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.
I hope this post finds you well. A thousand pardons for not keeping up with this a little more, but, I suppose that's a good indication that I have been doing things instead of just blogging. Huzzah! I can't believe that it's just about February. Holy smokes! I am looking forward to next month for reasons that I shall post about afterwards... probably in April if I keep this pace up. Bwahahahaha.
