Another Year, Another Sports Day!

This month marks the anniversary of my first year living in Japan.  Now I've started to teach lessons for the second time, and I recently attended my second sports day.  This year, I'm known by the students, well-liked by the faculty, I know a bit more Japanese, and I'm generally a lot more comfortable here than I was last year.  It's noticeable, too - several teachers commented that I seemed "healthier" than last year - and I'm glad.  There were exciting relays and kibasen fights just like last year, which Matt can describe more in full in the next post - at my school, the best part this year had to do with the adults.

First up: the principal and I dressed in the same color!  As he put it: "Red plus blue plus white is purple."  We were representing all three teams and the message of school-wide teamwork that dominated his speeches before and after the games.  Love that man!

Second: one of the teachers had a broken hand due to a softball coaching mishap.  The whole day he stood in the middle of all the action to take pictures of his homeroom class.  That was not strange; all the teachers did this.  However, he held his camera in his broken hand, that he then extended into the thick of every activity, be it jump rope, relay, or kibasen (the game where one kid is up on three other kids' shoulders and they beat on each other to steal hats).  It was really funny to see, and luckily, he wasn't additionally injured by the end of the day.

Third: I have never in my life seen so many capri pants on men before this day.  Capri pants are dubious enough on most women (I believe I can't pull them off), but on men they're even worse.  It's very non-committal, as in, I can't wear pants but I also can't bring myself to wear shorts.  One teacher did wear shorts much too short for a man, and another went with a fully-covered towel turban look, so it did get... questionable.

The next day we went for our enkai, or giant sports day party!  That was also awesome.  Pictured below is my special meal the place made, entirely GF.  There was a lot of fish because that was the restaurant's specialty.  It was a bit daunting looking at all of it.  I had to ask the teacher sitting next to me (one of my English teachers) to teach me how to get into everything.  In the foreground is a giant shrimp.  For that one you have to rip the head off, then you can peel the carapace off and eat the tail.  Just up and to the left, a little out of frame, is a full ayu fish, or sweetfish.  That one I delicately skinned and ate whatever I could out from it, trying to rid the meat of the tiny bones.  Up in the right corner is half a crab.  I had never eaten whole crab right out of the shell before.  It's rather difficult, and juicy.  In the middle is a salad of lightly seared scallops, which was my favorite part of dinner.  Above the salad is a simmering plate of beef, mushroom, and green pepper.  For an after-dinner palate cleanser, we ate rice, miso soup, and cantaloupe.  Talk about a lot of food!  Luckily, I had hours to eat it.   

Here's some video from the party.  All the teachers participated in three games, and were scored then awarded certificates, just like the kids.  For the kids, the white team (mine) came in first, with red second, and blue third.  For the adults, the red team came in first, followed by white, with blue still last.  These videos are both of the red team, because they were by far the most funny.  On the left is part of a tied-leg race, and there are two best parts: watch when they go to the far end of the room what's happening on the floor.  On the right is the red team's acceptance of their win, and it's just great all the way around.  Not pictured: three young  teachers dressed up as schoolgirls to dance to "Heavy Rotation," a new-ish single from supergroup and soft-core porn collection AKB48.  If you watch this atrocity, you can see the movements my teachers performed (the ones where the girls are at the mics).  It was funny and cute, as they argued about who should stand in the center, but being from America, I just see it for the soft-core and underage porn it actually is, which ruins the fun for me.  But that's a story for another time and another blog!