So I am back in school, but these next few weeks have several holidays and special events that break up the routine (even though the routine has barely become routine again). This past Saturday was supposed to be field day for the small elementary school that I work at. It rained all day on Saturday so the day was rescheduled for Sunday.
Field day (or sports day, as it's more usually translated) is a bit different from its American counterpart. There are relays and races, but it's mainly a time to show off for the parents, so there are also dances and gymnastic formations. There are two teams, red and white, and the whole team receives points based on their members' performance in the competitive games. At the beginning of the day there was a very ceremonial hype-up, in which the leader of the team stood up on a podium and yelled things about victory to which the teammates returned cheers. At the end the teams sang a fight song--the white team and the red team's fight songs are different and they sing them in harmony at the end of the ceremony.
There is one game where a large inflatable ball (about 5 feet in diameter) is passed around the field by the students. The students are in a ring around the field, each team taking up half the field. The teams race to pass the ball halfway around the field, move it around some cones, then pass it back. It's exciting to watch, and kind of amusing when the students drop the ball and panic, trying to keep it from rolling away.
Another traditional event is the horse game, in which three students carry a fourth on their shoulders, and the rider has to try to take the hat of the riders on the opposite team. It's kind of scary because the students are throwing their hands around each others' faces at high speed. At the small school though it didn't get too ferocious because the students were wearing normal caps. At the large elementary school though, the students wore swimming caps so that they really had to work hard to pull the cap off.
There is also a pole toppling game, where each team has a large wooden pole (maybe 10 feet tall?) that they defend while they try to make the other team's pole fall to the ground. Apparently it is quite dangerous, so the small elementary school didn't do it. The large elementary school did, but I didn't find very exciting--it was too chaotic for me to appreciate.
These are experiences that almost every Japanese person has in common. The more I learn about Japanese culture, the more I'm impressed by how universal (in Japan) it is and how opaque to the rest of the world (or at least, to me). Not just experiences either, but how to act and what to say in different situations. Although I'm immersed in the culture most of the time, much more than in my other countries, I still feel like my experiences amount to a drop in the bucket. With that in mind, I feel like I have to spend another year as an assistant teacher. Ideally I could start studying education part-time while doing so, and thus I still plan to take the Japanese test in December and apply to university next year.
Field day (or sports day, as it's more usually translated) is a bit different from its American counterpart. There are relays and races, but it's mainly a time to show off for the parents, so there are also dances and gymnastic formations. There are two teams, red and white, and the whole team receives points based on their members' performance in the competitive games. At the beginning of the day there was a very ceremonial hype-up, in which the leader of the team stood up on a podium and yelled things about victory to which the teammates returned cheers. At the end the teams sang a fight song--the white team and the red team's fight songs are different and they sing them in harmony at the end of the ceremony.
There is one game where a large inflatable ball (about 5 feet in diameter) is passed around the field by the students. The students are in a ring around the field, each team taking up half the field. The teams race to pass the ball halfway around the field, move it around some cones, then pass it back. It's exciting to watch, and kind of amusing when the students drop the ball and panic, trying to keep it from rolling away.
Another traditional event is the horse game, in which three students carry a fourth on their shoulders, and the rider has to try to take the hat of the riders on the opposite team. It's kind of scary because the students are throwing their hands around each others' faces at high speed. At the small school though it didn't get too ferocious because the students were wearing normal caps. At the large elementary school though, the students wore swimming caps so that they really had to work hard to pull the cap off.
There is also a pole toppling game, where each team has a large wooden pole (maybe 10 feet tall?) that they defend while they try to make the other team's pole fall to the ground. Apparently it is quite dangerous, so the small elementary school didn't do it. The large elementary school did, but I didn't find very exciting--it was too chaotic for me to appreciate.
These are experiences that almost every Japanese person has in common. The more I learn about Japanese culture, the more I'm impressed by how universal (in Japan) it is and how opaque to the rest of the world (or at least, to me). Not just experiences either, but how to act and what to say in different situations. Although I'm immersed in the culture most of the time, much more than in my other countries, I still feel like my experiences amount to a drop in the bucket. With that in mind, I feel like I have to spend another year as an assistant teacher. Ideally I could start studying education part-time while doing so, and thus I still plan to take the Japanese test in December and apply to university next year.
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