Halloween at USJ

Friday I ventured to Universal Studios in Osaka where we were blasted with happy halloween cheer at every moment. Already. In Japan. I know...

The entry boulevard

Elmo is a pumpkin head wizard for Halloween

The central gardens


The park has an old movie style atmosphere


Mel's Drive in Diner


The town centre


A typical 60 minute wait for the SpiderMan attraction.
It was good, though.


The set from the WaterWorld attraction.
Remember that blockbuster? Uh...

Just stick a pumpkin in it and call it Halloween Lunch


The spider girls - some wacky costumes


Elmo makes an appearance in his "pumpkin-style coach"


Look! A pumpkin farmer


Big bird and Ernie get in on the act


Skeletons on wheels


Cute candy dancers


And who could forget Hello Kitty!


Halloween Hello Kitty

Watch it here.
Altogether now: happy, happy, happy halloween!

For dinner, we chose a place called the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

It's a franchise seafood eatery based on the movie Forrest Gump.


The plastic food on display in the window. Hmm, what to choose?


Mama always says ...

The drinks menu on a table tennis bat


Good company!

One day, 5 attractions, lunch, a parade, dinner - a pretty good day at USJ.

Until happy halloween,
Monica

Community Cheer

Saturday we left our Sports Day rehearsal early to attend a welcome party hosted by the members of the local Community Centre. It was a chance for the new American ALTs to introduce themselves, but we also joined in on the festivities. And there were some!

First we were treated to an operatic performance.

She sang in Japanese, German and English

Her finale was Amazing Grace

And then for an impromptu Samba jam led by one of Kobe's finest teachers.

Getting rhythm - woo, woo!

And finally, we all dressed in kimonos for a fashion parade.

We chose kimonos and lovely ladies dressed us


Here's me from behind ...


... and my speccy obi close up

me and Jody ...


... and me and Chris


On parade - how embarrassment!

All in a day's work, really.

Until then,
Monica

Friday Night Fun

Our Friday night party was the first chance for the community to meet the new resident ALTs from Phoenix, Arizona.

Meet and greet time

These community parties are always fun - we get to catch up with people we haven't seen since vacation English classes and eat from a good selection of food because everyone brings a plate to share (otherwise known as Pot Luck).

An interesting mix


Don't forget the desserts!

Our Japanese guests speak English exceptionally well, so there's always interesting conversation and more than a few laughs.

Until next party,
Monica

Hooray for Sports Day!

At last, the official Sports Day was on Sunday. No flu, no typhoon - just a fine, warm, windy day.

Preparations began early in the morning


Marking the track is a big job - old school style!

First order of the day was the official sports day march. The students paraded around the track in class groups before coming together for the national anthem and principal's speech.

The opening parade

Nominated class leaders take charge of the flags

In the lead up to Sports Day, each class designed and painted a flag.

President Obama is extremely popular amongst Japanese students


A more traditional approach!


Too cute!

The first half of the day was track events - 100m, 200m, 800m, 1500m and assorted relay races. Every race is run to some kind of upbeat carnival music - think Benny Hill, as another Aussie teacher told me!

I loved the traditional white tape finish!

Next up was the skipping demonstration - a test of stamina and teamwork. One of the classes managed a record 9 rotations!

Amazing!


O-oh! Someone forgot to jump

For lunch, all the teachers ordered a special Sports Day lunchbox.

Can you guess what I ate?

After lunch was another march - but this time the students were parading in their club groups, dressed in their uniforms.

At this school, the clubs are: baseball, basketball, volleyball, soft tennis, track & field, kendo, tea ceremony, guitar & mandolin and koto (traditional Japanese stringed instrument).

The baseball club parades

After that, the fun games (!) began. The girls participated in three-legged races - except that they were in teams of 5 and 6, so I guess that's seven-legged.

I don't have any photos because that was my event to assist in - but at least a third of the girls copped some nasty gravel injuries on their knees and elbows.

The boys played a traditional battle game. They're divided into two teams - red and white - and within each team, trios of boys hoist another on their shoulders. The aim is for the red team to capture the hat of the white team, and vise-versa. It gets pretty tough by the looks on their faces.

The red team prepares to fight

And so do the white team

And so, after a parents tug-of-war, and a relay versing students of each local town against each other, came the end of Sports Day for another year. *Sigh*

With much relief,
Monica

Practice and practice!

I know I'm talking about Sports Day practice a lot but it has been eight days straight now (apart from a brief rain interruption on Tuesday). It's one of the most important events on the school calendar.

I guess it's not really a practice of sports, as such - it's the practice of the routines for the day.

Getting the line-up exact

One of the team events is Jump Rope. Each class competes against the other classes in the same grade - first the girls, then the boys, then the whole class. The girls do exceptionally well - surprise, surprise - but the classes of 40 usually don't make one rotation! I think the school record is 88 rotations. So far, the highest has been about 30.

A class of first graders (year 7s) jumping well

But onto other things...

Monday night was a fellow Aussie's birthday - so we all celebrated with a dinner made by his fabulous wife - couscous, chicken risotto and African-spiced casserole - and a good ol' Aussie lamington cake (you might just see it in the background).

Good food, good times!

Well, tomorrow's another practice day, so trackies again to work!

Until then,
Monica