Soran, Soran

Summer is over, and it’s back to school for me! I don’t know about most people, but I have always looked forward to this time of year. Fresh notebooks and pencils, seeing old friends after a long absence, meeting new friends… The beginning of classes feels like a new start and an opportunity to change things up and learn about something completely different. The end of vacation also signals the start of fall, my favorite time of the year.

Being in Japan has not stopped my happiness that it has finally become September. I’ve been officially back in school for a week now, and I feel refreshed and ready to take on the new semester. This week has been incredibly busy, but not with teaching. Every year at the beginning of fall junior high schools across Japan hold the 体育祭 (taii-ku-sai). Taiikusai is a “sports day” in which teams of students participate in athletic activities and compete against one another in a show of school spirit. This week the entire school has devoted itself to preparing for the taiikusai. There is a lot to be done, and the students and teachers are all busy. The students spend the first part of the day in classes taking their beginning of term tests, and after lunch everyone is devoted to practicing for the events.

My desk is fresh and ready for work...

...and here it is. Around 280 summer diaries to correct. Whee!

Sports day will be held tomorrow, a Saturday, and goes from about 8am until late afternoon. I will know more about it once I’ve experienced it for myself, but as far as I can tell the students compete in various relays and track and field events. The school is split into a number of teams, each of which consists of a 1^st year class, a 2^nd year class, and a 3^rd year class. Each team has their own color and the teachers of the corresponding classes wear clothing of that color. The team with the most points by the end of the day wins. (I’m not quite sure what they win, but I can tell it’s a big honor!)

The highlight of the day, however, is the dance. After lunch the entire student body gathers together on the field and performs a dance. The dance that my school will perform is called the “Soran” (click on the link to see a video of performers doing this dance). The students have spent the better part of every afternoon this week learning and practicing the “Soran” dance. The color teams are competing against one another to see who can master it the best! I’ve watched a couple of the rehearsals, and this dance looks pretty amazing. The 3^rd year students are responsible for teaching their younger teammates how to do the dance properly. Japanese schools use a student centered classroom education system which definitely fosters an independence and responsibility that I don’t remember having in middle school. It’s pretty amazing to see how this really affects the productiveness of the festival preparations. Instead of the teachers being responsible for teaching the dance and keeping the students in line during rehearsals, the upper classmen take charge and make sure that no one falls behind and that everyone has the skills they need to succeed. They are highly motivated by their desire to win, but they also take it for granted that it’s their responsibility as the upper classmen to take care of the younger students.

Anyways, the kids and teachers are all excited, and I hope that tomorrow goes well! I will be cheering everyone on as enthusiastically as I can, and hope that I can be of use. Apparently I’ve been roped into running in a relay race with a team of teachers sometime within the course of the day, so that should be, uh, interesting. As the Japanese say, 頑張ります！(I will try my best!)

If anyone is interested I can make another post after the 体育祭 is over and hopefully give more details about the events. I’m sure that I will have an interesting day.

じゃあ、ね！

P. S. Here's an article I found on the Japan Times that talks about Sports Day. Check it out, if you are interested!