Sports Festival

Last Friday was my school's annual sports festival!! I think it was one of the most fun days of my year! We had been preparing in PE since April, learning our dance routine and marching routine, and in the past couple weeks things really picked up. Students spent any free time practicing for the events, even skipping lunch and staying after the bell in PE, a dedication I wouldn't expect to see in America... The week before the festival, we took half a day off of classes to hold preliminary rounds for the 6x100m relay and do a practice run-through of the other events. The relay is the biggest deal, and only some teams get through the preliminaries to race at the festival. My class is fast, and both of our relay groups got second in their rounds and one would have gotten first but a girl fell. It was really intense, we all screamed when she fell, and there were a lot of tears afterward from the classes that didn't make it.

Finally, full of nerves and excitement, we all met Friday morning at a large indoor arena obnoxiously far away. I had to wake up at 5am and my friends who live farther had to wake up even earlier. The other classes came in their PE uniforms but us third graders had to wear our fancy uniforms for our formation marching, something only the third graders do. Like at the fall school festivals, everyone tried to look their best, girls sneaking eyeliner and wearing their hair in the braid styles they'd been practicing, boys trying to get away with hair gel. The entire day was filled with cellphone selfies and general picture taking.

After some last marching practice before the other grades arrived (they staggered us so we wouldn't overflow the transportation system), we had our morning assembly and started the day's events. One of my events, the 50 meter race, was first, which I was glad of. I got second in my heat of six and most of the girls from my class got first. Then was my favorite event of the day, bōhiki! It's kind of difficult to describe, and being in it I couldn't take pictures, but I'll do my best. The participating girls (a girls only event) from each grade were divided in half, on opposite sides of the arena, with eleven ~12ft poles lying on the floor in between. There were three rounds, all with different girls, and each side was broken into groups of four for each pole. Everyone ran forward to grab the poles and take them back to their sides, with a tug-of-war when people from both sides got a hold of the same pole. The best part was that after we were done with our first pole, we could go help with other poles still being fought over, so there were sometimes 40 girls swarming one pole. It got kind of violent, with lots of screaming, and everyone watching said it looked really scary. It was a lot of fun, and my side won all three rounds :D

Then was the relay, and unfortunately one of our fastest boys was injured on crutches and another was in trouble with the police for driving a motorcycle without a license or something and couldn't come... So neither of our teams did as well as they could have, and there were some tears over that :( Our 10 person/11-legged race team did well, however! I liked how they had big mats at the end so the teams could collapse face forward to finish. The cheer/baton club performed and were very impressive because they practice for hours everyday. The dance club was also very good, in cute Mickey/Minnie outfits. My second favorite event to bōhiki was kibasen, where teams of three boys carried a fourth one wearing a baseball hat and ran around trying to steal other teams' hats. It kind of reminded me of kangaroo boxing, with the guys frantically pawing at each other's heads. My class' group did decently, sneaking up on people from behind hehe. There was a lunch break and more relay racing, weeding out more teams, and then jump roping. Each class was divided into two teams of 20, to try to get as many collective jumps as possible. The middle schoolers had 2 minutes to get as many jumps as they could, but the high schoolers only had one try. Our first team messed up on their first try and got 45 jumps on their second, but unfortunately it didn't count because they'd already used one try. The second group, mine, got one before messing up, so our class had a total of one jump, kind of sad. When they had announced the totals at lunch, my class, G, had been well in the lead, but everyone was kind of down after the failures of the jump rope and relay, both with big points possible. The final event was the third graders' marching. The grade was split into two groups of guys and two groups of girls. We made pretty rows and columns and walked in various patterns, and it went really well! The girls also had a brief dance routine after the marching. The guys were especially impressive, I wish I could have gotten pictures but again I was participating!

Finally, all the students gathered on the floor in our well-practiced rows for the finishing speeches and announcement of results. Aaaandd somehow, even with our mishaps, G WAS THE CHAMPION!!!! I was so happy!! Some of the girls cried over that too, it was a very emotional day. There was more picture taking, and everyone was in great spirits.

The next day in school, everyone was sleepy and sore, but feeling pleased and bonded. I am really glad this festival was at the end of my exchange, now that I can understand what's happening, feel a part of my class, and could generally appreciate everything. After class on Saturday, our sensei threw us a celebratory party with snacks and it was really nice. That night, we all met out for dinner and more pictures/purikura, it was wonderful. My purikura (the fancy photo booth) skills have improved a lot from the beginning! Yes, it takes skill. I feel so close to my class now, lately school has been good every day, which will just make it so much harder to say goodbye! My flight is in exactly two weeks from today and my last day of school in a week and a half, wahhhh. I need to think of some good last words, I foresee tears ;(