Two of my favorite yearly school events are undokai ("Sports Day") and chutairen ("Junior High School Athletic Tournament"). I wrote in detail about these in my blog last year (see links), but I still wanted to publish a short photo summary for this year.
The pair of events were not so different than previous years. Teachers and students spent a significant amount of time to prepare in advance. Everything went smoothly and there were no big surprises. During undokai, students made great efforts to compete individually, between classes, and between grades at their school as their parents cheered from the sides of the sports field. In regards to this year's chutairen, where my school's students competed against other schools in the city, there were successes and failures, and cheers and tears. Although similar to last year, they were just as enjoyable. And further, they were to be the final chances I had to watch as a teacher of the school since my departure from Aomori was fast approaching. Without further ado, let's get to the pictures!
Koda JHS Undokai
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| Students preparing and setting up before the event |
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| One of many the many races to take place |
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| Students work hard but seem to really enjoy their Sports Day |
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| One of several quirky competitions |
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| Harder than it looks, I think |
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| A few boys watch as the chaos of tug-of-war ensues |
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| Relay races are held towards the end of the day |
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| Students excitedly cheer on their teammates |
Chutairen
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| The start of the opening ceremony |
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| Participating students (athletes) from each school march during the ceremony |
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| Boys kendo |
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| Students are very loud while dueling, it often surprises me |
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| After kendo, I stopped by the baseball fields for awhile |
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| Girl's bball won their first game, but lost the second in a close game |
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| Students who don't participate in sports still cheer for their classmates |
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| My school's strongest sports club, volleyball, won first place again this year! |
And with the selection of pictures above, I'm going to finish this post and hopefully get a little closer to getting myself up to date with my blog! If you are reading this, I hope you enjoyed the pictures and thanks for checking it out.
