Sports Festival Violence and Other Stories

In complete opposition to last week’s lack of happenings, this week brought bustle gallore. On Tuesday, we were due for another typhoon. Also, it was to be the first day of my free-choice english class (the one I get to handle by myself). As the we watched the typhoon batter the island of Kyushu (the southern most main island of Japan), it was decided that classes would be cancelled that afternoon. So, no english class for me. The teachers, naturally, didn’t go home. We remained at school to guard it in the event of the typhoon ripping it to shreds. If you hadn’t noticed, we teachers have super-human strength. With the mere touch of our hands, the walls are bound to remain standing. So I spent the day doing nothing. I was told, however, that I would be running the third leg in on the teacher’s team in the relay race competition. Ah ha ha ha. I’ve never run in a relay in my life, so this was particularly amusing to me. What was even more amusing was the teacher’s expressions when they saw me come out to practice in sports sandles and a skirt.

However, that night, I had been invited over to Kaori’s house. She lives next door to me, is 23 and teaches at the elementary school. She’s very sweet and very cute. More to the point, I was having dinner with the other elementary school teachers – or, at least, the young cool ones. Huzzah for the under 27 crowd. What a fun night! They made me all this food, like kara age (my favorite fried chicken in the world), pizza, yakisoba, salad, and this yummy pumpkin (read squash) dish with rice and curry. Very yummy! So we sat around for a few hours and tried to communicate as best we could. I brought a dictionary, and they supplied the enthusiasm. They taught me some gihon-go. That’s how japanese say things through noises that aren’t words. Very funny, very hip, they tell me. Of course, they might be putting me on… I’m not sure. They told me, whenever I was next drunk, I had to say maiyu, which is supposed to be the equivalent of delicious. I think it’s kind like what oiishi (delicious) sounds like when you have food in your mouth. There’s nothing to do but try it out and see what happens next! So all in all, a splendid event.

On Wednesday, much to my shock, we discovered that my schedule was wrong, and that I was to be at the elementary school, not the high school. Great, thought I, because I have all this stuff planned. So off I went in a panic. It turned out to be the most kick ass time. I did the grade 3 classes that day, grade 4 on Thursday, and the grade 5s and one grade 6 class on Friday. The kids are so much fun; they don’t care if you don’t speak japanese and that they don’t speak english, they just want to speak to you. On my first day, I was escorted back to the staff room by six girls and a boy (who has a twin… very confusing at first); one of the girls decided that she would grab onto my hand and flop on the floor, so I literally dragged her down the hallway. It was all in good fun, though and I really enjoyed having kids who were so enthusiastic. Oh! And the weird Japanese school lunch item for the week is this snack I received with sliced nuts, whole dried tiny fish (minnow sized) and freeze dried cheese. I passed on eating that one.

Now on to Saturday, which was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. We had our sports festival day at the junior high school. Wow. These kids are incredible. First off, all of this was done in 35 degree heat, and secondly, they were so well organized, it was incredible. The entire school was divided in half. All the A classes combined to become the white team, and all the Bs were red. At exactly 9am, they entered onto the grounds (really, a large field of well packed sand). They paraded in, each team marching in perfect step behind their flag. The opening ceremony included the red team handing back the trophy (for the cheerleading competition) and the spear (for the sports competition) to the principal (kocho-sensei). They then retreated to their respective team tents to perform their battle cry (which roughly translates into “let’s do our best”).

Then everyone did warm up stretches to the music of ‘Do, a deer’. I did my best not to snicker at the musical selection, but sometimes that was impossible. You see, I’m slowly discovering just how routed anime and manga is in real Japanese life. So, when, in animes, they play cheesy music, let me assure you, that on the sports field, equally cheesy music is played. At the beginning of each event, the students would enter together under the banner to music that could only be described as… oh god, I don’t even know how. If it was an anime, the camera would be panning between the eyes of the competitors, with cherry blossoms floating in the air, and dramatic poses being made. Brilliant.

The first race was the boys 1500 metres, followed by the girls 1000. Even the kids who aren’t good in sports have to compete, which was very cool, because they really did their best. Incidently, they played Yellow Submarine for the girls 100 metres.

The day was attended by all the town’s officials, who were being served iced tea. I sat next to the tea-cups and wasn’t offered any. Ah, such a sexist, sexist society. There’s nothing quite like being a second class citizen!

