Biwako Bike Trip 2011

It's only been a few days since I last posted, but I wanted to put up some pictures from the Biwako Bike Trip. It was amazing and completely exhausting. I had a great time and I may just have to do it again next year.

Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan. Surrounding the lake is a bike path that stays close to the shore and  gives bikers a scenic view of Shiga prefecture. I live fairly close to the lake so I am glad that I was able to take this weekend to really take advantage of it. I did this bike trip with a group of 30 people. I started by taking a train at 6:20am heading to Nagahama. I met up with the rest of the crowd at the train station at around 8:30am and we headed out soon afterwards. We biked all of Saturday and stopped for the night at a hostel by the lake called BB Dylans (apparently the owner likes Bob Dylan a lot). On Sunday we started again around 8:30 and got back to Nagahama around 4. I arrived home officially at 8pm. According to this website the total trip is 149.5 km or 92.9 miles.

Sports Day Aftermath

Good morning / afternoon / evening!! (Depending on your time zone)

Sports Day was quite successful, although very very hot. It's been an exciting weekend, and I thought I'd post some pictures of how the day went and talk about what kinds of events they performed.

I got to school 7:30am, around the time I usually get there on workdays. There were already a lot of teachers there and preparation was in full swing. I tried to figure out if there was anything that I could do to help, but there wasn't much. I did what I could and then set out to talk to the kids and prepare to cheer.

This sign was made completely out of PET bottle caps. Pretty amazing! 

An empty field! Soon to be filled with students. 

The day started with the opening ceremonies, a few speeches, and exercises. There were seven teams, each consisting of a 1st year, 2nd year, and 3rd year class. The teams had colored bandanas to identify them. The events were all pre-organized and the teams knew where to line up and stand so that each event would follow the next one without (too much) chaos. The events include things like three-legged- races, relays, tug-o-war, ball tosses....

The opening stretches. Everyone did exercises together to stretch out their limbs. 

Tug-o-war!

Ball Toss. The team with the most beanbags in the bucket by the end of the time limit won!

AND THEN CAME THE DANCE!!!

All in all, it was a pretty awesome day. I don't know how the kids survived through that heat, but they worked super hard and did a really good job. The teams with the most points at the end of the day received awards and certificates. Regardless, everyone had a good time! 

I am sporty in my sports day outfit! The shirt was an event shirt from last year that one of the teachers lent me for the day. I felt very cool and hip.

Completely unrelated: Went to Nagahama for a BBQ and to see more of Lake Biwa. I <33 Shiga!