秋 - Fall 2011

-->

Fall is a pretty busy time in Japan. There aren't any matsuri's anymore, but there are lots of events. The students spend all of September getting ready for Sports Day. It's kinda like field day back in the states, BUT WAY MORE SERIOUS. Like, ninth-grade-boys-crying-over-losing serious. Like, come-to-school-Saturday-and-get-Monday-off serious. Like, make-classes-shorter-for-a-month serious. SUPER serious.

The kids spend all of their gym class/recess time getting ready for the event. There are often special practices that cancel classes for a couple periods so the kids can practice for the event. I don't recall practicing much for field day.

The school Sports Day generally falls close to Health and Sports Day holiday. Yes, in Japan there is a national holiday dedicated to sports. The Sunday before Health and Sports Day, a lot of neighborhoods hold neighborhood Sports Days. Or neighborhood is no different.

Mikage is split into six or seven smaller areas. As I've mentioned before, we live in Shinjuku. The small areas compete against each other to win a trophy. People of all ages sign up for the events. It's really a lot of fun.

Shinjuku's best event is jump-rope. They had to jump as many times as they could within ten minutes. Our team got something like 25, winning the event. Most teams got less than ten.

Rhett and I did tug-o-war and the three-legged race. But, the three-legged race we did was a little different from your run-of-the-mill three-legged race. We had to carry an umbrella instead of a baton and wear two taped-together rainboots instead of just tying our legs together. It was awkward, but fun.

Rhett was supposed to run in the big relay race at the end of the event, but a rule change was made the second the judges saw him. Maybe he can try again in the future.

After Sports Day, the students start getting ready for the Culture Festivals. In Sagamihara, that means a singing festival. Just like before, they sacrifice a little class time for this event. Each class picks a song and tries to sing it to the best of their ability in front of the rest of the school. One student from the class conducts, while another plays the piano.

Our neighborhood also has a Culture Festival (hosted by our awesome neighbor). Again, there is a national holiday for this festival: Culture Day. Our Culture Festival involves people from the neighborhood showing off their singing/dancing talents. Some of my neighbors asked me to sing during the festival. I sang Cruel Angel's Thesis from Evangelion (an anime). It was really fun. Two of my coworkers came to watch me.

For the last event of the season, we got invited to play something called "Ground Golf". We knew something was up when we were the only young people there. Almost everyone else had grey hair. Ground Golf is like miniature golf, but without all the fun stuff. Rhett and I were reeeally bad at it. We both came in last on our team. It was interesting. But it's not something I want to do again.