I Laugh When You Fall!
Today the school had its sports day competition thing. I think it was phase one, with phase two being next week, but I really have no idea what's going on half the time at school. I guess my gaijin telepathy is a bit underdeveloped.
Sports day at Higashi involves dividing the whole school into three teams, each team with a color, so we have Red Team, Yellow Team, and Blue Team. Then, within each team, there are three groups, A, B, and C, and finally those three groups are further divided into Ichinensei, Ninensei, and Sannensei. Let me know if this gets too confusing for you.
Before the actual competition, they have ceremonies. The Japanese, I've found, LOVE ceremonies. The ceremony before Sports Day, though, was in some ways downright frightening. The students were all seated on one end of the field, while one of the head teachers was talking through a megaphone on the other. After some amount of speech, the students all stood up and arranged themselves into nice, orderly lines. Some sort of music started playing, and at that, the kids began to march in place. At this, students with giant flags got in front of the larger groups, continuing to march. A word was said over the microphone, and a third of the students marched forward. Then, another word, another third, and then the final group. After reaching the other side, the students stopped and kept marching in place. The music ended and they all snapped to attention and bowed. The principal got up in front of them, more bowing, more speeches, more bowing. Then the vice-principal, and you get the idea. There was no talking from the students, even some of the more delinquent ones. Just statue still and bowing.
I was really starting to become disturbed by this military-esque fashion, but nothing could have prepared me for what came next. There's a girl on the staff, I've found she's 22 and really attractive, who is kind of like a teacher in training. At first I thought she was the P.E. teacher, but she just helps out with everything, hoping to eventually get a job as a teacher. On a side note, she's really cute, and while I've heard confirmed reports that she speaks English, she's too shy or toos cared to respond to my attempts at conversation. Anyway, she stands up on this platform before the students, and music begins to play. It was a Japanese version of an oldies song, the name of which I've forgotten. That in itself was surreal, but then the dancing aeorbics began. I could try to describe this, but really, words could never come close to conjuring up an image of this group "dance." It involved a lot of jumping and raising your fist in something akin to black power. Part of me wanted to laugh, and indeed I did, but the other part wanted to run in terror.
The idea behind sports team is that the various classes will compete against each other in a variety of events, and depending on how your group does, you are awarded points that contribute to the larger team. Where it gets kinda crazy is the various events. Some are fairly tame: You have a relay race broken up by the various classes, so all ichinensei Reds, Blues, and Yellows are involved in the giant relay. Then you have other things like a 100 meter dash. Then you get a little crazier.
First there's the group jump rope, where everyone within A, B, or C participates. You have two guys (always guys) on either end, and everyone else in between. A lengthy rope is then used and everyone has to jump it. I think points are awarded by how many times you jump in a given period of time, but I'll be damned if I know. Regardless, the amusement comes in when no one in a group can seem to get it right. After a while, the guys swinging the ropes get frustrated, and just go crazy with their swinging, making it impossible for anyone to successfully jump the rope. What's more, they're swinging the rope so hard that they take the legs out from anyone who doesn't make it, and so they fall backwards, causing the entire group to fall backwards. From there, it's just a mass of Japanese kids in extreme pain. I laugh, at least.
The obstacle course event is somewhat interesting, as first you jump hurdles, and the best part is when the unathletic kids try for that one. I think one kid tried to jump, got his leg stuck, fell, and created a domino effect with all other hurdles and students. After hurdling, you climb under a net, followed by running with a ping pong paddle, balancing a little ball on top. Then comes the balance beam, and finally, you put these wooden blocks on your feet and hold them on with ropes while trying to run and falling over. That's the best description I can come up with...
They also have a version of tug of war that more closely resembles a battlefield than anything else. Two teams lines up, and in between them are about 15 bamboo logs. At the sound of the gun, both teams rush forward and attempt to drag as many logs as possible back to their side of the field. What ends up happening is a virtual war breaks out. The students become so desperate to get these logs, mini-fights break out. Pushing, shoving, jumping on top of, and any other combatitive elements seem to be fully allowed. After this event, a plethora of students journeyed to the "nurse" (who's actual job is just one of the office ladies, but she fills in by telling you to sit down and handing you a bandaid for the giant gash on your leg). My favorite was one imaginative student on the Yellow team attempted to prevent a group of Blues from pulling the log out of Yellow hands by laying down next to the Blues and systematically pulling their legs out from under them.
