Undoukai, Part II

So, now my life has kicked into high gear. I’ve had to do my adult English class monthly cooking class (carrot cake – turned out yummy), cook muffins, sausages, brownies, and cookies for English camp, make another bento for Undoukai, and deal with a multitude of other details in order to prepare for my lock-in. Needless to say, I was running a bit ragged. I woke up Saturday morning even before the fireworks made their announcement. As I went on a short run, I passed the elementary school to see if anyone was already there setting up to ensure themselves a nice spot. Surprisingly, the field was empty save for some tent tops and about half a dozen squarish taped off areas on one end of the field. I assumed these taped off areas were for folks to set up their “camp” for the day, and I made a mental note to ask Aaron to pop down around seven to set up.

When I arrived back home, Ridge and Holt had bounced out of bed, and, as I mentioned before, were dressed in record time. By the time we made our way to the school, they were just oozing with excitement. Aaron had scored us a nice spot right near the finish line. It was perfect for picture taking. I later found out from him that the reason no one came early to set up is because they already had marked their area: the tape. The school had not put the tape up; individuals had, and they had done it more than a week earlier! No wonder no one was hanging out a six a.m. to get the best view! They had staked their claims long ago!

Aaron, Holt, and I settled in and chatted with friends near us. Ridge dashed off to join the other first graders and their teacher. The event began with all the students marching onto the field and lining up to listen to some Important People make mini-speeches. For the most part, they all said things like, “do your best.” Nothing earth shattering. Next, a representative for all the students came to the podium, raised his hand, and promised (basically) on behalf of all the students, to not cheat. The last group to go was the first graders. They gathered on the podium and recited (some together, some individually) a speech they had memorized. Ridge actually spoke the very first word, all by himself. The first part of the speech was “Otoosan, Okaasan, Obaasan, Ojiisan…” which means, “Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa…” A student spoke each word independently, and Ridge is the one who said, “Otoosan”. I was so proud of him! For him to say that in front of all the people gathered there really spoke volumes about how much his self-confidence has grown.

After the speeches, everyone (and I mean everyone) did a group warm-up. I think they must all do this particular warm-up routine everywhere all over Japan, and they’ve done it for about a million years. I say this because every single person who was watching knew exactly what to do, and they did it to the sound of a recorded voice. Well, I guess not everyone did it; the families didn’t do it, but all the teachers, students, and Important People (including the police officer in uniform) did it.

What followed, for the most of the morning, was a series of races; sprints, relays, goofy relays, and games. I’m afraid I just don’t have the energy to explain everything, but suffice it to say these folks really love their Undoukai! At noon, the air raid siren rattled our nerves the same way it has for the past 680 days (give or take a few days we may have been out of town overnight), and everyone broke for lunch. We tucked in to our part American/part Japanese-style bento and watched everyone else doing the same.

At 1:00, the activities promptly restarted. The elementary kids did their little “marching band” bit, where in the first graders, not having learned an instrument yet, marched around with their peers waving little pom poms. They seemed quite content to do so. After a few more elementary activities, the middle school students performed their human pyramid, etc. feats. I’m not sure how to describe it, really. The most notable aspects of what they do every year are the unnervingly tall shapes they make by climbing on top of one another. The tallest this year was four levels high. The first two levels consisted of students kneeling in a circle, the second layer kneeling on the backs of the first. The third layer consisted of three or four students standing on top of the backs of the second layer. The fourth was one student – Akane- who climbed on top of the shoulders of the kids in the third level. If I were her mother, I’d have thrown a fit. Let’s just leave it at that! I explained to the students in my advanced adult English class that these activities would never happen in American, unless you were on a cheerleading squad and had signed a million release forms. Apparently, this activity is a little unique to Nishiokoppe. In other schools, they might form human pyramids, but usually only the boys do it. However, Nishiokoppe Middle School only has 30 students, so they can’t really do much if only the boys participate.

By 3:00, we were finally finished, and the boys were hot and tired. We headed home and I began to mentally prepare myself for the evening ahead of me: English Lock-In at Komu!