Update: Sports Day and Nankimachi Festival

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Last week and this past weekend was quite busy so I apologize for a lack of posts. I'll try and squeeze in what I can into this post! This past Saturday was the ever so famous Sports Day for many middle schools. We may have Field Day back home, but Sports Day is in an entirely different category.

Sports Day is called 体育会 (taiikukai) for middle schools and it is usually held on a Saturday or Sunday in Japanese schools. Two or three weeks prior to this eventful day, the students and teachers put in many long, hard-working hours into practicing, rehearsing, creating formations, and much more to perfect what they would like to show their parents. The students at my school had been tirelessly practicing multiple times throughout the days and I was always in awe just to witness the amount of hard work that everyone put in.

The day typically starts off with an opening ceremony where all the students parade in, usually by year and class. Each class at my school had a banner that they made themselves and this was carried by a student as the class marched around the track. The principal gave a short speech and then the games began! The students were divided up into teams by various colors such as purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red and/or by year. There were many relay races and all the teachers participated in it as well! One of the most popular games was "kibasen" where three students held up a fourth student who fought with other teams to see who could grab the hat off the other person first.

Another popular event was 組体操 (kumitaisou) where the male students did a variety of human formations. From balancing on someone's shoulder with their arms out to handstands to human towers and pyramids, these boys did it all in the hot afternoon sun without any complaints. It was truly an amazing experience. The girls had their turn in the spotlight as well with a dance number where they were perfectly synchronized and another number where they used colored scarves to create a rippling, color wave that left the audience and myself breathless. The entire day was one that I will never forget. The countless hours of practices, rehearsals and reviews certainly paid off :) I was so proud of them all.


There was also a festival in Nankimachi this past weekend and I was able to snap a good number of photos from the day. They had a traditional lion dance piece as well as a short play and a large dragon-like puppet throughout the day. I wanted to capture not only the events that occurred, but also the number of people that flooded the streets to soak in the culture, taste the food and leave with a memorable experience.

I think that man made the little boy's day :) 

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful week! :)

Sushi Fridays

This Friday was my friend's birthday so we all went out to Kurazushi for dinner and each plate was 105 yen. It was 回転寿司 (kaiten-zushi) where you can pick and choose the sushi that you want as it moves along a conveyor belt. It was fun to watch the mass variety of sushi moving along and hurrying to take the plate off before it was too late :] Everyone saved the amount of plates they ate and the birthday girl easily beat us all with 12 plates finished =]

Many of the Kobe JETs often meet up every weekend somewhere in Sannomiya and after the birthday girl's dinner, we headed out into Sannomiya and bumped into a group of them and it was a perfect picture opportunity :)

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! :)

First Week in a Blur

Happy Friday or Saturday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week :) This first week of teaching at my elementary and middle schools has been so much fun and I was able to meet many students. Some were shy and quiet, others were loud and mischievous and then there were the students that would start talking in English with me as soon as they saw me. Definitely a variety of students that I look forward to teaching for awhile :)

The students and teachers have continued to amaze me on a daily basis. On my first day, the school had a welcoming ceremony and all the students sat in perfectly straight rows in the gym with their hands clasped around their knees and heads bowed down in total silence. If a needle had dropped to the floor, I would have heard it. I asked the vice principal why they did this, and she explained that it's a practice called 黙想 （もくそう）which helps the students concentrate and focus on what needs to be done.

Every day, the students clean the school at a specific time for 15-20 minutes. Every student has an area that they are responsible for such as sweeping a hallway, washing the sink, wiping tables, etc. The teachers participate in this as well and I was put in charge of sweeping the area outside of the teacher's room. It's a good way to talk with the students and to see what they can be like outside of the classroom.

My 2nd year OTE showed me some of the work that her students had finished during their summer break for homework and I was so impressed with it :) Their homework was to introduce their town to me since she told them that I was new to Japan and that it would be nice to have suggestions of places to visit. The sign alone was adorable~ ^^

Did I mention that their artwork was amazing? I wish I could draw like them~!!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! :)

Everything Ghibli :)

So sorry it's been awhile! I just finished up my second day at my junior high school, but that'll be for the end of the week :)

This post is coming a little late, but I couldn't resist putting it up! After one of our long days at the KEC, a few friends and I stayed around the mall area and stumbled upon a store that had EVERYTHING GHIBLI. Everywhere I looked I could see pens, keychains, towels, stickers, shower curtains, figurines, etc. that were all related to characters and movies from Studio Ghibli. My good friend in college had the entire DVD set and let me borrow it for a few months and to be honest, I don't remember how many times I watched the movies. I definitely owe him one.

I have a soft spot for Kiki's Delivery Service because it was the first Studio Ghibli movie that I ever watched :) The store had a large section of hand/face towels for Jiji from the movie and I promised myself that I would buy one the next time I came back ^^ I'm not a huge fan of cats, but Jiji is an exception.

And a Studio Ghibli store wouldn't be complete without some Totoro merchandise!! Given that he's pretty much the logo of the company, I think he's kind of important :) Definitely going to be buying some omiyage from this store for my friend back home in Hawaii!! Gotta love Japan and all the cute stuff that you can find here ^^

I even bought a small rug from Daiei that has Totoro and the cat bus ^^ (sorry! I don't know it's name :/ )

That's it for now! Thank you so much for reading :) Do you have any favorite Studio Ghibli movies or characters?