I was up about 7 this morning. We had breakfast, mucked around and left about 9. We had to walk around the corner to the bus stop. About 10 minutes later the bus arrived. We got off after about 25 minutes and then had a 5 minute walk to Minami’s school. We arrived just as she was getting ready for her first performance, so timed it well!
It took us a while to find Kenichi and Kozue (and Kenichi’s parents) but we finally found them. They had a great spot as Kenichi had arrived at 5.30 in the morning to reserve it! They had a couple of rugs out, and some small seats, and plenty of food and drink. So we said hello and sat down. Within minutes Minami came out for her first performance which was a dance. As she takes lessons she was one of the better ones, so up the front. And on the end, meaning she was right in front of us.
After the dance they all ran off the stage / arena, and the next sport started (running). The whole sports day was most enjoyable to watch. The organisation of the groups – all different year levels – showed the effort the teachers had put in to it. And the kids did it with complete commitment.
Minami came over to join us at lunch time – Kozue had prepared sandwiches, fried pork, edamame, etc. After lunch she went back to get ready for the afternoon events she was competing in. I had to go to the toilet, which was an experience in itself. As I first walked in to the building there were tarps all over the floor. Usually the kids have to take their shoes off as they walk in, and wear different shoes inside. Amazing to have it going right from elementary school! In Australia the shoes would be stolen by some bully! However at the actual toilet there were no tarps down, so I still had to take my shoes off there and put on “toilet slippers”. Washing my hands was a struggle because the sink was so low!
Lunch was followed by a marching band – the whole band (including conductor) were probably grade 4. In typical Japanese form everybody did their job. The next event Minami was in was a weird “3 person” race. There were two teams of about 30 people each, in groups of 3. So 3 people had to run a short distance, pick up a pole (one on each end and one in the middle), run to a witches hat, turn around (so one kid being the anchor and the one on the other end having the furthest to run), then run back and put the pole down on its support. Once they had then ran back to the group, the next group of 3 went. This was quite amuzing to watch.
The next challenge was the parents and teachers “tug of war” event. So out Kenichi and I went to represent the family. There were a lot of people really committed to the event – they had brought gloves along! I had thought about it at one point but didn’t actually do anything about it – wish I had! There was one “war”, and then we all swapped sides and had another. We lost the first and won the second. But no decider.
Minami competed in a running race. She wanted to come first but made second (out of 5 in her heat). There were several other events during they day, including racing walking a giant ball around a course, grade 1’s shooting baskets, and even human pyramid’s. Apparently this was disappointing to Kaoru because they only built 3 levels, whereas when she was in school they would build much higher. Watching the synchronised building was fantastic though!
After the closing ceremoney we went back to Kozue and Kenichi’s and had a couple of beers and a chat. Kenichi’s parents were apparently nervous to meet us but had said afterwards that they enjoyed it and just wished they could speak English so we could communicate better. They used to live in Himeji so being able to talk about the beauty of that from our visit was great. We then went to dinner which was at a Nepalese restaurant, where we met up with Mio and Youichi as well. The food was spicy and Kaoru asked them about nuts. Apparently almost everything would have some form of nuts in it. So a vegetable curry came out to me. I had a couple of mouthfuls with some naan bread, and then started feeling ill. So either there were nuts in it, or there’s something else I’m allergic to that is in Nepalese food. This had happened to me a few years ago at a Sri Lankan restaurant, where the owner swore there were no nuts, so I guess it’s possible. So I struggled to maintain composure for a while until we had finished our meal, said goodbye, got in the car with Mio and Youichi and then just zoned out. We got back to the house and Mio served me some apple which was great as I needed some food and sugar (but couldn’t eat much). I was very tired from my body fighting it so I went to bed about 7.30.