Second to One
In Japanese schools, Sports Day is a big event every year. Students spend several weeks of school preparing for their Undokai (運動会) where they will spend an entire day (usually a Sunday) competing against their classmates in various events. As a teacher, I attended several of these sports days, and even participated in multiple events that included teachers and parents, tug-of-war, relay, etc. Every year on the second Monday in October, there is a national holiday known as Health and Sports Day (体育の日) to commemorate the opening of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Every year for the holiday one of my friends organizes an “Adult Sports Day.” This year, I was elected as the captain of the red team. We competed in several events including: The Funny Relay, Hand Battles, Spicy Noodle Eating, 100 meter Dash, Basketball, Soccer, Dodge ball, Relay, Rock-Paper-Scissor Train, and several more. Being that it was my last year, as well as being captain, I participated in most events and thus didn’t end up with many pictures.
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Fun Relay- gallop across the gym like a horse.
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Fun Relay, run across the gym like you’re cleaning the floor at school.
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Fun Relay, don’t drop the ping-pong ball.
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Fun Relay, hop across the gym.
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Hand Battle, try to knock your opponent off their bucket by hitting each others hands.
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Stocking battle, try to pull the stocking off the other persons head.
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Stocking Battle, sometimes the challenge is to get the stocking off yourself.
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Stocking battle, half the fun are the stocking-faces.
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Push-up competition, watching 179 push-ups made me rethink my gym process.
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Push-up competition, 1 of 179.
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Spicy noodles, when Japanese people learn not to let Joe bring the hot pepper flakes.
