It was Sports Day at school. The American equivalent is track and field, yet there are many differences. The biggest being that there are almost no individual events. The day started out with a warm-up to classical music box type music. This warm-up has been done for over 50 years. It doesn't really stretch anything but it gets your body moving. The other events of the day included relays, a borrowing race, 3 person x 4 legged race, mukade (centipede) race, rump roping, 10 person x 11 legged race, a class dancing competition, and a dress-the-teacher relay and performance.

I was called upon to run in the borrowing race. Each students gets a piece of paper with someone/something to run with for the race. The three foreign English teachers were called upon to run this race. Otherwise, our physical activity was cheering for the students. My voice got more of a work out than my body.

The mukade race was five girls in a line behind each other and their legs in connect ropes. They had to run a lap together that way. The 10 x 11 race was crazy and dangerous. It is like a 3 legged race except with 10 people instead of 2. They run the length of the gym together and crash on mats at the finish line. I've heard that they sometimes do this with 30 students. Yikes! This is a good example of Japanese culture. People are put together regardless of size, height, skill, etc. They have to function together. If one person fails, they all fail. They have to work together to succeed.

The dances were lots of fun. The students put huge amounts of time, practice and effort into choreographing dances that their entire class can do and look good at. I admire their ability to make people with little dancing experience, like me, to look good.

The costume relay was quite funny to watch. One of the teachers put the reason for the activity in these words: This is just an excuse to make fun of teachers. There is definitely some legitimacy to this. The teachers ended up in many different costumes including: a bride & groom, a samurai & princess, a couple from the alps, talk show hosts, and cross dressers. It was in the 90s today with the humidity also around 90%, so I felt extremely bad for the teachers in these costumes. You could literally see the sweat pouring off of them. The teachers were good sports and the students had fun watching and laughing.

All in all, I'd say that the day was a success! Now I'm home with the fan blowing straight on me, relaxing after a cold shower, and ready to take a nap. (Here are a few more pictures of my students:)