Undoukai (Sports Day)
9/24
Originally scheduled for the 23rd, sports day was one of my favorite school moments of my time in Japan thus far. I know this is late but I finally have the time to give this entry the justice it deserves. I remember having ‘sports day’ in elementary school consisting of relays and some good, fun class competitions but it was never a very big event and my memories of it are hazy. In Japan, this day is epic. Beginning with the start of term in August, the students are given one free period of the typical 6 period day to practice and prepare for sports day. Not quite understanding this, I spent the period like I did all my other free time - studying Japanese.
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| Lining up for the beginning of the ceremony |
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| Lining up to stretch (or mini-stretch) |
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| One of those extra bits added onto an all-girl race |
About half way through September once the students were a little more adjusted to me I started going outside ‘for fresh air’ while they were doing their prep outside. Some of the students in my favorite class were doing a type of jump rope game that reminded me strongly of my middle school days. Perhaps seeing the glimmer in my eyes at the memory, they invited me to join them. Luckily, I wasn’t half-bad and the next day I went out to join them again. Later that week I was invited to the gym to watch the 3rd years practicing their group dance and after about 10 mins some students came over and invited me to participate. My involvement I thought would end there...
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| Red team captain |
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| Welcome to kibasen!! |
The next week saw the day of the dress rehearsal for the festival and I began to understand just how much work the students had put in when they were lining up in complex lines and completing activity after activity in the scorching heat. The event itself is a follows a simple equation - the school is divided into two equal teams (red and white) and they compete against each other in a series of sport, teamwork, and communication challenges.
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| Three-legged relay (out of order but one of the first events) |
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| Yeah, more kibasen!! |
Speaking of the heat, this brings up an aside I haven’t mentioned. While practicing, and also on the day of the event (along with numerous other events) the heat was almost suffocating at the peak of the day and yet the students were made to continue without complaint. This of course, in conjunction with my observation that the people around me never seem to consume any beverages other than the occasional small bottle of cold tea, caused heat exhaustion. During the worst of it, there would be student after student collapsing to the ground like poisoned flies. The teachers of course ran to remove the student from their lines and place them on a tarp in the shade with some ice but the event was allowed to continue unhindered. I think there was actually a point when a good quarter of one of the teams was under the tarp in various states of consciousness. Interesting.
Back to topic though, dress rehearsal went through with only a few flops and everyone went home tired and sweaty but anxious for the next day. Of course, upon waking up at 6:30 to prepare for the event I found a ringing phone and a black sky. The event would be moved to the previously scheduled school holiday on the 24th. Unplanned birthday present?
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| Just a hop, skip and a jump to the finish line! |
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| Parent-student event |
Came in pretty early to help set up but of course I was too late... no one told me the teachers would start crawling in around 5 to put up the tents. Dressed in my school polo that I bought with the rest of the teachers and a pair of track pants since I had been told I could jump rope with my favorite class for that part of the competition, I was given a seat in the teacher’s tent and watched while the parents filed in.
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| Group three-legged finish |
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| Sometimes it's not so successful. One falls and they all come down. |
The event began like every other in Japan - with an opening ceremony consisting of various speeches by students, teachers, the principal, and members of the community. Once everyone had said their peace we all stood and did group stretching (most of which I found ineffective since the students didn’t really get into it). Then they did team chants, which reminded me strongly of pep rallies except they were literally facing the other team and yelling them down. After the chanting the physical events began with a three-legged race between the 2nd years followed by the 3rd years hundred meter sprints. All the events are done relay style so pairs usually go one at a time though there are exceptions - no worries everything will be described in detail! An all girls event was next and it involved throwing cloth balls into a basket held high in the air by a stick. I am trying really hard to remember what the next event was because the title in the program is merely YCD99 and I noted they were barefoot and fighting with sticks? Maybe I have a picture?
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| Remember the stick walking I mentioned? |
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| Jump rope! |
OK the picture brings it back, the boys are all standing hunched over so their backs can be walked on by one student who is barefoot and using a stick for balance. Once he makes it to the end of the line - not the end of the students, BTW, as once they have been walked on they have to run to the end of the current line to keep it going. It was probably about 100m using around 40 boys. Once the barefoot boy makes it to the end, he has to climb the giant stick and place a flag in the top. The other boys hold the stick so it doesn’t wobble too much. Obviously, the first team to secure the flag in the top is the winner.
