Sports Festival

This past weekend (two weekends ago now, as I suck at posting in a timely manner…) I attended an event called undoukai, or Sports Festival, at one of my schools. This event is somewhat like a Field Day as I remember it from elementary school. My students were all divided into 2 teams, red and white. They competed in various events and earned points for their team. At the end of the day the scores were tabulated and one team was declared winner. They received a giant trophy to hold during closing ceremonies and have bragging rights for the next year.

The school looking spiffy for the event

My Sports Day is a little different from most others in Japan since my elementary school and junior high hold the event together. On my other island, where the schools are a little bigger, the elementary holds their Sports Day in the fall (and annoyingly always on the same day as the other school so I never get to go) and the junior high has theirs in the spring. But since these schools are right next to each other and are very small they have always held the event together.

Running!

Sports Day is a bit of a misnomer because probably 60-70% of the events are various types of races. Running day sounds WAY less exciting though. The kids aren’t the only ones involved either. There were various weird relay races where the teachers and parents got involved too. It’s a large community event. Adults don’t earn points for either team (they are normally divided into teams by neighborhood) in their events, but everyone who participates in them is awarded a practical prize like paper towels, tissues, soap, or garbage bags. The tiny kindergarteners also attend for their mini races and dances.


The popular roll the hoop race


Several of my old students who are now in high school were there and some teachers who had transferred away came back just to see the students again and enjoy the event. Living on the islands here is difficult, but the kids and the school are really great and so a lot of the old teachers come back. I’m not sure how common it is at other schools, but I’d say the majority of our old teachers who transferred this past year came back. It was cute seeing the kids run up to them to talk with them again. Also one of my favorite student who moved to Kumamoto City when her mother changed jobs in April came back to see all her friends! She even got to participate in one of the races. It was so good to see her again. I really miss having her in class.


Obviously not my kids, but this is an event the little ones do.


A big difference from the Field Days I remember as a kid is that the students run pretty much everything. The kids do the announcements of the events and the participants, they fire off the starting gun, they hold the finish line tape, they spend an entire day before the event at school to set up, and they tear everything down when the day is over. At my Field Day in America there were parents who volunteered and helped run the events and the kids just got to enjoy it. But the kids here have serious ownership of the event.


This kid had a broken arm, so he couldn't do much.  But he did the drums for one of the dances.

 Another big difference is the amount of practice my kids do for Sports Day. In the month of September one or two periods of school every day were devoted to preparing for the event. Yes, as in normal class time is used to practice and some of my kids end up with days with three out of six classes being P.E. They practiced how to march in for opening ceremonies and where to stand and sit during all of the speeches. They practiced the closing ceremony, including announcing one team the winner so they can practice cheering (I’m assuming they alternate each practice run). They practiced the various dances they would do for the crowd. And that all makes sense to me. What doesn’t make sense to me is that they also seem to run through all of the events. They did tug of war and ran races. If the kids are always pretty evenly matched then I suppose it’s okay, but I would think that it would take the fun out of it if your team has repeatedly lost in practice. You would be pretty sure the actual event will turn out the same way. They also practice things like the dances and Oendan before and after school and during lunch break. These kids pretty much breath Sport’s Day until it’s over.


My kids practicing Oendan for the big day

 Oendan is a type of cheering that is popular here in Japan. It’s pretty awesome to watch. It’s far more like our Yell Leaders at A&M than cheerleaders though. It’s all based on synchronized hand and arm movements and generally looking badass. It is probably the event my kids get the most serious about. It’s a very big deal to win the Oendan competition. I was a judge this year which was fun, although I wanted both teams to win!

Dancing!  This is the Soran Bushi, its a very popular Sports Day dance.

This year I participated in 4 events at Sports Day. The first was a race between a bunch of women from the island. Teams were divided based on the neighborhood you lived in. I was on the teachers’ team. Each team had a pair of rain boots that you had to put on, run down to this giant orange float thing, pick it up, run around a cone, put the float back down in its spot and run back to the line to pass the shoes off to the next person. The shoes were too small for me, and I didn’t get them on all the way before the other teachers told me to go. So I ran very strangely with the shoes only about half on. We didn’t win the race but we all won a box of tissues for our efforts. Next I was in the tug of war event for the entire PTA. Again I was on the teachers’ team. Again we were not victorious, although I think there were less of us than the other teams. My last race involved balancing a big rubber ball on a tennis racket while running to a cone and back. And lastly I joined in the Goshoura dance, which is a special traditional dance for the islands that we all do together in a circle. It’s pretty easy to learn and it’s fun to be out with all of the kids and parents.


Elementary kids dancing with flags!  So cute!

 One of my favorite events was “Never yield the stick” (actual name, written in English in the program). Teams lined up opposite each other with these big poles in the middle. At the sound of the whistle they all swarmed the center and grabbed the poles, trying to drag them, and any members of the other team, back to their side. Hilarity ensued. The elementary school kids had a similar event involving the tug of war rope, and my other junior high school does it with tires of various sizes. It’s really funny to watch and the kids get really into it.

The kids make mascots for their teams.  This is the red team's mascot.
These mascots are from the school I did not attend Sports Day for.

My best story from this year’s Sport’s Day came after it was over. We had been outside all day and it had really heated up after lunch. The kids were working hard and had taken all the tents down. About half of the kids, mostly girls, were sitting around waiting for the other half to finish up so we could have our closing comments and go home. One of my third grade (9th grade) girls named Tsugumi was absolutely hilarious. She sat down and said in English, “I don’t work anymore!” She continued on, “I’m very hot and thirsty and tired and hungry. I want to go home. I want to go to bed. I want to drink juice.” I was giggling to myself, very content that she was able to express herself so well in English. “I don’t work anymore,” she said again. “I will die soon!”

And this is the white team's mascot. 
The raindeer's hat was pink (its normal color) but pink is the red team's color so it had to be changed!

Sports Day is always a lot of fun and it’s really great to interact with all of the kids outside of a classroom setting. I walked away from this year’s event with three boxes of tissues, a box of plastic bags, a bottle of liquid soap, over 400 pictures, and a nasty sunburn on my arms and neck. I could honestly go on and on about everything we did at Sports Day, but hopefully I’ve given you a pretty good overview of the event. Feel free to ask me any questions if I left something out!