Unfortunately, the weather did NOT cooperate with us. About 30 minutes into the morning it started to rain...then is started to pour! Not just a little sprinkle but a freakin' torrential downpour. Ohhh, the poor kids. The field flooded and myself and the rest of the teachers were busy digging trenches to drain he water.

Digging trenches - My teachers battling the elements!

Each of the teams had made posters, which were ruined which was a pity - the kids worked really hard on them. But aside from that, I didn't hear one complaint from anyone. Amazing. In fact, the rain made
the kids try even harder - the boys were eager to show off infront of the girls 'We ain't afraid of no rain!'. It was raining very very hard when they did their gymnastics routine. In the pic below - the kids in the pyramid fall to the ground on top of each other - on purpose! NUTS! I feel bad for the four boys on he bottom!

Boys gymnastics routine - - in the rain!!
Ganbarremashita!

I got to compete in 4 events, it was a blast! I was in 2 PTA events - one was a type of collect race. A PTA member and I had to run and get a card - which had a teachers name on it. Once we found that teacher we had to run across the finish line together - fun times! The second PTA race was a type of relay that involved skipping in pairs and balancing a ball between two sticks - - random! I was also in the tadaima rentaru - or the 'For the moment rental'!! In this race the kids pick up a piece of paper with instructions on it - usually something that they have to go and borrow or 'rent' from the crowd. A bench, a credit card, a bottle of water or perhaps a person - I was one such example. One of the funnier examples was when one of the teachers had to cross the finish line walking like a crab - priceless! Finally, I was in the folk dance. Despite the rain, the kids had a blast! As did I.

My team won! Woohooo! They were a bit of a dark horse - during all the practices they were the least energetic and almost always came last. Nothing like saving it all for the day! After the closing ceremony each team got together for pictures and one last cheer. It was nice to see the kids cheer each other on. Each of the leaders said a few words - many of the girls (and guys for that matter) were in tears. The kids really put a lot into these Sports Festivals, it gets quite emotional. It is the third year students who run most of the organization, so this was their last JHS sports festival. The first years learn from the second and the second from the third - enforcing the 'look-up-to and respect your elders' ideal which is such an important part of Japanese society. It's a great experience for the students, something that we don't really have back in Canada - (mandatory) positive leadership experience. The ending cheer for Kohyou Team (The leopard and lion team) was:

よかった！よかった！こひょう！　
Way to go Kohyou!

-- The translation doesn't really do the meaning justice. It was a great way to end the day!

Me and a couple of 2nd year
students....trying to get out of clean up time!

Three very tired but still genki Kohyou
leaders Shimpei, Kanji, Youhei and Ms. Shibata! Well done!

Ahh, and no sports day is complete without the teachers party afterwards! Both the teachers and some PTA members attended. My principal is usually quite quiet and reserved but this was an exception. This was his last sports festival, as he will be retiring at the end of the school year - so he went a bit nuts! We actually had quite a nice conversation too. Usually he is either too tired to talk or speaks in really complicated Japanese that I don't understand. I don't know if he was less inhibited (after a few beer) or that my Japanese is getting better but it was nice to chat with him, and finally understand what he's saying!! Here is a pic of him getting cheered on by some of the teachers - this is quite rare believe me! At an enkai anything goes - even if usually you would be very polite to the principal everything is forgiven and fogotten in the morning!

My usually quiet principal whooping it up Enkai style!
This was his last Undokai so he wanted to make happy memories.

It was a great last sports festival from beginning to end - rain and all!