Undoukai ("Sports Day")
Last Sunday, May 28th, was “Undoukai”. When referring to Undoukai in English, people say “sports festival day”, but that description really doesn’t do justice to the event. As I told my mom last weekend, it’s something like a combination of an elementary school field day and a Fourth of July block party/picnic. A large portion of the village turns out to either watch or participate in the events and all the students have been working hard for weeks to prepare. In fact, students and teacher alike go to school the day before (Saturday) for a final practice. Since everyone is “working” on Saturday and Sunday, then Monday and Tuesday serve as comp days and school was not in session.
The event started with both elementary and middle school students marching onto the field in formation. They were divided into two teams: white and red. Each team consisted of multiple grade levels. To designate which team they are apart of, middle school students tie a headband around their head and elementary students wear little ball caps. After some Important People make opening comments, one of the ninth grade students came to the front and raised his right hand. I assume what the then said was something along the lines of promising (on behalf of everyone) to play fair and show good sportsmanship. Then everyone (including teachers) did warm up exercises. Of course, this was all done in unison. Warming up
For the first hour or so, the students competed in a multitude of sprint races based on grade level. The program moved along at a very fast pace. Each race was started by the junior high school social studies teacher shooting a start gun (while wearing protective earphones, of course). Interspersed among the races were an occasional dance performed by various grades of elementary students all bearing shiny pompoms. Here is everyone doing the Bunny Hop. Hop,hop,hop
Then it was our turn! The kids and moms had been practicing a very simple dance (with pompoms, of course) to perform. With a little bit of convincing, both Ridge and Holt put on brave faces and lined up as they had practiced at school. Aaron, like the other dads, was on paired with one of the kids (Ridge) and on his own to follow along. Only the moms had practiced. Apparently, Ridge did his best to point out to Aaron all the mistakes he was making. Holt took a bit of time to warm up to the performance, but soon he was waving, hopping, and turning right along with everyone else. I was so proud of them! After the dance, we walked in formation back to the middle of the field. Once there, the parents took possession of the pompoms and left the kids lined up and sitting on the ground. The teachers then quickly organized the kids in to their little racing groups. Each group of four held hands as they approached the start line. (Lining up) As they reached the line, the gun wielding social studies teacher fired his weapon and the kids all took off running. I think that maybe they ran 15 yards. As everyone finished, they were given huge plastic gold medals.
Here is a happy Ridge following his race. Ridge with medal
Here is Holt, happily running with his age group. Running Holt
As they left the field, they walked in lines and held hands with a friend (this is how they walk everywhere – holding hands). Holt is holding hands with Mr. Terada’s little girl. Buddies
Not long after the sprint race was the cake-building race. Teams of three worked together in a relay-style race to build giant birthday cakes. The kids had to carry the cake pieces and the adults carried the kids back to tag the next team member.
Aaron and Ridge placing their slice of cake
Carrying Ridge
Michelle and Holt
Racing back with Holt
Holt is yelling, "My hat!!!"
After the pre-school turn, the older kids took over again, racing in a very unusual series of relay races. Most required contestants to do strange things, such as drag a tire, push someone in a wheelbarrow, or walk with another person carrying balloon between you (no hands). There was even one race just for the old folks. Teachers and middle school kids walked along with the seniors to help them pick up dropped items, etc.
Here's one relay, involving walking on your classmates, (here)
and then throwing as many bean bags into the basket as possible. (one team) , (another team)
There was some giant jump rope jumping, (jumping)
and a huge tug-o-war (pull!)
Up until about 11:00, the weather had been warm and sunny. Families had arrived early and set up around the edge of the field to watch the events and eat. Aaron was offered his first beer at about 9:00 a.m. He declined, explaining that he really preferred coffee in the morning. Unfortunately, as the morning worn on, the clouds came in and eventually held true to their threats of rain. As the drops began to fall, folks began to pack up. Some left and some, like us, took shelter under one of the tents that had been erected for the occasion. The kids kept racing and playing as the rain began to fall harder and harder. Finally, an announcement was made. Due to the rain, the schedule would not stop for lunch. Instead, it would skip to the end and finish with the middle school students’ performance.
It’s difficult to explain what exactly the middle schoolers were doing. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll simply refer to it as a Movement Demonstration. Basically, it was like watching synchronized swimming on land. They ran and did multiple formations, including a variety of human pyramids. Over the previous few weeks, I had seem them work their hearts out preparing for this day. It was amazing to see them steel their nerve and go out there to perform in the mud and rain. By the time they were finished, their uniforms were yellow with dirt and their black hair was absolutely plastered to their heads. It was quite impressive and Ridge has been wanting to imitate them ever since!
1 Comments:
THE SCHOOL SEEMS TO BE THE CENTER OF SO MANY ACTIVITIES WHERE YOU LIVE IN JAPAN. IT APPEARS THAT EVERYONE IN THE COMMUNITY IS INVOLVED IN THESE FUNCTIONS, AND I THINK THAT IS WONDERFUL. I NOTICED A LOT OF SHORT SLEEVES ON PEOPLE WHICH IS A GOOD SIGN.
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