Sports are really big at my JHS. Last week there was a big track and field day and this week was a huge sports competition between all the JHS's in the area. My kyoto-sensei (aka. vice principle) was kind enough to take me around to various places so I could watch some of the students compete. We started off and Katsuanuma JHS were the kendo club was playing. I took a few pictures, watches a few matches and then we had to move on.






Next stop was Kita-chu, the other JHS located in Yamanashishi were Miki teachers. I didn't see him anywhere, but I did get to watch the soccer team, soft tennis club, and both girls and boys volleyball teams play. The soccer team is coached by one of my JTE's. You can see him in the pic on the far left. The soccer boys did well and ended up winning their game. I also stopped to chat with the soft tennis boys, who were waiting to start their match. They wanted me to take their picture, so I did.



After that I watched the boys play volleyball and they were amazing! Won two games in a row, no sweat, and made in into the Ken wide finals. The girls on the other hand ended up losing their two games and ended up crying after the game. I was a bit shocked that they lost as I have always heard that the Nan-chu girls volleyball team is really strong. I think they were pretty shocked at losing as well.



After that is was back to Nan-chu for lunch and to watch some of the sports taking place there. I caught some of the table tennis matches and girls soft tennis, however, I missed watching the baseball team. Apparently they had finished up before lunch and had won all their games. The baseball team is made up of some of my more troublesome boys, but they are pretty fun and I wanted to cheer them on, so I was a bit disappointed that I missed everything. Oh well, maybe next time!

Labels: jhs, school, sports festival

Just started the new school year and already the kids have a day off! For track and field day. This is the first big event of the year at my new JHS so I wanted to take a bunch of pictures, but my camera ran out of batteries about 1/3 of the way through all the events. To start with, here is a picture of the front of my new school. It's way nicer and newer than the elementary schools I worked at.


Sports day is pretty simple. With in each grade there are 4 or 5 colors that form a team. When you win events, you win points for the team. Team with the most points at the end are the winners. There are also individual class awards. The day starts off with a pep talk by the homeroom teacher assigned to each group.




Then starts the opening ceremony with marches, speeches, flag waiving, stretching, and so on. Each homeroom designs there own flag and comes up with their own theme/motto. Some of the English ones were pretty amusing.



The the games began. All the basic track and field events were covered and the bigger kids don't do any of the fun type relay games that the elementary school kids do, so it was a straight up track and field event.

As I walked around with my big camera, a bunch of students would come up to me and ask me to take their pictures. In the first picture are Maya and Mai, 2 3rd years who made it a point to get me to remember their names. And it worked! Next is Ayaka. She is a 2nd year and was one of my very first 6th graders. She was dead set on getting me to remember her name as a 6th grader, and it's stuck with me ever since. She would also stop by the ES on occasion and chat with me. And the last picture is a bunch of my 6th, recently turned 1st graders.






There was also a group of boys I was pretty chatty with. One of them really wanted me to watch his relay race, so I made sure I did and cheered him one. He ended up winning which was nice. Also notable was the boys high jump. The boy in the pictures was absolutely amazing! But it was right about then that my camera battery died. Besides being really hot, there is not much more I remember about the day except that we had an amazing order in curry lunch. Yum!

Labels: jhs, school, sports festival

Most every school in Japan holds various events throughout the year known as festivals. They could be sports festivals, cultural festivals, pretty much any type of festival. The first school festival I went to ended up not even being for one of my own schools. I was invited by a local JET to attend his JHS's sports and cultural festival and I decided to check it out.

It was held over two days. Saturday was the sports festival and Sunday was the cultural festival. we arrived early on Saturday and the first scheduled event was the opening ceremonies. So we headed over to the gym and the first thing I noticed was the band practicing in the back of the gym. They were really good! Then we tried to figure out where we were supposed to sit and they ended up putting us in this row of chairs along the side of all the rest of the chairs, that NO ONE but the two of us ended up sitting in. The rest of the teachers were sitting with their homeroom classes. So yeah, that was a bit awkward, but at least we had a good view!


Opening ceremonies were interesting. Lots of speeches by what I'm sure are important people, then the kids did some skits and showed off their class flags and banners. Then each class did a little chant/song type thing and at the end of the whole shindig, they revealed this massive painting that was made up of a bunch of smaller paintings that each kid worked on. It was huge and rather impressive. Then it was off to the races!



There are four different colored teams split among the 3 different grade levels and they compete in a variety of both traditional and zany track and field events. They also do several traditional dance performances and some marching type things throughout the day as well. Events included: normal relays, pull people around on a tire relays, tug of war, huge group jump roping, the 'grab a pole' event, and the 'climb a pole' event. My favorite event was the tug of war. The rope was as thick as my arm and spanned what would have been the length of a football field.









We took a break for lunch around noon. I had brought my own lunch to eat, but the school, as they knew I was coming, kindly provided me with the same spread that all the teachers got, which was sushi, soup, and some fruit for desert. It was really nice of them, and quite tasty!

I can't remember which team won, but I didn't really care. Everyone, including me, was having a good time and that's what really matters. The next day was less about competition and more just having a good time and lighting stuff on fire. I didn't go to the morning ceremonies and presentations on Sunday, but heard it was more skits/songs. The other JET even had to do something on stage, which I'm sorry I missed. I arrived right before they were going to light the bonfires. Each class built a huge pyre and then the lit them on fire using some sort of gun power. There was a line of it going to the pyres and you got to watch this really loud and bright flash zoom towards the pyre and catch it on fire. It was really fun to watch.



Then, all the students did folk dancing around the 3 giant fires. Well, not just the students, I got dragged into it as well, but it was fun. Felt bad for some of the boys who had to dance with me. Lets just say I got some strange looks. Then, after the dancing there were some speeches and then fireworks, as no festival is complete without them!

Above and beyond attending the festivals, on Saturday night, I went up to the northern part of my city for a little welcome to the area/house warming bash with almost all the JETs in my city. We just stayed up, chatting and drinking. The apartment we were in was huge and had the most awesome bathroom I've seen since living in Japan! I was so jealous, but then it is sort of in the middle of nowhere compared to where my apartment is, so I got over it. Everyone stayed the night and then we headed home the next morning. And that was my weekend.

Labels: apartment, friends, jhs, school, sports festival