Sports Festivals

In Japan, they like sports. They like physical education. In recent years, the Japanese government has been pushing to extend class time in the most 'important' subjects, such as Japanese, Math, Science, and Physical Education. English sure isn't listed there. At any rate, the Sports Festival is like Field Day in America, except in the villages I work in, most of the village comes out to watch and support their children. Everyone from the Nursery school to the elderly have events, although the stars of the show are the kids in the elementary and middle schools.


There are all sorts of events ranging from classic runs and relays to the tug of war. My favorite event though, was a combination of steal the bacon and tug of war. The video below should give you a good idea, but basically 7 large bamboo poles are lined up in the middle of the field. The gun sounds, and two teams rush the middle in an attempt to pull as many poles as possible over to their side of the field. Pole = point. Pretty simple. Except that when you get to that last pole, It becomes a real fight. Here are some photos from the day, and a video of the "Bamboo Pull" (Rough translation).

By the way, White won.

The photo below is a link to the album of a few more photos from the day. I was really sunburned, but it was a great time. As was the barbecue enkei (drinking party) afterwards.

Sports Day