running on a path made of the backs of the other students in the class (a kid running on the backs looked like an asian version of Tyler Newstead, Jays brother. Isn't that wierd?);
A tug-rope war;
A mock cavalry battle which for some reason required all the boys in the school to remove their shirts?;
A race for girls to run into the centre of the field to grab pipes / wrestle them off other girls and drag them back to their side. The innuendo was not lost on me but unfortunately it was lost to those around me;
One relay with just the third year girls involved a piggy back race, a wheelbarrow race, a double-skipping race, leading-the-blind race and finally a 3-legged race all in one. It was epic.
Sports Fests are held on Saturdays so the families of the students can come and watch which is clever. Some people had started to arrive as early as 8am and everyone didn't settle for just a tarp nosiree! They had the portable tables and chairs and everything which coincided with the presence of food stands selling takoyaki, fried chicken and shaved ice. Highschool students came to visit and it was pretty social thing for the town. Some of the highschoolers talked to me but they weren't very good at English... Although if they were going to school around that area then they wouldn't have scored very high on their entrance exams.
And the music! Oh the music! I would hear snippets from Indiana Jones, Rocky, Star Wars, Tatu (remember them? The psuedo lesbians), other English songs, some Japanese songs, classical music, anime themes and so much more! The commentary was done by the students but it wasn't terribly exciting / I didn't pay much attention. I was having a fantastic time taking photos of the events until my camera battery died after the event involving a football being hit around a witches hat by a baseball bat. Which means I missed out on photos from a lot of other events but that's alright as I have another school in which to take photos of in their sports fest. I might be able to get some off the school later but they're a bit iffy with that sort of thing.
The big competition throughought the day was between 3-1 and 3-2 and it all culminated in the final relay between the two classes. Every student in the classes must participate in this relay (so failure can't be traced back to any one particular person except if they really truly suck ass) and when this race comes along they like to make a parents/teachers team to compete against the students. I offered to run as part of this team as I like running and I was pretty sure I could hold my own against the students. Turns out these kids are FAST! But it also turns out that my competition in the relay were two girls. Yui-san and Ri-san. Yui-san likes to laugh, isn't very sporty nor overly studious but she's fun - Ri-san plays the saxophone, has a cool hairstyle and is shy to the bone so you can imagine how they run. You can imagine it right? Anyway, I got the baton coming last out of the 3 teams and I got us all back to even. I wasn't the fastest runner out there by any means but the students managed to turn 'Nice Fight!' into 'Nice Run!' so I dedicate their English creativity to my skillz.
By the end of this you're probably thinking that the teachers are all dicks and the students hate them but it's quit the opposite! The students and the teachers have a great relationship especially in a school as small as this. The staff room is always open and students can come in at any time to talk to teachers and what not so when a teacher *makes* a student do something it's usually with good will.
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In other news I had a house warming party and it went magnificently! Awesome people came and we all had a fantastic time. My house was sufficiently warmed and although we're coming into Summer I don't think it was physically warmed as I don't think it works that way so I should be fine. How is that for an awkward phrase that could be misconstrued as me thinking thats how house warmings work? Some people from Gunma (the next prefecture over) came and bought their N64 and they even bought Smash Bros. with them which some of you may know is a game that I am exceptional at. We made punch, there was a karaoke stint and only two people threw up but not on the floor so I don't care. I probably wouldn't have cared if they did anyway!-------------------------------------------
I had dinner with the staff of Bato-jhs and I was given the seat opposite the principle who pretty such he was very happy to have me at the school which is awesome! His English is pretty broken but I can generally piece it together, it's my Japanese that needs some work! I found some textbooks in storage below my apartment so I'm using them.
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|---> To elaborate on that. My apartment is owned by Joytalk (the company I work for) and was originally used for storage for ages so there is a heap of useless shit. In my alone apartment there is a snow board, some guitars and speakers, old records, fans and so much more! UNDERNEATH there are chairs, tables, desks, tarps, books, more tables, a display case, awkward shelving, a PIANO, mattresses, fans, various appliances and so much more. It's a gold mine!
So until next time!
kris.
P.S. Class 3 -1 won in the end which is good as I like that class.
(Here is the link to photos from Sports fest! Anyone can see these; http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=263098&id=680155088&l=b5dc9080b4 )
FOLK DANCE!
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