JHS Culture Festival and Hockey Tournament in Okayama

The past weekend was busy, as I had a Culture festival at my Junior High School and a Hockey Tournament in Okayama. On Saturday, I went to school and spent the day watching my kids Bunkasai (Culture festival). Most culture festivals are pretty similar, as they always have a signing competition. The kids have been practicing pretty hard the past month, as I always hear them singing after school. (Picture below: My second year students)

In each of the three grades there are 3 classes that took turns singing two songs. One of the songs in each grade was the same and the other was a choice made by the specific class. The first and second years sang pretty well, but as expected the girls gave it their all and the boys were much quieter.

The third years though were amazing. They sang their hearts out and some of the boys from grade 3-1 even broke down after they finished their song because they knew that had nailed it. I really love my third years as they are always energetic, polite and just a lot of fun to teach and be around. The grade 3-1 class won the overall singing completion and they really deserved the top prize. I was also one of the 15 or so judges and luckily, every class I picked won. There was an additional prize for each grade on top of the overall champion class. (Picture below: My first year student doing his english speech performance)

The rest of the Culture festival had a debate and even an English speech contest by a student in each of the three grades. I have been helping the grade 1 and 3 student a lot, since their will be a city wide speech contest next month. Both students are doing pretty well and I’m hoping one of my kids wins, which might be a bit easier because I am one of the three judges for the speech contest. Not that I would be bias or anything....(Picture below: Tanto-Ex peforming)

The kids then had a few more speeches and a performance by the Brass band club, who manages to consistently finish top 1 or 2 in the prefecture. There was also a performance by the schools hip hop dance group Tanto-Ex, which was also very interesting. The grade 3’s put on a Japanese comedy skit were they dressed up and did a couple of routines making fun of teachers. There were pretty funny and the trio are three of my favorite students, which made watching their performance very enjoyable.

On Sunday, I woke up around 5 and took the first train out to the most Western part of the prefecture and got picked up by my hockey team. We drove for about an hour and reached Okayama- the prefecture beside Hiroshima. (Picture below: The Hiroshima Beer Lovers in Pink-Left to right from the back row: Hiki, Nakashima, Me, Misan, Yoshi, Midori, Satou and Tawara )

We went to this sweet sports complex that had not only a hockey rink but a massive skate park, indoor baseball stadium and climbing walls. During game breaks we would watch these little kids do some pretty sweet tricks on their skateboards and Rollerblades. The complex was amazing I really wished that had something like this back home.

Our team won the tournament and to be fair, the other teams really weren’t at our level and every game was a bit of a romp. Nevertheless, it was a blast getting back out there, even though I was super rusty from not playing the past few months. I also got new skates which made things even worse as I hadn’t broken them in yet. (Picture below: My team trying the skate ramps, I fell on my ass!)

The game was also the first time the Hiroshima team unveiled their new Jerseys, with the primary color being pink. I had ordered the Jersey without knowing the price or color and when I found out it would cost me 170 bucks for the Jersey, I was a bit shocked but still level headed as I heard the Jersey is custom made and really nice. But when I saw it was pink, I can honestly say I was crushed. If only it was blue, it would be so much cooler. It even has my name written in Japanese on the back and a pretty nice logo on the front, but how do they expect me to ever wear this back home. The pain of a pink jersey still stings as I write this.

Well next weekend we are having a Halloween party and I should be keeping busy with school and a few events here and there. In November there are 2 holidays, so trying to plan a few trips since I can rent a car now. I’m not really looking forward to the cold winter as I know it is going to be freezing indoors soon. Going to try and enjoy the last few weeks of semi-warmness.

Japanese Factoid#35- The Japanese art of bowing is a custom that most foreigners know about and even get accustom to if they work and live here for an extended period of time. It’s not just bowing, but also the degrees of bowing that depends on the status of the person you are bowing to and the situation. Also, as a teacher you never bow to your students, since they are lower then you so you often just give them a head nod.

When I first came last year, I thought bowing was one of the hardest things to get use to and to do right. Now bowing has become second nature to me and I can pretty much nail the proper degree and when I am suppose to do it. The biggest indicator of how comfortable I am with bowing is when I'm on the phone. When I am talking to a superior, I even unconsciously bow without noticing…scary. I’m not sure how often I do it, but bowing happens daily and even before and after hockey games, when you bow to the referee, players and the crowd.