The Week in Review pt. 3

Saturday, Sept. 11

Saturday was the sports festival at Seiwa, and it was awesome! Its basically an all-day
school-wide track meet, but with a lot of really strange and fun events. The whole school breaks
up into two teams to compete in events like tug-of-war and three-legged races, and a bunch of
other Japanese games. A lot of this stuff would never fly in America because some of it is pretty
injury-prone, but in a wholesome, sometimes-kids-get-hurt, kind of way. One game was particularly accident prone: they put 3 big sticks of bamboo (like 10-15 ft long, and pretty thick) in the middle of a field, and all the girls on each team line up on opposite sides of the field. The
point of the game is to get the bamboo back to your side of the field, and the rules seem to be
simple: the only thing you can do is grab the bamboo and pull. So, there's some strategy as to
how many people from each team go after each piece of bamboo, when do you just give up on a piece of bamboo, etc. But, the game always seems to end with all the girls in the entire school
(probably close to 50) fighting over the last (15 ft) piece of bamboo. And every time it seemed
that one kid always trips/falls and gets hurt in the frenzy. Its kind of a recipe for disaster,
but still, it looks like so much fun!

Its a pretty awesome day, and the kids put so much effort and spirit into the whole thing. They
take it really, really seriously - to the point that by the end of the day, they are so exhausted
that pretty much everything sets them to crying. After the whole event ends, each team gathers
into a circle, and everyone stands up to say something to the group. My Japanese isn't that good,
but I'm pretty sure it was something along the lines of "today was awesome, you guys are great,
we worked so hard, congratulations all" and if they are a sannensei then 1, they are probably
crying, and 2, they also say something to the effect "I'm going to miss this, you younger
students are going to be awesome next year, I'm proud of you all, etc." Its all really emotional
and sweet.

That night, the teachers all got together for dinner and drinks to celebrate the end of the
sports festival in our own way. I think that the whole festival (which requires massive
preparation) is incredibly draining for the teachers, so it was good to see them relax
afterwards. Again, everyone had to stand up and give a speech about the day. I started my speech in Japanese, but by the second sentence, Kocho Sensei bellows "ego de!" which means "in English!" so I finished my speech in English with my English teacher translating. Everyone thought it was great - did I mention how much I like my school? Also, the food was incredible, like always. At these kind of events, the teachers eat so well! Sashimi, yakisoba, corn on the cob, crab legs, edamame, goma balls, yakitori, etc. It was amazing.

By the time I got home, I was not sober, and Winston pitched an idea I couldn't really refuse. We
had a bottle of sake from a while ago, and he wanted to go out to the train tracks and drink and
watch the trains. How could I say no?! So we go out and start talking and drinking and watching
the trains. Just as we reach the end of the sake bottle, someone comes up to us and asks us what
we are doing. We tell him, and we start chatting with the man. Turns out he works at the dinner
down the street, and invites us over for more drinks and conversation. We can't really say no,
and why would we want to, so we go on over. Our new friend's name is Gen, and he had a friend
there named Udashin. We spend the rest of the night drinking beer and conversing with our new
Japanese friends.

Turns out Gen is a drummer in a Japanese punk band, and he invited us to his next show in
October. He is also an electrical engineer who just moonlights at the diner on the side. Udashin
is a snowboarder, and he said he has 2 extra decks and that we should go snowboarding together
this winter. I freaking love this country. The diner was mostly empty, but there was a group of
girls there, and Gen told us that it was one of their birthdays. Well, when the girls walked by
on their way out, they said hi to us, and Winston and I - without prior communication - figure
out who's birthday it is, what her name is, and break out into the happy birthday song.
Righteous. We make sure to get Gen and Udashin's info before we leave, and don't leave until
around 1am when Gen tells us that they are trying to close, and we should go. So, that is my week in review. It seems like a lot, but I'm sure I'm missing things. Too much to do, too little time to write it all down.