Ohayo. Ohayo. New Jersey.

The weather’s warmer and that means it’s time for field day!  The middle and elementary schools all burst alive with their 運動会 (undoukai—literally, exercise meet).  I hear people calling it a ‘sports day,’ but really, there isn’t anything all that sporty about it.  Although there are 100 meter dashes and a 1200 meter relay race, it’s filled mostly with wacky races.  It’s definitely more of a throwback to field days I had in elementary school and even the crazy WACKO games we had in high school. (WACKO was a sort of wacky olympics we had in high school where each grade level, and the teachers, would compete against each other for the crown.)  For two or three weeks prior to the festival, usually around the end of May and beginning of June here in Hokkaido, the classes practice in the afternoons to get ready for the big day.

Ok.  So get this.  I think it’s quite ironic how Japan always seems so bureaucratically safe in everything from their absurd driver’s test to their extremely low speed limits.  But unofficially, they’re a reckless and impetuous people!  They drive around with televisions in their cars and their kids balanced on the dashboard (no joke).  Or they drive 50 cm from a curb so as to be sure not to miss that mis-stepping pedestrian.  Oh, and remember the old people?  Anyways, for field day they have a race called the kawa kudari.  It consists of a student walking on top of his classmates backs as they bend over using a long pole for support while the students recycle through for about 200 meters.  The kids are about a meter up in the air running across their classmates’ backs as fast as possible.  Oi.  It’s a mouthful of smashed teeth waiting to happen.  (Amazingly, nothing bad happened from the numerous practices to the actual competition)  Then there’s also the crazy seven man leg-tie train race.  The students stand in small lines of seven or eight and all of their right and left legs are tied together respectively so they have to coordinate right steps and left steps with shouts of “one” and “two.”  Now in this one, as soon as they get going, one person tripping leads to all the others in front to eat shit.  I will admit though that this was my favorite one to watch because a group could just be trucking along and next thing you know they’re flat on the ground.  It’s good for a laugh.

Just like golf and baseball games, field day is subject to the weather.  They postpone to the next day in case of rain.  The presence of fireworks at 6am the morning of indicate whether or not the field day will happen.  The morning of our field day, I could hear the rain on my roof before the fireworks were set to fire.  6:00am rolled around and boom, boom, boom.  Field day was a go.  We’re rugged Hokkaido folk that won’t let a little rain get in the way of our field day!  By the time I arrived at school, the rain had abated.  Field day was held out on the school field or “ground” as they call it.  Families lined the sidelines, each had pitched their own tents and coverings in case the rain returned.  As with any event here in Japan, there was an opening ceremony and speeches, then we launched into our collective calisthenics.  For the group exercise, they used a recording with a piano that sounded like it was from 1950.  It’s another comical moment as the students’ enthusiasm for the senior aerobics-esque exercises vary from person to person.  Arms fly around, there’s some jumping, and I think there was even a move to make sure your dentures stayed in place.

We had made it through the major (legitimately competitive) races and the tug-of-war (!) when the rain started to come down again.  At first it was just on and off sprinkles, but soon, it turned into a decent shower.  Determined to press on, we continued.  Eventually, pretty much everyone was soaked to the bone and we decided to cut the beloved folk dance (that was a weird event, I admit) so we could wrap up early.  One of the third year classes had emerged victorious and posed with the winning trophy next to the scoreboard.  In spite of the rain, or maybe even because of it, we had a fun (and quick) field day.  The students all open up more for these non-academic activities and it’s great to interact with their toothy smiles and upbeat energies.  Too bad they have their big midterms the next week…

Later, at the post-event party, I suggested to the teachers that there should be a faculty relay team next year.  They laughed at the suggestion and agreed, but only if I ran three legs of it.