Tuesday, June 3, 2008

undokai

This weekend I experienced my first undokai or Sports Day, at my junior high. I had a fair idea of what to expect from other ALTs and the intensive practice the week before. It consisted of the usual favorites: relay races, tug-of-war's, etc., and inevitably ended in a drinking party for the teachers. My favorite was something they called the "pafomansu" (performance) where all the students executed a sychronized, well, not dance, really, more like a cheer, to Queen's classic "Don't Stop Me Now", which my JTE was very happy about because the song uses the phrase "having a good time", something the 8th graders had been learning. In the video they start out with EXILE's famous "Choo Choo Train" dance move, there's a bit of patty cake, and then of course the wave.




"tochu pafomansu"



Sports day logos - Cool!





homeroom cheers - notice the boy and girl in the middle avoiding skin-to-skin contact with her sleeve




my JTE's homeroom (and therefore my favorites), 1D


student body president giving his address


my first time seeing the synchronized calisthenics




the paper-crown-stealing game


the throw-the-balls-in-the-box game


massive jump rope-for-as-long-as-you-can



the tug-of-war was taken PRETTY seriously



teachers/superheroes



a silly pass-the-basketball game for the parents

clubs' relay race with props - art club (on the far end, wearing a funny hat and carrying a painting) won second place!

school president presenting 1st place award to 1D!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't do the 'We Will Rock You' stomp in the middle of 'Don't Stop Me Now'. It's wrong!

Bonus points if you know the words to 'We Will Rock You' (other than the title).

sophiesaffron said...

You got mud on your face?