I've been lazy about writing about a few important school events in the last few weeks. The first is Sports Day and the second is the Speech Contest. Both of these were junior high school events, and they both required a lot of preparation from both the students and the faculty.

Simply put, sports day was downright impressive. Many teachers asked me if we had a similar event in American schools, but apart from field days (days when elementary school students were taken to a park to play outside all day), high school marching band was actually the only thing I could compare it to, which was a pretty far-fetched comparison.

For weeks, the middle school students engaged in special practices to prepare for the day. In sports day, the students compete in class relay races as well as put on a performance demonstrating dance, gymnastic skills and percussion to the public. I was frankly blown away watching the rehearsals. It was obvious the huge amount of time invested into the students. The coordination was nearly perfect, each of the students properly memorized the appropriate dance move or drum stroke, and the students seemed to take it very seriously. Examples of events were a mass karate demonstration (chills), Okinawan and Hokkaido (Northernmost part of Japan) fisherman dances, Naginata (Japanese martial art/dance performed by girls that uses a very long stick), Eisa (Okinawan percussion/dance), and a human-pyramid/balance exercise performed by the eighth grade boys. It was very impressive. As I sat on the sidelines under the faculty tent and watched hundreds of students perform in near-perfect unison, I realized it may be the only time I would be able to relate to the late Kim Jung Il (a reference here to the North Korean Mass Games) haha.

The speech contest happened last Saturday and was a big event for myself and the other TAs. We had been preparing for this since our first week at Okisho, and the pressure had been building. For nearly two weeks I was working 9-10 hour days everyday (plus some Saturdays), and we were quickly tiring of helping students prepare their speeches, memorize the texts and come up with appropriate gestures. We each had about five classes we were in charge of, and invested a lot of time in the students that were representing their class. Additionally, due to our mandatory participation in the English Speaking Society (ESS- funny name!), we had been working after school with the members to learn the lyrics to and create a dance for Justin Beiber's classic, "Baby". Not exactly the coolest song, but it was a big deal for the students involved. It was very frustrating as in the weeks leading up to the contest the students all seemed to suddenly be overcome with responsibilities to other clubs and activities, so up until the day before the contest our "stellar performance" was missing 70% of its students and those that came knew little of the dance/song lyrics. But isn't that always the case? In the end, it went well. It was actually kind of hilarious! But I am glad it is over. Smoother sailing from here on out for the next four months or so.

On another note, I've been spreading the Thanksgiving gospel to Japanese school children everywhere, and all that talk about turkey and pumpkin pie is getting me really fired up for Thanksgiving. The global dorm is actually having a party on Friday where they are cooking a Turkey/mashed potatoes. This is really great because getting a Turkey in Okinawa would be near $150. Wowow. So I am really lucky the school is paying for this! But, I must say I can't help but be a little envious of my sister who will get to eat the traditional Rendahl/Sullivan Thanksgiving fare. SweetpotatoesturkeypumpkinbreadzucchinibreadmashedpotatoespicklesstuffingcranberrysaucerollspumpkinpiepumpkinpiePUMPKINPIE!