Sports Day

2012/9/19

While I was sick, I had the fortune of attending Sports Day at both of my schools, Imaichi and Kobayashi. Kobayashi Junior High, even with next-door Kobayashi Elementary, only had enough students for two teams, red (aka) and white (shiro). Imaichi, with its 600+ students, was able to have eight teams, divided by class. 1-1, 2-1, and 3-1 formed the blue (ao) team, 1-2, 2-2, and 3-2 formed purple, and so on. Each class had designed and made their own flags, something I had not connected with Spots Day up until then. Do classes have banners here? Sure?

On the way to the field, I happened to walk by the outside of the 1-6 class (orange/o-ran-ji) with one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Izumi, an extremely energetic and enthusiastic gym teacher, who loves to practice his English (and who has a perfect grizzled Japanese shout). He waved hello to me, I waved back, and then he continued what he had been doing: shouting something at the head of his class, raising a fist while dropping his head, and basking in the war cry of his thirty or so 12-year-olds.

There were twenty-five events total, and such a huge gathering of parents that some of the booth merchants from the summer festival set up shop on the edge of the field. After much pomp and circumstance, the 25 games began.

Many were races, either straight sprints, or obstacle courses, baton relay, three-legged race, and so on. A few students would race at a time, and their team (especially the girls) would cheer them on, sounding stunningly like baby chicks at dawn, squeaking for food. There was even a race where four or five students would be tied together at the ankles like a chain gang, and they would need to do two laps around the track. Since each team was split up into their club activities, they only had to go half way around and tag in another group. They were identifiable by their outfits, including the kendo club in hakama and barefoot. There was also tug-of-war, and Kobayashi had an interesting variation: the elementary school kids began pulling while the middle schoolers had to run a section of the track before they could come and help.

The other games were kind of neat, too. There was one where a student from the team held a pole with two baskets strapped to the top, and with a huge pile of beanbags at their feet, while their team would try to toss the bags into the baskets, most bags in wins. One team got over a hundred. They count by tossing them out one at a time in unison, and the counter gets to throw the last one as high as he can.

There was also a game where a team of boys would bend over almost 90 degrees and one would run across their backs towards a goal. The number of participants was woefully short of the full distance, so those recently stepped upon would need to run to the end of the line. It’s remarkable how quickly one snake of this sort can move when everything goes swimmingly.

The boys and girls had their own dance three quarters of the way through. The girls performed a dance I had been prepared for by Sarah, a great workout for the thighs and butt. I didn’t envy them their heat as they danced, but I do want to learn the steps myself. It is a dance for women, originally wishing luck to the Hokkaido fisherman, it has spread through the rest of the islands, and is something of a folk dance today. (YouTube has lots of guys doing it, for example.) If she will not teach me, I will watch the following video until I am master.

The boys operated by a perpendicular drum, struck like a mystic heartbeat. They spread out evenly across the field, and after some shouts by the leaders of each team (and how I wish I could have understood them), one front and center would raise his fist in the air. All the other boys would turn and sprint at him, miraculously arresting momentum once they were shoulder to shoulder with the next man, and not a moment before, with no collisions. Before us was a crisp phalanx of pubescent boys. There was more fanfare, and then they spread out further, with enough room to do their dance. I can’t find a video with what I remember to be the name, but after watching it for 30 seconds I could do it myself.

Then came Kibasen. Unless you’ve seen it already, stop reading this post right now and watch this video (about 1:30):

I’m not even kidding. Watch the video. Fourteen year old boys were playing this. Instead of going for each other’s bandanas, however, they won by getting their opponents on the ground in any way they could.

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Ok, so video’s over. Pulling at clothes is allowed. Grappling is allowed. Grabbing, say, the side of the neck and trying to pull the opponent down is allowed. The three on the bottom simply have to keep their man up, while the other topples. One is allowed to topple his group in order to topple the other, so long as the opponent goes down first (like in sumo, for instance). Two kids left the pitch with bloody noses. Girls didn’t play it. One of the teachers assured me this is only played once in their lives, probably, though when he was young (say, thirty years ago) each grade played it at least once a year. The desired image, he told me, was a samurai on a horse. There were four rounds or so, so each of the boys got a chance to participate in an active group, though two from each team went simultaneously. They usually paired with another group and the winner of those two was winner, gaining a point for their team, no last-man standing or anything.

I am so goddamned sorry I didn’t bring my camera.

Kobayashi had a similar event, but it was a collection of several events, and the last was to form one of these groups and snatch flags from the other end of the field, rather than fight. The image of the samurai on the horse worked here, too. Here are my pictures.


At Imaichi, this actually got me out of my seat and cheering for, why not, the team closest to me (pink/pinku), which luckily happened to win overall. I don’t usually enjoy combat, but this was great. I wanted another round.

Sarah, who had the opportunity to witness (and unlike me, dance in) Sports Day reported that at the end of her day, when the winning team was announced, the opposing team cried. Actual tears running down actual cheeks, a terrible occurrence if you’re unable to comfort. I was spared this situation, but my school’s winning teams expressed the excitement of the training and practice they had invested. The trophies for third year sit in 3-2, the purple (murasaki) team.

Such is Sports Day. On the field, the students sat on their own chairs from their classrooms. Stunningly, they had brought them all out and in, and then helped to break down the tents, the equipment, the tables and chairs for the teachers, everything once it was over. Within thirty minutes, the entire field was cleared, the students back in their classes, the equipment in sheds, and my butt in my seat, enjoying lunch.*

I’m only staying one year, but if it was two, I would look forward to next year’s Sports Day.
-Schuyler

Summation of the Action: No list work today.

*Sports Day takes at least one full school day. The first day was rained out, so the second half of the day was extended to the following morning. Both days we broke for lunch, rain coming shortly afterwards.