Undokai sports festival

The sports festival is THE important date on the school calendar here. Many of the kids (certainly not all) look forward to it and Ebi-kun is no exception. It was looking a bit hit and miss on whether he would be able to join because he still has a fractured wrist! The Doc gave it the OK if, he didn't use it!

Ebi-kun's school is massive, just short of 1400 kids in 6 grades, that is a LOT of kids to get organized! This year the school was split into 3 teams, I think it depends on how many classes are in each grade to how many teams they end up with. Ebi-kun was in the yellow team.

First up is the sprint, they have so many kids to get through that they fire the pistol for the next lot of kids BEFORE the set that are running have even hit the finish line, it is manic!

This is about half of the kids! One of the good things is that because it is so big, parents are not expected to stay and there is no room for all the parents and extended family to come and make a picnic of it, so we can wander in and out as we please.

The dance, we (ahem, daddy) got it wrong and we were stood in the wrong spot so I didn't manage to get any really good pictures of his dancing!

Next was the BIG pants race, like the three legged race but with pants....

Two kids have to get into a really big pair of shorts...

Race to the end of the yard, go around the cone and back to the start where they hand the pants off to the next pair, quite amusing!

The final race is the big balls, this is always a lot of run, sadly yellow were crap and came last, Ebi-kun is still holding out to be in the winning team at least once! poor kid, hubby and I were coming up with ways of how we could fix it in the 6th grade in case his team still hasn't won... will keep you posted on that ! First we will have to figure out the scoring system because neither of us could figure it out.

We're cheering for yellow

The verdict from the Dr was that he has to go back in two weeks! The bone is starting to heal though, which is a good thing and the Dr said Ebi-kun could join the sports festival as long as he didn't use his arm!

So this is his lucky yellow bento since he is in the yellow team this year.

Top left: kaki stars and pumpkin salad

Bottom left: Corn and tangerine with a string cheese cheerleader

then of the left are chestnut rice rolls wrapped in thin omlette, yellow pepper stars and yellow mini tomatoes.

Should keep him going...

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The national obsession that is Undokai...

Undokai - or sports festival is a BIG deal in Japan, we are not talking a 50 meter dash and an egg and spoon race here, oh no, it is hours of practice, sweat and tears. And the strange thing is, most of the kids love it!

Daddy-ebi has to work one Saturday a month and unfortunately it fell on Ebi-kuns sports day, neither of them were happy - I should include myself in that! It meant I had to figure out the whole standing in the right place at the right time to get the right photos! Talk about stressful lol.

I did have a bit of a mommy fail, I checked that the camera battery was charged and ready to go but didn't notice that the memory card was almost full! Which meant I had to resort to my phone, not the best pictures ever!

There are 1400 kids in Ebi-kuns school and they split them into 5 teams. Ebi-kun was Yellow this time round. They have various games and races which can get them points for their team and this is the whole school together. They have to get the ball from one end to the other without it touching the floor. Ebi-kun isn't very tall so he's somewhere in the middle!

Can you spot Ebi-kun doing his dance (blue t-shirt), he has been getting up extra early every morning to practice!

This is the 6th graders, they practice like mad for the gymnastics display at the end. There was this big pyramid and 4 smaller ones. As the last girl was climbing to the top, the whole things started leaning to the left, there was a united gasp as EVERYONE held their breath. Then a united sigh of relief as it righted itself and the girl made it to the summit. 

This one was 8 kids wide, I think 5 deep and 8 high, it was impressive but my inner Brit was screaming 'Where is Health & Safety?' I'm not sure if it is better to be a bigger kid and stuck at the bottom with a chance to be crushed or a smaller kid with the chance of falling off the top! 

The final formation looked positively tame in comparison! Luckily it was a lot cooler than usual although I still managed to burn my neck. Ebi-kun had a great day and i think that is the main thing!

The Joy Of Undokai

Undokai or sports festival is a really big deal in Japan. The kids practice for weeks beforehand and all the parents and often grandparents come along to watch. There are some things that I don't agree with, like having the kids sat out in the sun, no hats for most of the day. The amount of time practicing then the government trying to re-introduce Saturday school because they think the kids are not getting enough instruction time in *face palm*!

On the other hand, the kids seem to enjoy it, there is no emphasis on individual winners, it is all team building, if you win a race it is for the team. Which, to work in a Japanese company, this is what it is all about, it is all training for the salary man mindset.