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| Ending of the stick walking event, sticking a flag on top. |
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| bon dance! |
1st year 100m sprints were next then there was the parent student event. One of my kids was missing his dad (since the event had originally been planned on a holiday everyone would have been there but since they moved the event some parents were unable to take off work) so I subbed in for them. He carried me (yes the 12 year old boy piggy backed me) across the course while I carried a soccer ball in a strange version of a relay. The kids also had to throw the soccer ball into a basket the parents were holding as part of the event too. We were pretty far back in our line and I don’t recall there being any form of points from the event but it was fun nonetheless. :-)
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| Tire pulling |
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| All girl rugby ball kicking |
The next event was a quiet complex 3rd year only activity involving first teams of four pulling one member who is sitting on an old tire along the course then once all the groups finished forming a giant millipede with everyone attached via their ankles in a long line and they had to move in unison through the course once more. They did the millipede style twice actually because the first time was separated by sex then each team formed a giant line and did the course.
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| Millipede race |
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| Showdown - kibasen style |
Following this was an interesting variation of a potato sack race. Because of an absent student, I was asked to sub in on this event and was partnered toward the back of the line with the unfortunate soul who had to run with me. I don’t honestly remember if we won or not and no one received points for this event so it wasn’t a big deal :-) It consisted of teams or two running part of the course three-legged style with a soccer ball between their hips then they untied their feet and one person was left waiting while the other ran for potato sacks. Each person used a potato sack and while holding hands jumped together to cross the final finish line. I forgot to mention that students run everything by themselves including refereeing and making announcements. The only job we had as teachers was to sit back, keep official score, take photos, and relax. Except of course the events I was asked to participate in and the ones I forced myself into :-P
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| My kids are so cute! |
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| Me - not so much. :-P |
Then was the event I had been waiting for - the jump rope race! We had practiced hard and I couldn’t wait to jump into the ring with my students. With a pounding heart I jumped into that swinging rope the first time - plopped right on my butt, and scraped up my knee. But I continued to the end and while we didn’t lose... We definitely didn’t win. Oh well - had fun trying!
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| Can you see the concentration?! |
The PTA event was cancelled so we moved straight into the bon dance. As you may or may not recall - I mentioned these community dances way back in the day of this blog about dancing around a set of drums in a circle. Well, on sports day we do the school’s version of the dance and this event was no exception. I jumped right into that too, naturally!
We stopped for a nice lunch break, which of course was in the air-conditioned teacher’s room, and I got to enjoy a giant bento box filled with tons of yummies. After lunch, we went back into the sauna and watched while the clubs presented themselves in uniform in front of the crowds. Following this was a presentation of the team songs and dances. They waved their hands around while they sang karaoke. It was cute but not what I was expected from the high-energy practice I had seen a few days before.
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| Final score |
Next was tug-of-war. Of course I asked to be involved and was lucky enough that they let me. In fact since the teams were pretty big they had two rounds of tug-of-war, both of which they let me participate in. Let’s just say my hands were pretty sore afterward - but we won both rounds! Hundred meter sprints by the last group (second years) then the first year’s fun event. Three person pyramids walking with cowboy hats and a soccer ball tied to a lasso that they swung into a bucket. I can’t explain it much better than that... it was pretty strange but looked like a lot of fun.
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| Throwing the cloth balls into the basket |
The all girl event followed and was in teams of four while the all held onto a big stick and ran around cones kicking a rugby ball? Interesting. The boys event was best and most anticipated though. Kibasen. Four person pyramids and baseball caps. Japan’s version of chicken - without the pool. I can’t do justice to the awesomeness of this with mere words so please enjoy the photos and look it up on youtube if you’re really curious. :-) This was followed by a big, school-wide relay race and the presentation of awards. Red team won :-(
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| More balls |
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| Triumph |
I should like to mention that like everything in Japan, once the main point of the activity was completed there was sometimes a last little twist that the students would have to complete before each actual event was completed and the winner awarded points. The first I witnessed was during the 2nd year three-legged race. Once the teams had gotten everyone through the course, the last team had to frog leap over all the rest of their team then everyone had to tie their legs together in a giant line of students who then had to walk the course as a unit. Missteps led to tumbles and I believe this actually allowed my white team to win since we were behind until this point. (Teachers aren’t supposed to officially pick a team but since I did multiple events with the white team I figured I should support them here since I couldn’t do it openly.) Other events had the same little extra steps at the end but you will have to go through the pictures to see them since this entry is long enough! Love!!!!
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| Coordination... win |