Hayashi-san, the board’s superintendent, came up to me and says, “I am looking forward to seeing you run. I hear you are very fast.” (insert hysterical laughter here_______). Does anyone remember the last time I participated in a sporting event? I think it was during those mandatory track and field days in grade 7 and 8. In honour of that fact, I put on my gym t-shirt from those painful years, (I don’t know why I brought it with me, but I did) and swore to myself that I would do my best. Luckily, my race was not yet for a while.

My favorite game came next. I think it’s called knights, but I’m not sure. You know the game Duck? Usually played in the water, with two girls sitting on their guys shoulders, wrestling with each other? Okay, well, let’s make a few ammendments. Imagine 15 year old boys stripped to the waist and (and I’m not positive on this front) oiled up. They form groups of four, with three of them forming the horse part and the fourth the ride. The three stand in a triangle. The boy in front cups his hands towards the back to become stirrups, the two boys in the back, each put an arm on the boy in front’s shoulders, only they cross arms, so they form an “x” and the saddle. The fourth sits on top of their arms, with his feet in the hands of the front boy. And then the two teams charge each other and the boys wrestle each other to the ground. Note the lack of water. So violent! So hilarious! And best of all, was the music. They entered to “highway to the danger zone”, and whilst fighting, “eye of the tiger played”. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed watching something so much.

My relay race came next, with the teachers facing off against the boy’s soccer, baseball and basketball teams. We came last, but it was so much fun. As I was waiting at the line to receive the baton (which I didn’t drop), a bunch of the girls were screaming Gamebatte Arison! It just made me feel so good as I ran my leg with all these kids cheering me on. So very cool.

After lunch was the cheerleading competition. The red team performed to Avril Lavigne and the white to Aqua. The red were clearly better, unfortunately. I was 3A’s sub home room teacher, so I felt honour bound to cheer for them.

The biggest casualties came in the gigantic three legged race. It was classes 2A and 2B together. Each class of twenty all tied together. That means that only the people at the ends had a free leg. 2B, who had practiced all week fell down (and when one goes, many more go) 4 times. At first I’d giggled a couple times, but at the end, there were all these kids crying – not because they’d been hurt, but because they’d let down the team. And here I was giggling. Man, did I ever feel crappy.

The tears weren’t over. The white team was in tears after the relay race because some of the girls had made a mistake and run 200 metres instead of 100. Sobbing, I tell you, sobbing.

As the sun set over the field, and the students lined up in front of the podium, the red team was looking victorious, the white team was crying (some boys too!). All eyes turned to the balcony on the third floor, in anticpation of the reveal of the winner of the cheerleading competition. A scroll was unrolled (and by scroll I mean a gigantic one that was about 15 feet long and 6 feet wide), and the red team cheered. The white team lost a few more members to Club Sob. Then they gave the drum roll for the winner of the sports competition. From the second floor, two girls unveiled the first number: a 6 for both teams. Applause. And then a zero: gasps and hope reappeared on the white team’s faces. And the final score? 609-606 for White. Now, I would have thought this would make people happy, but I was really wrong on that front. The white team was crying, though presumably with tears of joy. The Red Team was also crying now, presumably with tears of failure. So I turned to the english teacher and said, “Some of the students look upset.” “Yes,” she replied, “Because they lost.” “But they both won something, isn’t that good?” “I think so, but students do not.”

We did our victory speeches, I gave a little one for the Whites. The teachers hopped on the bus to Nagano for a party at an onsen (hot spring), where (it turned out), they had combined the party with my enkai. We ate a traditional japanese meal, with lots of weird food. I still have no clue what I ate, for the most part. A little beer too.

On Sunday, I went to Seto with Phil, Punnada and Ron (Punnada’s friend) to the ceramics festival. After which, we headed to Nagoya for shopping at Loft, the foreign grocery store (hee hee hee) and the book store. Then to the Outback for steak…. Mmm, steak. It tasted like home, which was fantastic. When I got back to my house, I discovered 15 gold origami cranes in my mail box. There was kanji on them, so I don’t know what they said, but some students left them there, which made me all glowy and happy and in love with Japan. Finally talked to Zac, who’ll come down to see me next week sometime.

To top it all off, went out with the group for beer and curry (made by an actual indian man) in Mizunami last night. Things have never tasted so good!