Ebi-kun's school is big, over 1300 kids, add parents of those kids, siblings and grandparents and that is a LOT of people milling around the school. To give them their dues, it was organized with military precision. For the sprint, the parents have to wait in a 'holding area' until their child's group is up to race, then you get herded into the photography zone near the finishing line, you take your pics then go. I wasn't in a good spot and this was the best pic I got!

For added fun, you can imagine this post like Where's Wally/Waldo, you have to find Ebi-kun in each picture....

This years theme was ninja so the 2nd grade did a dance to some really annoying ninja tune, I would find the youtube version for you, but you would hate me for the ear worm and quite frankly, I don't want to put myself through it! They looked cute though!

That was Ebi-kun done for the morning, they give you a program of events, so we went for a very long lunch and left them to it. There seems to be a different policy from school to school, here the kids eat together in the classroom and parents are asked not to eat at the school, due to lack of space. A friend yesterday, told me that at her boy's school, the kids eat together in case some parents can't make it and the parentless kids feel left out. Another friend, the family all eat together and the bento making for the day is quite competitive.

I quite like the rules for our school! I didn't go the whole hog with the crazy bento making but I did make a Nameko boiled egg...

After lunch there were more team games and relays. This one the whole school is involved in, the roll the big ball from the first graders over everybody's head until the sixth graders, then they have to get it in the box, if you can imagine what 1300+ kids all screaming their head off sounds like...

Trying to spot Ebi-kun was a nightmare, even though he hair is fairer than everyone, a tip for anyone with girls, get them to wear really long bright socks!

Second year relay is the 'carry a ball in a scarf' race, done in teams of 4, Ebi-kun can't wait until 4th grade because they race in pairs wearing really big pants (2 kids in one pair)!

It all finishes with the 6th grade relay, by which time everyone is shouting like crazy and is all very exciting. After all that there are speeches and cool down exercises to be done, then all the kids and the PTA members clear everything up. A long and hot day!

It is completely different to the sports days I had growing up but for the kids I think it is equally fun. Do your kids have sports day? What is it like?

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If pictures save 1000 words....

Then a video must save 1000 pictures! This is mostly for our relatives but I know some of you are interested in what goes on at school over here, so I condensed the 7 hour undokai down to 7 minutes and no, there are no Benny Hill type moments included.

See if you can spot Ebi-kun in each part, it's not easy, I am his mama and I had a hard enough time trying to spot him!

How do you Undokai?

Undokai translated literally is Exercise Festival or I suppose sports Festival makes more sense and in Japan is is a BIG deal. The kids start training weeks ahead of time, there is dancing and races and gymnastic movements scary enough to give safety inspectors heart failure.

This is the first one we have been to at the school, so we didn't really know what to expect. We did get a paper through explaining that there is no room to sit down, which I actually preferred. It meant that I wasn't forced to sit in blazing sun and we could come and go as we pleased.

Everything started at 8.20am with speeches and what not and the all the kids and staff got up to do radio taiso - exercise to the radio. Now, because no-one had their own square metro of space to sit in, it meant that 1200 x 2 parents trying to get to the finish line to get the perfect photo but luckily the school had thought of this. This area from where I am standing to the yellow cones is the photography section. As each grade prepared for their race, the PTA officials allowed parents from that class to enter the area. At first I thought it was all a bit insane but it actually worked quite well.

As you can see, I managed to muscle my way to the front, Ebi-kun is in the far lane and came in 3rd.

Fortunately, we didn't have to sit and watch everything so we went and sat in the shade and chatted to there parents until it was time for the next event. This is tamaire, popular in kindy and schools. The kids do a dance then when the whistle goes they pick up balls and throw them into the basket.

After that we walked down to a cafe and had a nice long lunch and a wander round the book store and grabbed a coffee whilst the kids went back to their classrooms and ate their bento. We came back for the big ball race. The whole school is split into 5 teams, so each row of teams here are made up of 6 grades. They had to roll the ball over their heads without it falling off, very exciting!

Luckliy Ebi-kun had told us where to stand for the dance, so we got to see him in action with his pom-poms.

The last couple of events was the older kids doing the gymnastics and then the relay. Then the real fun started, how to get 1200 kids + 1200 chairs back into the school with PTA parents not having a clue what they are doing and sending the kids in all the wrong directions!

All in all it was a fun day, we all bought the sun and it finished by 3.30pm. Daddy-ebi nipped home and picked up the car so we could go straight round to the doctor to see about Ebi-kun and his cough. The Doc has admitted defeat and referred us to the specialist, guess where we are going in the morning...

So, how is sports day where you are? Do you love it or hate it?