七戸中学校大運動会

That's Shichinohe Junior High School Field Day/Sports Festival

A couple weeks ago I was asked by an assistant teacher if I would like to attend their 'undoukai'. My first question (as usual) was 'what's that?'. The teacher then proceeded to look it up in her electronic dictionary.
'Field day'. Ok, but what *is* it?

She got a panicked look on her face and fetched the English teacher for some assistance.

Eventually I get a little snapshot of what's involved... "The kids run races and their parents come by and watch. Please wear something with your team colour on it" Although I still had no idea why my schools needed to rehearse a field day...  I try to explain the Canadian ones I'd been to, how they're much more laid back, there's no marching, it's not on a Saturday... it's just an afternoon in June where we run around outside. I seem to recall some days spent in the park with hot dogs for lunch, but I don't think that was track and field related, I think that was just 'it's too nice to stay inside these schools without a/c, let's get the kids to run around outside'... or else it was girl guides, I honestly don't know at this point. Anyhoo, point is, as usual, Japan does it up with a lot more pomp and circumstance than we Canucks.

Flowers and Pizza (and a bonus treat! Woo hoo!)

Spring seems to have arrived in Shichinohe. Hoooraaaaaay! I'm sure it will go by quickly, so I figured I should take advantage of the fact that it wasn't raining and see how the flowers were doing. I had tried to get out a couple times last week, and I got rained on each time. Once it was a freaking thunderstorm!

八戸うみねこマラソン

Heeeeeeeey there!

I know, I'm sorry, I've been... distracted... lately and just haven't been keeping up with things.

In Winnipeg, the annual Manitoba Marathon takes place on Father's day. The ”Hachinohe Black-Tailed Gull Marathon was on Mother's day. Before ya'll get *too* excited, I only did the 3km one. I think next time I do one, I'll kick it up to the 5km and challenge myself. :) I'm not quite sure how quickly I ran it, as Marv's (my dear ipod) battery was dying and he wouldn't boot up when I went to check... But I'm glad I did it. Looking forward to the next one. If anyone wants a 5km buddy, lemmie know and let's *do* this!