Sports Day and my first Enkai

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For the past 2 weeks, my school has only been having class for half a day. The other half has been practice for sports day. It's kind of like field day on steroids. Not only do they have lots of races and silly events, they also have this thing called mass games. They have this whole show where they build pyramids and make formations that look incredible from above, kind of like at the superbowl. At the morning meeting on Thursday, I was doing as I usually do and staring into space because I can't understand a thing they are saying. Then I heard my name and all the teachers stared at me and started laughing. I heard my name several more times and the teachers kept looking at me. I just shrugged my shoulders. After the meeting, one of the English teachers came to me and told me I was "volunteered" to be one of the teacher representatives in the Mukade race and in a relay race. Luckily for me, I was thrilled to do it!

Sports day was on Sunday and it was so much fun. Lots of parents and city officials were there to watch. It's a big deal in Japan. I had a great time watching and talking with the kids throughout the day. My races were at the end of the day. The first was the Mukade. It's like the three legged race but with more people and you are tied front to back. Everyone stands in a straight line front to back. Your right leg is tied to the person in front of you and your left to the person behind. The kids do it in groups of around 10 and frequently fall into a huge pile up, hilarious. My group of teachers competed against the 6 PTA groups and won, yah!!! The other race was against the boys relay team. We were passing the baton off every 50 yards and they were only doing it every 200. This caused us to get way behind, but it was a great time.

After Sports day, I went to my first Enkai. This is a work eating/drinking party that is very popular in Japan. It was great to see all the teachers in a different light. They sat me near a few young teachers who spoke a little English. I could tell something was going on when the English teacher started shouting at the others in Japanese. I could tell he was telling them I was "off limits." I laughed and pretended not to notice. This particular English teacher is very protective over me which I really like. I really like everyone at my school, kids and teachers. I am really happy in Japan. I miss my friends and family, of course, but things are still going so well here. I don't know if I could ask for anything more. That said, I can't wait to come home for Christmas!!! I miss you all back home so much.

This weekend, I'm going to Osaka. It's the 2nd biggest city in Japan, next to Tokyo. There's this big festival that is suppose to be extremely wild, whatever that means. I'll be sure to update my blog on Monday/Tuesday!! I have Monday off for a three day weekend. I'm not even sure what the holiday is, haha.