The Sports Day Wrap-up

I made it along to my school's sports day last weekend. Despite the forecast all week that it would be a miserable day of non-stop pouring rain (well it is the rainy season after all), not a single drop fell and the whole school was able to celebrate one of the biggest events of the year in an overcast 35 degrees* scorcher instead.

* Well, it actually only reached 30 degrees, but you know how the adage goes...

Last year I was ordered to work the scoreboard, but I can't have done a very good job of it because this year I was demoted to equipment duty - along with the part-time maths teacher and a handful of reticent students. No-one actually told me in advance which witch's hats were supposed to go where for which event and when, and so in fact I ended up not doing very much at all and spent the day taking pictures and video footage instead (hey, the kids had it under control alright!)

Sports Day at junior high schools in Japan is a phenomenon. While there is some overlap -the running races, baton relays, and fierce cheering from the sidelines -there is a whole series of events that the students compete in that more closely resemble the antics that first year university students get up to on orientation camps back home.

These include:
The stone-stepping race, where the smallest student has to walk along the backs of the other students lined up (would never be allowed in Australia due to potential spinal injuries)

The balloon-stomping challenge, where each student has two balloons tied to their ankles and the team with the most balloons in tact at the end of five minutes wins. I am sure I played this when I was four, not fourteen.

And my favourite, 'the skin of the snake'. This involves a team of ten students running along in a line, grabbing onto the back of each other's belts. When the front student reaches a checkpoint then the back student has to lie down on the ground, still holding the student in front's belt. The next student walks back over the student behind him, legs either side, and lies down with his crotch straddling the head of the student behind him (only possible in Japan), and so on until the front student has lay down. And then the process is reversed: the last student gets back up again, runs forward over the mass of bodies, and pulls all of the students behind him up off the ground in a manoeuvre that vaguely resembles a snake shedding its skin. It is quite a sight to behold.

Some of my students were taken aback by the fact that Kim had come along to watch. Crowds of giggly third year girls were whispering to each other about who this gaijin was and whether they should approach her to practice their English. Eventually one of them plucked up the courage to say hello, and then raced off again to gossip about the interaction and break it down with her friends.

The most unique aspect of Japanese sports days is watching the group exercise set to music. In what closely resembles an army boot camp, all students line up on the gravel and perform the standard exercise that apparently all junior high school students have been doing since the fifties - star jumps and ballet-esque stretches all in time to a tinny piano. Why? Because they've always done it. Teachers and parents alike also get involved because it takes them back to their junior high school days...

However, the highlight of the day was definitely the relay race - teachers vs. the students. And with the start we got off to I thought we had it in the bag - the vice principal showed that his days as a PE teacher were not behind him yet as he sprinted to an astonishing lead. Unfortunately a few of the members of staff weren't quite as fit (hey, I haven't played any sport for a while, ok?) and the kids with their boundless energy ended up thrashing the pants off us.

Still, the sight of the school principal, a constantly-smiling suit-wearing fellow, running a lap in tight shorts and a singlet was truly a golden moment...