The Never Ending Day- oops I mean- Sports Day

I have survived my first Sports Day. While it was quite eventful, I'm not gonna lie, I'm glad it's over. The day began with a 6am rise, and a commute to school dressed in track pants (black or navy blue), a white polo and tennies- on a Saturday. We (students and teachers) were required to be at school at 8 to set up for the 9:30 Sports Day start time. This was just last minute prep as the entire days/weeks before had been spent preparing, setting up, and cleaning.

Boys Mass Game- Elevated

Parents came and sat in tents around the student grounds. I camped out in the teacher's tent next to the nurse's station and the time keepers. The enjoyable parts of my day were spent chatting with the students who took shifts helping the nurse during each event.

Boys Mass Game- fan

The day was so jam packed with events that I don't even know where to start, what to explain, or what to leave out. Sports Day, I have found out, is a means of showing off how well the teachers have disciplined the students, regardless of how little discipline actually exists in the classrooms. There was a huge opening ceremony where each class marched in military style, displaying their banners and flags for all to see. Each event started and ended with the same exact tune that was a cue for all watching to start clapping to the beat, and all involved to start jumping/jogging in place until their leader led them back to their designated areas. The song probably played 500+ times- no joke! I can still hear it in my sleep!

Boys Mass Game- mixture

Each grade (1,2,3) is divided into classes (usually 5) which competed against each other for the most points through activities such as relays, obstacle courses, and other various contests. There were speed races, distance races, relay races, class races, top runner races, backwards while chewing gum races... (okay maybe I made that one up- but there were MANY races.) Each race happened 3 to 20 times in order to get all students through it. My favorite race to watch was the one amongst sports teams. All the students who are in a sports club came out adorned in their sports uniforms and raced against each other. The uniform thing was taken so far that the Judo team (kind of like karate) actually ran barefoot because that is how they practice. My least favorite race was the relay race amongst classes in which the teachers filled in as the 6th line of competitors.

Boys Mass Game- Peacock

I explained to my teachers a few weeks ago that I'm not really suppose to run because of my knee/back issues. They laughed and told me they couldn't run either. I had been stretching all week to prepare for this and really dreading the event in fear that I wouldn't be walking for weeks afterwards. On the day of the event one of the teachers asked me, "so how is u run?" I was a bit confused but realized she thought the symptoms varied day by day, so I told her it was the same as always- still not suppose to run but doing it because I had to. Another more kind teacher overheard the conversation and asked what we were talking about and then adjusted her position so that I did not have to run as far. This was very kind of her and I felt very embarrassed. Basically I ran long enough to get the baton (the longest hand off I've ever taken part of) and pass it off again (the 2nd longest hand off I've experience in my life.) [Perhaps I could get Mr. Lee over here to teach hand off skills... ] It was a good thing that I only ran as far as I did though because my hips have been bothering me ever since :(

Boys Mass Game- Pyramid

Other events included an obstacle course where a group of five students fished for gummies in a tray of flour, had to balance two basketballs on a tennis racquet, crawl under nets, and run holding hands. There was also a game where three students held a student up in the air and that student fought with another to see who could tear off the other student's hat first, some kind of pole game where the students formed teams and tried to tip the other students' pole over and steal the flag on top, a typhoon game, and mass games. There were two mass games, one performed by the entire male body and one by the entire female student body. The female mass game was a flag dance that involved 4 or 5 different songs and more steps than anyone could remember. The male mass game was a series of feats performed in rhythm to the pounding of a drum. I have included pictures of many of these events and hopefully have explained them each further in the captions.

Capture the Flag?

Finally, around 4:00 the events wrapped up and there was a lavish awards ceremony with lots of bowing and lots and lots of clapping. Then we had clean up for two hours. TWO HOURS! I was soo tempted to grab my stuff and sneak down the hill. I saw a couple students do it- I think I could have gotten away with it... But I didn't. I stayed untill clean up was finished and then rushed home to change out of my sports clothes and rush back into the city for the teacher's completion party. It's custom here to hold an enkai (party with food and drink) after an event like this to congratulate everyone for all their hard work. Since the events took so long many people washed their faces and changed at school before going to the enkai but I wasn't that prepared. I hurried home threw on some clean clothes, no time for a shower to get all the dust and dirt off, and rode the train back into the city. The welcome party lasted for approximately 3 hours and then carried on further deep into the night. I personally just wanted to go to sleep. Getting up at 6, standing around in the sun all day, running, dealing with screaming kids and blaring music kinda took the energy out of me. When it came time to catch the last train I used that as my excuse to get out and head home. Many of the teachers were staying out EVEN later and were planning to catch cabs home. eek! I don't know where they got the energy. They can barely stay awake during a normal school day, but then somehow magically turned into heroic superstars with endless energy for Sports Day.

Flag Dance

I dunno! But I am so sick of prepping for sports day and am just thankful that now hopefully we can return to a normal school schedule. I don't want to hear any more silly music, any more clapping or pounding of drums, or see another darn red flag! I may sound a bit extreme but please understand this school has been preparing for this even since we started on September 1st. Everyday I can hear 'ich-ni, ich-ni' out of the window. Or a teacher yelling at a poor student cause he's only giving 150% and not 210%. eek! Ahh, finally it's finished! No more sports day! At least till next year....

Geisha at Sports Day??

Kibasen?

Kibasen? 2

My Pal Shiori

Sports Clubs

Typhoon Race