Sports Festival.

After weeks of practicing, the students finally had their Sports Festival this past Friday, which has definitely been a highlight of my time here so far. Many of the parents came to watch the classes compete against each other in relays and Japanese athletic games. There are also strength and dance performances, such as this photo of 1-nensei (7th graders) dancing to the song "Hey Mickey" (I don't think the song intentionally references Mickey Mouse, but it's close enough for them).

I showed photos of the 2- and 3-nensei boys rehearsing for this event a couple weeks ago, but here is what the final product looked like.

Each of the classes performed a choreographed cheer to root their team on. Here is 4-kumi (class 4) performing with their blue pom-poms. The little face on Kenta's chest is An-Pan-Man, who is the equivalent of the mascot for the Japanese Twinkie. He's almost as popular as Winnie-the-Pooh over here (which says a lot).

After lunch, all the sports teams paraded around the field and showed off their uniforms. Here is the boys' baseball team, which features some of my favorite students: Hiroki (the one holding the sign) and Takuya (the one looking off to the side, smiling).

While the 2- and 3-nensei boys performed their balancing act, the 2- and 3-nensei girls performed a traditional Japanese dance, Solan. I wish I could share the video I took of it, but don't think Blogger supports video--can someone prove me wrong?

On the sidelines, these 3 girls (Kana, Aki, Watanabe) and I created our own little class and came up with our own amazing cheer. I performed it later that night at the teachers' party, causing Nakao-sensei to laugh so hard that he, literally, fell out of his chair. Then again, he was pretty drunk, so it wasn't all my doing.