Junior High Sports Festival

Kei's School Sports Festival was scheduled for Saturday May 19th at 8:40am. He left for school in good weather at 7:30am since he is on the Student Council and had to be early. We left at 8:10 as it was just beginning to rain. By the time we got to school it was pouring. Other schools cancelled the Festival, but ours decided to wait and see how the weather goes and make a decision by 9:10am. At 9:30 the decision was made to hold the festival in the gym for opening ceremony and speeches starting at 10:30. Then move to the outdoors as the weather permitted.So phone chains went out and we began at 10:30am. The rain had stopped but the grounds were soaked. The soccer and tennis clubs were assigned to dry up the grounds with mops, newspaper and rags. Later they sanded part of it. The schedule was rearranged so that big races would be later in the day.

School Sports Festivals are traditional from kindergarten through University and are usually held in the Spring or Fall. (Kie's elementary school is in the Fall.) They begin with opening speeches, cheerleading (involves one or two leaders, drums, whistles and lots of yelling) and warm-up exercises. Then the games begin.

The student council picks a game each year for the whole school to play. This year was "tamaire" or "put the balls in the basket". This is traditional game for kindergarten and elementary school lower grades. They changed the rules to make it more fun. Usually everyone starts with 2 balls and they throw to the basket and pick up dropped balls and keep throwing until the time is up. Then they count the balls that made it in and the team with the most wins. Kei changed it so that the boys are on the outside and girls in middle and girls throw balls to boys who throw balls in basket and then they switch places. It was quite fun to watch.




There is a lot of running in addition to grade competitions. The seventh grade jumps rope as a class. 40 on a team and the winners jump the most times in a certain time limit. The eighth grade does the walking on backs race. The 3 classes compete against each other. There is a boys team and a girls team from each class. All participate. The nineth grade does the 'caterpillar' race. Each class races around the track once. It is pretty difficult. One boys team and one girls team from each class. All participate.


Kei was in the 1500 meter race which is the longest race of the festival. There are whole class races as well as special entry races. Each student is in at least 5 different kinds of races.



Kei did the closing speech. He did a good job. Brief, which is always good in a closing speech!! The red team won. Kei was yellow. Came in second by 11 points. It was a good day and everyone played hard and had a good time. Takeshi really enjoyed himself as an official photographer. (It is my job with the PTA this year, but he was looking at the special armband so longingly and really wanted to use the new camera....and, well, I just couldn't say no....)

Boy's day and Basketball

Between April 29th and May 5th are a series of holidays that make up "Golden Week" here. Kei had one day of school during the past week and Kie had two. (Kei's school's inauguration day is also during this week.) Many people travel during this time and Tokyo becomes rather relaxed and quiet. It is actually a nice time to stay home. Kie had lots of basketball games. Two full days of mini-tournaments and a half day of regular practice. This time they were all at our local school so it was easy for Takeshi and I to come and go. Kie played really well and it was fun to watch. They played tough teams and there was lots of drama. This picture shows Kie making a basket!! (She is in the black uniform, second from left.)
On Friday night we celebrated Boy's day, by having the grandparents over for dinner. We started at 6:30pm when Kie got home from basketball practice. We had tonkatsu with cabbage salad and rice and miso soup. We also had the tradition sweets for dessert. We had a nice time. This is a picture of the grandparents and Kei with his set of armour that we display every boy's day. (Takeshi has a small helmet that we display in the entry way!) Kei received this from his grandparents for his first boy's day 13 years ago. It is pretty cool.