秋季大運動会

That title reads shuji dai-undoukai, "big fall sports festival." The kids spend a few weeks in September practicing a couple dances and how to march across the field. Then on the second or third Saturday of the school term the school holds the festival where they compete in relay races they never got around to practicing (though they walk on and off the field in perfect formation). Japan.


Above, the aforementioned marching. And yes, this is the entire student body of my school. All 33 of them.


Every schoolkid in Japan, by order of the Ministry of Education, spends a bunch of time riding a unicycle. Some of them are quite good at it. About 15 of our students (and two teachers) managed to hold hands and cycle across the field in a giant line. Above you can see them preparing.

 
Yuusaku, from the 2nd grade, doing his best to look threatening. I was shaking in my shoes.


Shuuka, also a second grader. This is the girl who insists on riding on my shoulders every day.


Since our student body isn't large enough to put on four hours of events all by itself, the PTA chips in, and so does the Shibayama Volunteer Fire Department. Many of these men are parents of students at Hishida, but not all of them.

 
As perhaps you can tell, this event consisted of the men forming pyramids, with the men in front and on top sporting helmets adorned with fragile plastic balls. The pyramids of men (six in all) roamed the field attacking each other with inflatable mallets until the balls were all burst, or the men fell down. It was entertaining. Our announcer reported the loss of the team in the back of this photo thus: "Otake-san no atama ga owarimashita." - "Mr. Otake's head is finished."

 
These two girls were our graduating class in the spring (Somehow, Japan has figured out how to stretch a graduation ceremony for two girls out to about 90 minutes). They came back for the day to watch younger siblings, and to participate in events that included Hishida graduates.