A final event, and perhaps my favorite, is the special relay race. Each team is represented by two groups, how they're picked I don't know because they don't correspond with any other aforementioned deliniation. Each group is made up of about 15 kids in a line, their legs all tied together. Then, they run. Together. The first group holds a baton, and will eventually meet group two, when the baton is handed off. You get the idea. The fun is twofold. One, in an attempt to keep in order, most groups have their own specialized chant. Words could never describe the funny sounds that escape these students' lips. Second, they can never remain syncrhonized. So, typically, after a few steps, the entire line just crashes, and everyone is falling over everyone. Hilarity ensues. All except one of the Red groups, led my a student I've nicknamed "Guns," a story in and of itself. Well, Guns doesn't bother with the chant. He doesn't bother with any time of group effort. He just pulls everyone else along with him, and they have no choice but to either keep their legs moving as his gait or just be pulled along. One really small girl in his group just couldn't keep up, so the kid immediately behind her just picked her up and carried her with him.
My duties during Sports Day largely involved standing around watching the craziness take place. Occassionally I'd be called upon to carry shit no one else can, which gives me a bit of pride when all the students start standing around, pointing, and exclaiming "Sugoyoi!"
Some of the teachers have warmed up to me a bit, though unfortunately this does not really include the English teachers that much. So, conversation is limited by the language barrier, but some try. For example, the school has a groundskeeper who occassionally tries to talk to me. He speaks no English, so his solution is to kneel down and draw little pictures in the sand. I have no clue what these pictures are, so I just stand there, nodding my head and occassionally saying "hai" as he just happily draws and talks.
At the end of the day, I was chilling in the teacher's lounge waiting for it to be time to go home. I neglected to mention that it was the hottest day it's been since I came to Japan, and there were no clouds in the sky so that infernal sun just kept blasting down on us. As one prone to spending my time indoors, I naturally got more sun than I'm used to. This resulted in the teachers constantly pointing and laughing at my red face. Which brings me to an important point. All Japanese people say they can't speak English, despite the fact that they all had to have it for six years. Now, I know I remember nothing from my Spanish classes, so that right there is no reason to believe they should be able to converse. However, the fact that they just pull random words out of their ass, like "Sun burned" just leads me to believe that they just pretend to know no English to make me uncomfortable.
Here's a link to my pictures site. There are two albums right now, one just a mass of pictures so far, and the second is from Sports Day. I'm sure you can figure out which is which.
Sports day at Higashi involves dividing the whole school into three teams, each team with a color, so we have Red Team, Yellow Team, and Blue Team. Then, within each team, there are three groups, A, B, and C, and finally those three groups are further divided into Ichinensei, Ninensei, and Sannensei. Let me know if this gets too confusing for you.
Before the actual competition, they have ceremonies. The Japanese, I've found, LOVE ceremonies. The ceremony before Sports Day, though, was in some ways downright frightening. The students were all seated on one end of the field, while one of the head teachers was talking through a megaphone on the other. After some amount of speech, the students all stood up and arranged themselves into nice, orderly lines. Some sort of music started playing, and at that, the kids began to march in place. At this, students with giant flags got in front of the larger groups, continuing to march. A word was said over the microphone, and a third of the students marched forward. Then, another word, another third, and then the final group. After reaching the other side, the students stopped and kept marching in place. The music ended and they all snapped to attention and bowed. The principal got up in front of them, more bowing, more speeches, more bowing. Then the vice-principal, and you get the idea. There was no talking from the students, even some of the more delinquent ones. Just statue still and bowing.
I was really starting to become disturbed by this military-esque fashion, but nothing could have prepared me for what came next. There's a girl on the staff, I've found she's 22 and really attractive, who is kind of like a teacher in training. At first I thought she was the P.E. teacher, but she just helps out with everything, hoping to eventually get a job as a teacher. On a side note, she's really cute, and while I've heard confirmed reports that she speaks English, she's too shy or toos cared to respond to my attempts at conversation. Anyway, she stands up on this platform before the students, and music begins to play. It was a Japanese version of an oldies song, the name of which I've forgotten. That in itself was surreal, but then the dancing aeorbics began. I could try to describe this, but really, words could never come close to conjuring up an image of this group "dance." It involved a lot of jumping and raising your fist in something akin to black power. Part of me wanted to laugh, and indeed I did, but the other part wanted to run in terror.
The idea behind sports team is that the various classes will compete against each other in a variety of events, and depending on how your group does, you are awarded points that contribute to the larger team. Where it gets kinda crazy is the various events. Some are fairly tame: You have a relay race broken up by the various classes, so all ichinensei Reds, Blues, and Yellows are involved in the giant relay. Then you have other things like a 100 meter dash. Then you get a little crazier.
