Junior High School Sports Day

This past weekend was my Junior High School’s sports day. This year, we were really blessed with great weather. The day went off really well and all the students and teachers had a great time.

I went in the morning and helped set up the facilities the students needed to use for the event. Set up didn’t take too long and after a few opening ceremonies the festivities got under way.

There were quite a few events and all the third graders did really well in all the events. The most entertaining to watch was the rope pull event, which reminded me of sports day in elementary school.

There were also many different relay events, ranging from everyone in the grade racing against each other to the various sports teams and clubs competing. The sports day is sort of a town event, so a lot of the elementary school kids also came out to watch their older siblings compete.

My old English teacher, Ms. Murayama also stopped by and we spent some time chatting and then went over to her house after the Sports day ended.

It was nice seeing her son, Sougo again, who had grown much bigger since the last time I saw him. The new addition to the family Kaho, is almost a year old and both Asuka and I had a great time playing with her.

Ms. Murayama was also nice enough to make my favourite dessert, Strawberry mochi- I managed to eat a few of those before I left for my dinner at night with the teachers.

The dinner was to celebrate everyone’s hard work during sports day and I always love these dinners as its fun to chat with teachers and to eat good food. We went to this restaurant called Nada, which has rooms with windows right on till the edge of the water. The meal was fun and I managed to come home quite tipsy.

Japanese Factoid#49- In the countryside-which is still the majority of the country-cultivating rice is still a major industry. Since it is spring, people all over Japan have been planting rice in their paddies by hand the past month. If you travel anywhere outside the metropolitans in Japan you are bound to see rice paddies. Seeing them really makes you feel that you are in the countryside. Both Kawajiri and Yasuura are covered with rice paddies and I often receive rice during harvesting time from friends and teachers.