Undoukai pictures

I promised pictures from last weekend. I think I've explained at length what the "Sports Day" consists of, so I won't really bother now. This year was more or less without incident, though due to hot weather we did have one 3rd grade boy collapse from heat exhaustion. This is apparently common. Anyway, the kids were pretty cute. Here's the evidence.

Daiki, a sixth grader, was the leader of the white team.

Yoshihiro (the other boy in the sixth grade) was the leader of the red team.

Akane (a 4th grader, in front) and Yui (3rd grader, in back) joined the others in a synchronized warm-up routine.

Yoshihiro's considerable girth gave the red team a decided edge in the cheering competition.

The first and second grades had a race that involved picking up a grocery list, running to a "store" (really a table in the field), grabbing their groceries, then matching the ingredients in their basket to cards with the names of various Japanese dishes written on them. Moena-chan struggled, since the basket was bigger than her.

The first and second graders also joined together for an event with their grandparents. The object was simple, throw as many of the beanbags in the basket as possible within 30 seconds.

The entire student body teamed up for this race, which involved hanging onto a bar and running around a series of obstacles. The pairs were often mismatched for comic effect, as illustrated by Yoshihiro and Kazuki, above.

Mizuki, in the 5th grade, joined her mother for the obligatory three-legged race.

These kids can do extraordinary things on unicycles. Yoshihiro and Daiki played catch while riding.

Several large groups of the girls managed to hold hands and rotate around an axis.

Ayato (a first grader) had fun with the dance the entire student body performed together.

Airi (also a first grader) enjoyed herself a great deal.

Sayaka (a sixth grader) executed a nearly perfect forward flip during the dance finale.

The Shibayama Volunteer Fire Department returned and put on quite a show (that's one of my sixth-graders dads on the top of the pyramid).

It got quite heated.

The kids joined with all the guests (mainly parents and grandparents) for a traditional Japanese dance called the "yosokoi odori".

The final event was an all-school relay. Above, the hand-off between several members of the 3rd grade.

Largely thanks to Yoshihiro's booming voice, the red team was victorious at the end of the day. The principal presented him with the school flag as a symbol of victory.

only in japan

There will be pictures from last weekend (the school sports festival) up shortly. Many cute things happened. But first, can you think of any other country where suicide could be ruled a "work-related accident"? The unfortunate business took place in Nara (the first capital of unified Japan), near Kyoto.

NARA -- An elementary school principal's suicide after a student refused to attend school for over six months due to a teacher's discriminatory statements toward her sister has been recognized as a work-related accident, his bereaved family said.

exhaustion

Sam's elbow has been giving her heightened levels of grief this week. We're not sure what did it, because it had been getting better, but the pain this week has left her largely unable to do her job. I actually had to go over to her school and cover a lesson this afternoon, after she left in the morning to see her doctor. Area physicians seem to be having about as much luck identifying the cause of her pain as they've had determining the cause of her recurring bronchitis. Not fun.

Fortunately, Sam's kids were little angels for me this afternoon (she was shocked when I told her this). That was good, because I'd been running around like mad all day over at Hishida (my school). The fifth and sixth grades wrote a few short plays, and today was our last day of filming. It was fun, but exhausting. Running around in the heat carrying a camera, a bag of props, and giant poster-sized print-outs of the script can take a lot out of you.

I'll put the videos up when I'm done editing. Should be a week or so.

秋季大運動会練習 (Sports Festival Practice)

Due to the demolition of Higashi Elementary's gymnasium, they had their big sports festival back in May. My school, on the other hand, is having their festival on the 22nd of this month, just over a week away. It's hard to overstate just how big a deal this event is for the teachers and parents (I think the kids just play along). If you're so inclined, you can look back at a short description of the 2005 festival and photos of the 2006 incarnation at my school, and at Sam's.

Anyway, practice for the sports festival has been in full swing since two days after we returned from summer break, though the typhoon last week and heavy rains earlier this week limited the time we could spend outdoors. When the weather broke yesterday they teachers agreed to cancel pretty much everything else for a couple of days to focus on practicing. They were so focused on what they were doing that when I took out my camera to snap some photos they asked me if I was "practicing taking pictures for the sports festival." Anyway, the results were pretty cute:

The students all mark onto the field at the beginning. That's Yoshihiro (the big dude) and Daiki in the front. They got the leadership positions by default, being the only 6th grade boys (though there are 6 girls who were automatically ruled out - this is Japan).