First there's the group jump rope, where everyone within A, B, or C participates. You have two guys (always guys) on either end, and everyone else in between. A lengthy rope is then used and everyone has to jump it. I think points are awarded by how many times you jump in a given period of time, but I'll be damned if I know. Regardless, the amusement comes in when no one in a group can seem to get it right. After a while, the guys swinging the ropes get frustrated, and just go crazy with their swinging, making it impossible for anyone to successfully jump the rope. What's more, they're swinging the rope so hard that they take the legs out from anyone who doesn't make it, and so they fall backwards, causing the entire group to fall backwards. From there, it's just a mass of Japanese kids in extreme pain. I laugh, at least.
The obstacle course event is somewhat interesting, as first you jump hurdles, and the best part is when the unathletic kids try for that one. I think one kid tried to jump, got his leg stuck, fell, and created a domino effect with all other hurdles and students. After hurdling, you climb under a net, followed by running with a ping pong paddle, balancing a little ball on top. Then comes the balance beam, and finally, you put these wooden blocks on your feet and hold them on with ropes while trying to run and falling over. That's the best description I can come up with...
They also have a version of tug of war that more closely resembles a battlefield than anything else. Two teams lines up, and in between them are about 15 bamboo logs. At the sound of the gun, both teams rush forward and attempt to drag as many logs as possible back to their side of the field. What ends up happening is a virtual war breaks out. The students become so desperate to get these logs, mini-fights break out. Pushing, shoving, jumping on top of, and any other combatitive elements seem to be fully allowed. After this event, a plethora of students journeyed to the "nurse" (who's actual job is just one of the office ladies, but she fills in by telling you to sit down and handing you a bandaid for the giant gash on your leg). My favorite was one imaginative student on the Yellow team attempted to prevent a group of Blues from pulling the log out of Yellow hands by laying down next to the Blues and systematically pulling their legs out from under them.
A final event, and perhaps my favorite, is the special relay race. Each team is represented by two groups, how they're picked I don't know because they don't correspond with any other aforementioned deliniation. Each group is made up of about 15 kids in a line, their legs all tied together. Then, they run. Together. The first group holds a baton, and will eventually meet group two, when the baton is handed off. You get the idea. The fun is twofold. One, in an attempt to keep in order, most groups have their own specialized chant. Words could never describe the funny sounds that escape these students' lips. Second, they can never remain syncrhonized. So, typically, after a few steps, the entire line just crashes, and everyone is falling over everyone. Hilarity ensues. All except one of the Red groups, led my a student I've nicknamed "Guns," a story in and of itself. Well, Guns doesn't bother with the chant. He doesn't bother with any time of group effort. He just pulls everyone else along with him, and they have no choice but to either keep their legs moving as his gait or just be pulled along. One really small girl in his group just couldn't keep up, so the kid immediately behind her just picked her up and carried her with him.
My duties during Sports Day largely involved standing around watching the craziness take place. Occassionally I'd be called upon to carry shit no one else can, which gives me a bit of pride when all the students start standing around, pointing, and exclaiming "Sugoyoi!"
Some of the teachers have warmed up to me a bit, though unfortunately this does not really include the English teachers that much. So, conversation is limited by the language barrier, but some try. For example, the school has a groundskeeper who occassionally tries to talk to me. He speaks no English, so his solution is to kneel down and draw little pictures in the sand. I have no clue what these pictures are, so I just stand there, nodding my head and occassionally saying "hai" as he just happily draws and talks.
At the end of the day, I was chilling in the teacher's lounge waiting for it to be time to go home. I neglected to mention that it was the hottest day it's been since I came to Japan, and there were no clouds in the sky so that infernal sun just kept blasting down on us. As one prone to spending my time indoors, I naturally got more sun than I'm used to. This resulted in the teachers constantly pointing and laughing at my red face. Which brings me to an important point. All Japanese people say they can't speak English, despite the fact that they all had to have it for six years. Now, I know I remember nothing from my Spanish classes, so that right there is no reason to believe they should be able to converse. However, the fact that they just pull random words out of their ass, like "Sun burned" just leads me to believe that they just pretend to know no English to make me uncomfortable.
Here's a link to my pictures site. There are two albums right now, one just a mass of pictures so far, and the second is from Sports Day. I'm sure you can figure out which is which.
posted by S A B at 9:49 PM
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