Undokai - うんどかいーSchool Sports Festival

Oi, oi, oi.  I am waaaay behind on the good 'ol blog posts.  I was afraid the momentum wouldn't last; must be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that I was in Hong Kong for 5 days (woo-hoo!), and then within 10 hours of me returning home, Kevin left for Taiwan for a week, and we're still catching up a bit. Who knows?  But in the wise words of LibraryAnn, that's my story and I'm sticking to it...

Higashine Undokai - ひがしねのうんどかい

There had been lots of talk around school about Undokai, and by "talk," I mean no fewer than 47 notices sent home about it, virtually all of which we couldn't read.  But, of course, we still didn't truly understand what all the fuss was about.

So, we showed up on Undokai Day and did our best to soak it all in.  Basically, it's like Field Day on some serious crack.  Each student in the entire school is assigned to either the red (aka) or white (shiro) team, and points are tabulated for both teams for every event in every grade.  This is serious stuff!  Each class does some sort of performance, many of which seem to be to inspire and cheer on the red or white team.  And aren't the Japanese clever - the red hats that the kids wear for gym (and recess too, I think) are reversible, so the kids simply flip it to the color of their assigned team.

Ethan was on the red team - and he cheered for his team for the entire 7 hours and was completely hoarse by the end of the day...

The day was jam-packed.  Some of the highlights:

• A very enthusiastic "spirit" chant/dance led by the 6th-grade Undokai leaders
• Lots of running / relay races 
• A "ninja" dance by Ethan and the first grade classes
• A funny "chicken" type game where one child sitting on the shoulders of another had to try and take off the hat of the shoulder-sitting person on the other team...
• Some meditation-type exercises set to some very sleep-inducing music (plus it was right after lunch)
• A race to roll/carry a HUGE red ball along a course of kids - this involved every child in the school, I think.  Ethan LOVED this one!
• The "gumball" game in which the first graders tried to throw small balls into a basket and the class with the most balls after a set time won.  Funny thing - it was a tie and they had to do it again as a tie-breaker!

Singing the Higashine School song to kick-off the day - it's a little bit of Where's Waldo? Hint: He's wearing a red hat and he's the only happa...

The uber-serious "judges" and "scorekeepers" for the 756 relay races... it was a very long day!

A very cool samurai dance...

Ethan's ninja dance... hint: he's wearing a blue bandana...

Semi-finals of the chicken sumo match...

The big red ball obstacle course...

And in case you can't sleep without knowing, the RED team won 517-510.  Ethan was elated!  And after 7 hours, we were ready to go home (and props to Ryan - he was a trooper and it was hot).  Oh yeah, did I mention that we got to do it all over again the following weekend for Ryan's school?

Gekkohara Undokai - げっこはらのうんどかい

Now, to be honest, I was in Hong Kong during Ryan's Undokai.  It was actually a bit of a lost-in-translation issue, as I was told by a translator (in English) at the beginning of the school year when reviewing the school calendar that the yochien/preschool "can" join the Undokai at the sister elementary school. So, when looking at the calendar 2 months ahead of time to book a trip to Hong Kong, I took that to mean that it was optional.  Plus, it was on a Saturday, so it made perfect sense to me that it was optional.  Ummm... yeah... I was wrong.  Again.  When the interpreter said the yochien "can" join, what she really meant was "what a fabulous opportunity not to be missed."

Well, I missed it, but Ryan, Ethan, and Kevin did not.

Seems that Undokai are quite similar across schools in Japan.  Two notable differences: 1) Ryan's school has turf on the field and it just looks soooo much nicer, and 2) Ryan's Undokai only lasted 3 hours.

Definitely the same basic events as at Ethan's Undokai.  Below are the videos of Ryan's relay race and also Ryan's "gumball" event.  Ryan was on the Shiro team (to be honest, I'm not sure why he has his hat on red-side out) and though he looooved shouting, "Shiro, shiro, shiro, Go, Go, GO," I don't think he was that concerned about who won (unlike his brother, for whom, it was of paramount importance).

Note:  There might be a problem with some of the videos, but in the interest of addressing the several "where are the blog updates" comments I've received recently, I'm going to go ahead and post this anyway and figure that out later...