体育祭(The Sports Festival)

9/7/08

One of the biggest events of the summer for my students at school is the yearly sports festival. Since I cannot tell you the name of my students, school, or post pictures of either because this is a public blog, you’ll just have to live with my brief descriptions of the event.

The day before the sports festival, they had practice for several days. It was really fun because we got to go out to the field and watch the kids (again, mostly teenage girls) play games and be athletic. I didn’t stay long, but what I saw told me I was in for a treat on Sunday when the event was to occur. I think what I’m most disappointed by is the fact I cannot convey to you just how cool the music was. It was this very light, very fun sort of international fluff. It was like the soundtrack you’d hear behind a Bugs Bunny cartoon show. It added an air of lightheartedness to an event brimming with competition and class pride.

For the competition, each of the class years was represented by their colors. They had matching sweat bands, uniforms, shirts, and even the stripes on their shoes were all identically stripped. The breakdown of colors is as follows:

For the 一年生s (ichi-nen sei – first year highschoolers) were red.
The 二年生s (ni-nen-sei – second years) were the blue team.
And the 三年生s (san-nen-sei – third years) were draped in yellow.

On Sunday, I met the schools out on the field and we were treated to special box seats under a tent to watch the kids compete in a variety of events. The event list included many traditional track and field sports, as well as some… um, unusual ones. We had a very traditional Japanese opening ceremony complete with Japanese calisthenics, playing of the Japanese National Anthem, presentation and raising of the flag, etc. The band was out, on the sidelines, playing the accompaniments. There but not really there if you understand what I mean. It brings back memories of my time in the band. After the opening, we heard some speeches, (do your best… spirit of competition, good sportsmanship, blah blah blah) and finally things started to get under way.

The first thing they did was to parade each of the three teams past everyone in a marching band/military style format, complete with arm swinging and high marching. Once the teams were seated in their respective tents, the events started and the stands became really crowded. The sprint teams lined up and an announcer (also a student) took her place to shout out the respective placements and progress of each of the teams. If we had been playing quiddich, I swear we would have been at the Japanese Hogwarts.

After sprint, we moved onto hurdles, relays, high jumps, longs jumps, etc. When all the traditional sports had been exhausted it was time to do the less traditional stuff. It was very cute… they had several variations on the three legged race and sack race. They even had one particular race which was like a triathlon for sack race/three legged/five legged race. The kids would bind themselves to each other, race to a large shock pad, have to climb and roll over the pad as a unit, get to the relay point, transfer to a bag and jump for their life, switch to a five legged counterpart, race, and navigate a gauntlet of swinging ropes and jump rope traps. It was really quite elaborate. They had massive jump rope competitions, and a tug of war played with very large bamboo poles that had to be fought for. In the tug of war, there was some strategy involved. You had to get as many poles to your side as possible. You could split your teams up in any way you liked, but the more time you spent on one pole, the less time you were spending fighting for others.

My favorite event, however, had to be the back race. The way it works, is you have one person who has to cross the field (about 100 meters) on the backs of his or her classmates. The class mates have to bend at the waist, and allow the traveler to cross on their shoulders and back. The traveler is supported on either side by another classmate for balance, and once you feel the travel walk on you, you have to race to the front of the line so that she or he can walk across you again to make the journey complete. It was very fun to watch both teams go at it. They divided it into a girls and boys event, but the girls have the advantage of sheer numbers causing them swarm the front of the line, making it easier to always supply the traveler with lots of backs to walk across. The boys, while faster, didn’t have the people necessary to cycle the folks in the back, back to the front quickly enough. It’s quite the spectacle to watch.

Finally, the classes held a dance event. Most of the teams dressed up as if they were in High School Musical and performed synchronized dance numbers. Many of the boys are capable of back flips and somersaults. One of the girls was on a team which teased their hair 80s style, and still wears it that way even at school.

I suppose at this point it is safe to say that we teachers participated in a relay event. Sue and I each helped carry a baton relay to a satisfying last place finish against the students who were lightning fast. I’m not ashamed to admit I was sore for a week after that.

Finally, we had closing ceremonies and I had to stay until the end of business. I hope you enjoy the few pictures and videos I can post, which are significantly obscured such that it does not reveal the identity of my students.
**NOTE - I'm having some problems updating flickr here at work. Expect to see these pictures and videos posted by this evening my time**