Sports Day

So in Japan, its tradition to have a sports festival at the school for the students. Ours at Shima High School happened to be this past Wednesday. In Japanese schools (Jr. High and High School) you're with one class the entire year where the teacher changes every period unlike in the States, where the teacher stays and the students change. Is that confusing? Anyways, this sports day is a huge competition between all the different classes at the school. Each class has a name (1A 1B 1C for Sophomores, 2A 2B 2C for Juniors and 3A 3B 3C...etc of Seniors). For preparation the past few weeks the students have been staying after school with their class designing class t-shirts and making giant flags which they rally around at the festival. So, anyways Wednesday comes and the big day has arrived.

The entire school is to report out to the field by eight-forty five where we do stretches, have some opening remarks by the principal and each class parades around the field with their flag (a la Olympic opening ceremony). The only difference though is they have the band playing the school song and each step of each class is perfectly coordinated to the beat so it is like watching a military drill. Anyways, this whole day was pretty much like a high school track meet minus the non-track events. There were relays and hurdles... Then there were weird ones like giant tire pulls and class jump roping. All in all it took the whole day and just watching it made me tired. I was pooped at the end and grateful when it was over.

I did injure myself though. Trying to run a fifty meter dash at full speed without stretching can really pull a number on the front of your calves. I don't recommend doing it. Please enjoy the low-quality pictures taken with my phone!