Sports Day

So on Sunday it was all of my elementary schools' sports day! I only went to 2 of them, which I feel was enough! Anyway, if the sports day told me anything about Japan, it certainly reinforced the idea that it is an extremely efficient country. Looking at all of the different (if not bizarre) events, the comparisons between here and sports day in England could not help but come to mind. For example, there were a fair few 'obstacle' type races that each school did. One involved students jumping in sacks 10 metres, then leaving the sacks and pushing wheelbarrows for 10m, then hopping over and under elasticated wires, then jumping through a hoop, before picking up a small ball and throwing it in a bucket on a stick before running to the finish line. Hard to explain but none the less it entailed bits of the course moving around the track. Now if this had been in England, after each race there would be a few minutes break whilst people reset the objects. However, in Japan the race never stopped for a moment as there were students at each base resetting their objects as soon as one batch of students went through! Brilliant. This happened with every race - as soon as one lot of students passed the finish line, the starting gun was fired and another load of students began the race.
So here is just a list of events at the sports day:
Lots of general sprint races (including races for kindergarten students - sooo cute!) obstacle courses, tug of war, marching band (yeah I don't see sport in that either) balance gymnastics, traditional dances, and even a unicycle parade.
I even took part in an event myself! The race entailed spinning round a baseball bat (head  on the handle) for three turns to make you dizzy, running to pick up a football, running again to place the football in a wheelbarrow, and then running whilst pushing the wheelbarrow to the finish. My competitive streak appeared out of nowhere as soon as the starting gun when off and so I pelted it around the course! Up against one of my JTEs, another teacher and 2 other honoured guests - yes, I beat them all!
All in all I had a really fun day. Japan's sports days are definitely taken more seriously than any in England, and yet because of it, it was a far more enjoyable day - even with all its pomp and circumstance!

Marching onto the field in grades

Rasing of the flags (school and Japan)

Even the honoured guests know the warm up!

PA system for all the music cues. Students ready to catch the runners and put them in order.

Kawaii kindergarten kids!

Kindergarten Dance

Traditional dance from Hokkaido

Unicycle parade

Hilarious race for the guests - run to a chair blowing up the balloon, sit on the balloon on chair to pop it. Run back - simple relay, endless laughs.

Tradition Awa dance

The vice-principle dressed as an old anime character

Impressive gymnastics!