Thanks Love

Each year, there is an English speech contest which is open to all Junior High School students in Himeji. One girl from my school was really keen to participate, so after she had written her speech - about her dream of volunteering in Africa - I became her speech coach.

She didn't win, but she said it was a really positive experience. And she gave me a gorgeous thank you present.

The sweet letter


Hmm, could this be ...?


home-made cake.

Geez, I could really get used to this "thank you" culture. It's all so new to me!

Until next time,
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

Practice makes Perfect

Sports day is upon all the local junior high schools in the Himeji district soon. There's a bit of uncertainty as to whether it will go ahead as scheduled, because it might rain (it's typhoon season now) or it may be the case that too many students will have the dreaded flu. But anyway, preparations are in full swing.

First on the agenda? Injury management, aka picking the pebbles out of the gravel on the sports ground.

We could be here all day!

Next was multiple rehearsals of the sports day ceremony formalities - parading the school banner, standing still, raising the flag, standing in formation, marching to a whistle beat, standing and listening, running to position, hats on, hats off - all the important things for sports day success.

Practicing the ceremony, but I'm standing in the shade - hee, hee!

Until next practice,
Monica

A Classroom with a View

Autumn has begun in Japan but the days are still hot enough to need the air conditioner to be comfortable - unless you're at school. In that case, you have no choice but to sweat it out.

The new school I'm working at is situated on the side of a mountain, so the views from the classrooms are pretty amazing right now - everything is so green after the rainy season.

From the third floor


Taking a closer look

Sports day is coming up, so with all the practice and preparation and preparation and practice and preparation and then some more practice that's going on at the moment, I haven't spent too much time in the classroom.

Writing again soon,
Monica