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Japanese School Festivals of September

I am typing this update in a brief moment of free time, which is really hard to come by around here. Not that i am complaining, this weekend has been a blast. On November 3rd every year, Japan celebrates the National Holiday of Cultural Day. My school wanted to celebrate it early as our schedule for october is pretty busy. So on Saturday the entire student body of Tosajoshi Middle and High School had an enormous school cultural festival. It was awesome! Friday: I got to leave school early as my clubs weren't doing anything for the festival. So I had an entire free day. I was correct in saying Saturday: I got up bright and early, threw on my uniform, and headed to Tosajoshi for what was supposed to be one wicked day; the Cultural Festival. When I got there, the homerooms all got into line formations to check in. Afterwards, my teacher, Yano-sensei, wanted me to experience a morning Cultural Festival Bazaar. He brought me to the gym, where at 9 o clock the doors were opened to the public. Hundreds if not thousands of screaming Japanese woman came running in; Bargain Hunters. The gym, was lined with dish towels, toys, and other little chatchkeys at a low price. There were over 3500 items, and we were all sold out by 9;30. I was so amazed at this phenomenon, that I took a bunch of pictures of the woman ripping thru boxes in search of a good deal. I got to help hand out items as well. Afterwards, Masako Ichihara, who spent last year in California as an exchange student, picked me up. We planned on touring the entire building. At Tosajoshi, there are 3 main building, 1 side building, 1 courtyard (which looks like a prison ground), and 1 large gym. Each room was filled with a club that could basically do anything that they wanted. Masako and I first went to the Tea Ceremony Club. There we payed a small fee and got to watch a traditional tea ceremony in action. In my opinion, it is really interesting and strange at the same time. Its an elegant art form, where one basically places tea down and then drinks it. Masako was really bored so we left for the Folk Song Club. A huge blarring concert was a bit different than what we had had a Tea Ceremony, but it was a lot of fun. After we got lunch. My absolute favorite Japanese dish; Okonomiacki. The Basketball Club was making the Okonomiacki, so Shiho and her teammates greeted me to a kind OH MY GOD JULIE!!!!!!!! While Masako and I ate, the Tosajoshi Baton team, Cheer squad, and Marching Band put on shows. By this point the school was beginning to fill up with lot of people from all over Kochi. Many of these people have never seen me before, so I managed to draw alot of stares. But one good thing came from it. A parent of one of my students in the middle school came up to me and thanked me for helping his daughter. It made me feel really good to know that I helped someone. After lunch, Masako and I did some more touring of the festival. We stopped at the Middle School Haunted House where I was forced into holding Masakos hand. Chicken... I laughed thru the entire thing, even when someone grabbed me and shook me. It was funny! After a while, we toured everything and needed a little brake. On of my teachers saw me and decided to put us to work. So for an hour we had to help stuff envelopes. Finally Masako came to the rescue and made up some crazy excuse. So for the last hour of the festival, we ate a mini Parfait and Snowcone just enjoyed the crazy atmosphere. When it was all over, I quickly headed home to take a nap.

Sports Day Practice

I was immediately told upon arrival at school, to expect a boring day. Tommorrow is the sports festival (epitomie of the elementary school field day.) It is held in honor of the Japanese holiday on October 9, called Sports Day. The Day is to celebrate the Tokyo Olympics from the 1960's. I have a free day then. The Japanese tend to have some weird holidays in my opinion. Japanese schools love to be perfect, so today was dedicated to practice. I changed into my gym uniform (yeah! a new atmosphere) and headed into the prison yard (oops I mean school field thing.) My class signed in with the line formation and was placed on the blue team (there are 3 teams, red, white, and blue). We practiced first the introduction march. because I am the tallest in the class, i get to walk first behind the class leaders/ I also lead in my other classmates, which proved to be a little issue as i cant march without messing up. What can I say? I'm a spaz. But luckily so is everyone in my class. So Yano's homeroom marched into the field area laughing histerically as a gaijin attempted to lead a group of short girls. None of which was doing anything right except for smiling and laughing. Okay so we got in a little trouble but at least it was fun. And I had decided right then and there to make this day anything but boring! After the blue team huddled under our rest areas, while the relay teams got ready. When it was time for my class to go I stood in the front and cheered and screamed for my classmates. We ended up winning, because of a quick sprint from my friend Shiho. I taught everyone how to do the big high five to the racers and we were all laughing and causing trouble within minutes. Then for Sport relays. The track team was running against basketball, kendo, badmitton, ping pong, tennis, and volleyball. And guess who was the loudest cheerleader not on the squad? But at least Track won. Sure today was only practice, but at least tommorrow the class will have a little spirit. Plus all the teachers thought it was so cute to see me screaming and clapping and cheering in terrible Japanese, that they didn't bother to say it was bad sportsmanship or try to stop me. After a few more events, my only event came: Piggyback slapping. Basically Three big girls have to carry around 1 little girl who has to slap off a balloon from the opponents head, without her balloon getting slapped off. Guess what team was out first? Yup mine. We stink, but that's okay because I got to cheer afterwards for the blue team. When all was done, and after lunch, a few more events had to take place. But I sat down with a new group of girls from my class and taught them so hand games and stuff. For about an hour we all laughed and cheered and slapped each other. I made more friends even though my Japanese is pretty bad!

Sports Day

My last post was just about the practice, the actual day was pretty awesome. First off I was on the blue team, and we won by 100 points! The reason I am so happy that we won is because in elementary school in America, I had managed to be on the losing team for 5 years. I finally get to be on a winning team for a change. And then to top off that win, my club team Reckuji (Track and Field) won for best all around team! So my events included the piggyback hoist, 80m dash, and Tug of War. Piggyback Hoist I figured would be a definite loss because my group is a bunch of sissies. Basically 3 big girls have to hoist a tiny girl on there shoulders. The tiny girl has a balloon tied to her head and and a wad of newspaper in her hand, which she has to use to pop other peoples balloon while protecting her own balloon. The tiny girl in my girl is this shy wall flower, that I was sure would lose. Instead when the whistle was blown she thrashed around and beat up a bunch of other balloons. We ended up being the last remaining blue team that helped us secure a tie. The 80 m Dash found me in last place, because I dash like a retarded turtle. And the Tug of War found the blue team girls letting go of the rope and watching the other topple over. But no matter we still won. After the day was over, me and my friend Shiho met in Obiyamachi for shopping and parfaits. We were on the same team so we talked about how amazing our team was.