The first grade, bringing up the rear. From right to left that's Miki, Kazuki, and Moena.

Moena looked slightly lost as everyone prepared for a relay.

For the red team, Shunki takes off after getting the baton from Reina. On the white team, Hikaru hands off to Asami.

Yoshihiro heading down the track, and maintaining a solid lead the whole way.

fun with japanese newspapers

Two short news items, for your mid-week reading pleasure.

First, a warning for those of you who (like me) have run out and bought heated toilet seats from the Japanese manufacturer Toto. Apparently a malfunctioning seat caught fire and melted at a hospital down in Fukuoka (foo-koo-oh-ka, if you were wondering).

Second, some mischievous students scrawled the word "HUCK" in a large sand dune. Apparently the dunes are protected, and the government frowns upon people writing 50-meter long words. My favorite part:

Many Japanese are taught a form of Romanization where the sound "fu" is spelled "hu." It is possible that the graffiti may have been the students' attempt to spell out a well-known English expletive.

everything's ok

The wind and rain were still lashing the house at 8:30 this morning, but everything aside from my basil made it through the typhoon just fine. Even that might be ok; the leaves still look healthy more than 24 hours later, and some twine and a pole will correct the problem the plant has standing upright. It looks like our area fared pretty well too. Aside from the predictable foliage all over the roads and some shabbily-built fences blown down, everything seems intact.

Tokyo actually had a bit of a scare; the Tama River left its banks this morning and briefly looked like it was going to go over the levees. Coastal areas to the south of us had to deal with 6-meter waves, and apparently some inland areas to the northwest had some flooding.

But we're all fine. Yay for typhoon season.

Typhoon 9

Due to the different wind levels at which each agency declares a storm to be a typhoon, the Japan Meteorological Agency has decided we're about to be hit by Typhoon 9, whereas the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii is calling it Typhoon 10W.

At any rate, the school board has apparently cancelled classes for tomorrow (Friday) and told parents to keep their kids indoors.

I still have to show up for work, of course. It should be fun sitting around for nine hours with nothing to do.

UPDATE: Apparently the school had a talk with my company (though I'm not sure who initiated that) and now I don't have to show up tomorrow. I think I'll call in to make sure they don't plan on docking my pay or holidays. I don't trust those bastards.

MORE UPDATES: I called the office and was told I'm "on standby" and will be called in the morning if the school calls the company and tells the company to ask me to come in. I was also told this likely won't happen. Same deal for Sam. This scene has apparently repeated itself prefecture-wide. And no, they won't be taking our holidays for this.

D'OH: I forgot to bring my basil and chive plants in when we got home from work. I just checked outside and they'd fallen off a ledge and landed upside-down. Damn that wind.

MIDNIGHT UPDATE: Hmmmmmmm... that last gust shook the second floor pretty violently, and the winds aren't supposed to max out until around dawn. We may be taking the futon downstairs and sleeping there.

that time of year again

Well, we had our first day back today. Mostly uneventful for me, since the kids were only there for a half day. Sam and I both gave away all the gifts we'd bought back home for people, and they were all well received. Who doesn't enjoy it when random bottles of wine appear on their desk?

Anyway, the early part of the second term always means excruciatingly hot and stuffy weather, daily practice for the upcoming sports festival, and this:

I love how they always manage to bulls-eye Tokyo Bay.

"big one, big one"

Alastair Campbell, former press secretary (1994-2003) to Tony Blair, published a book a month or two back dishing out some inside dirt on the British government from the time. A Japanese newspaper caught wind of some Japan-related anecdotes included in the book. Apparently, Blair had an encounter with the old election problem.

Campbell continued, "There was the odd schoolboy comic moment too, as when a Japanese businessman said, 'Ra whole of Japan is rookin fowad to your erection.'

"I said we are hoping for a big one and TB spluttered" while the Japanese put his thumbs up and said, 'Big one, big one.'

Her Majesty must be so proud of her government.

ah, crap

We go back to work tomorrow. I know I shouldn't complain, since apparently some of my cousins have like two days of paid vacation a year and I haven't worked since July, but I think the long hiatus actually makes returning to work even more daunting.

Oh well. It's the last time I have to do this (in Japan, at least).