This last week was very busy for everyone besides me and my fellow ALT, Ken. The whole school was in motion, getting ready for the big school festival, Nagigama-sai. Here in Japan, all public schools have festivals. In elementary school, the festival is only one day (I believe) and consists mostly of sports (so it's really a "sports day"). But in junior high, the festival is two days and is comprised of (approx.): 1/3rd sports, 1/3rd singing, and 1/3rd presentations & crafts. At the end of the second day, they announced the winners of the sports and singing competitions. I'm getting ahead of myself, though, so let me talk about what happened each day.
On the first day, we had presentations by the 1st and 2nd graders. There was also a hilarious skit during the opening ceremony about some bad guys trying to shut the festival down and the Power Rangers (aka five boys wearing colored plastic bags) saving the day. :)
Then in the afternoon, the sports competition went underway. There were three main events: jump-rope (which was broken down into a figure-eight pattern and the "everyone jump" where a whole class jumped with one rope), tug-of-war, and the relay. The relay was probably my favorite event once I figured out how it worked. The students were spread out on the field at different stations, and a few started at one spot. They had to make their way through the stations, kind of like an obstacle course, doing various things to progress to the next stage. At one point, three students had to carry one to a high piece of paper which had a teacher's name on it. I didn't realize my name was in there! Suddenly some students began screaming my name and ran over to get me. I just had to run a little ways for them to reach the next stage of the relay. Anyway, it was super fun! I later found out that that class won the relay for their grade (2nd), but they didn't win the overall sports trophy. Oh well, I got to help them win the relay at least. :)
Now for the second day. It began with a rousing mini concert by the brass band. They played a very famous big-band piece that is apparently played at DisneySea in Tokyo (the Disney expert Ken told me that), a famous AKB48 song "Fortune Cookie", and "Let it Go" which I wasn't surprised to hear since Frozen is ridiculously popular over here. <_< It was good, though. The band is really amazing! They won a gold medal in a regional contest this year, but I don't know the details. Anyway, after a short break, we all returned to the auditorium for two hours of singing. Every class sang a song, plus each grade, the PTA, and us teachers, for a total of 16 songs. It was a lot of fun to sing in Japanese with the other teachers. It made me feel more like a part of the school rather than just a foreigner who happens to teach there! :)
To wrap up the festival, the 3rd graders gave some presentations on places they visited this year (including the Japanese version of NASA). Then they announced the winners of the competitions and handed out certificates to students who were exceptional during the festival. Finally, for the ending ceremony, the Power Rangers came back to make us laugh one more time. :D
All in all, it was a really fun time, and I'm so happy I got to experience it. I took tons of pictures and a good amount of video, but I can't post anything with students online. So I'm posting just a couple pictures that I managed to take with no students in them. Anyway, until next time! Which hopefully will be soon. ^_^
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| The festival mascot, an adorable fox, on the festival banner. |
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| Finally a picture of me and my coworker, Ken! In our matching festival t-shirts. :) |
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| The stage |
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| The trophies |
