Sports Day

Ok, so for Sports Day the entire school is split up onto either the Red Team or the Blue Team.....which immediately brought Red vs. Blue to mind and thus I had quotes from the show constantly popping up in my head....not that that's a bad thing lol.   Ok, so most of the events are relay-race based where the kids have to do things like walk on balance beams then grab a bag off of a string with their mouth and spin around w/ their head on a baseball bat, and such things....or the handing off of a baton to the next runner....or a combination of everything.  I got to participate in a short relay race of teachers vs students...but I think the teachers didn't finish the race and only ran most of it to get the kids riled up?....I'm really not entirely sure what went on with that >.>.   Most of the time I was just a spectator sitting by myself, so I felt like a bit of a third wheel since all of the other teachers had something to do, but I didn't want to ask for stuff to do because they were all really busy and since no one is fluent in English it would take up time they didn't really have to explain things to me. So I sat there and watched.  A college student (from Sanpoku) came over to say hi to me and she spoke English very well, so I asked her about the different things on sports day and about Sanpoku and such...but I had to shoo her away because she was sitting in the teacher's tent with me which is, for teachers.  I was a little sad about that...but they were afraid that other people would flock to the tent (where it was nicely shaded) to get into the shade and use talking to me as a cover-up. Which is understandable that they would worry about such things, but other than her and the occasional teacher or student and one of the special guests, no one really said anything to me. It was really hot that day, but overall I enjoyed myself. I'd say that my three favorite events of the day were: 1. a game where groups of three students held up and carried another student wearing a hat, and the various groups tried to steal the hat of the guy being carried in the other groups.  2. a game where the family members had to throw in beanbag things into a basket on the backs of some students while the students tried to run away and prevent the beanbags from getting into their basket. 3. a duel nicely synced up to some music where two students pretended to have one of those standoff sword duels where they eventually both charge and pause then one of them falls over...when the one fell over the fireworks went off which added a nice dramatic flair to the whole thing lol^^. 
      As fun as sports fay was I was glad when it was over, it had been a long week of introducing myself over and over and trying to figure out what all of my duties are, and I was ready for some R&R. The enkai, or office/teacher party was a lot of fun, and right after sports day.  I almost missed the bus because not all of the teachers were taking one, and I was under the impression that everyone was riding the bus...and the bus was more of a giant van and didn't look much like a bus, so when they said the bus will be here I was looking out for an actual bus.  Needless to say one of the teachers luckily asked me just in time if I was riding the bus, and yelled out the window and told them to wait for me.  Once we finally got to where we were going it was a nice restaurant/onsen thing.  For those of you who don't know what an Onsen is, it's like a giant heated pool area, this one had an inside and an outside section...the outside section was built to make it look like you were in an actual hot spring w/ rocks and a mini waterfall and all. First you shower and wash up, and then you go sit naked in the giant heated pool/hot tub thing....same gender of course.  It was really relaxing and very nice and I kind of wanted to soak a bit longer since it was such a nice night out, but we couldn't stay in long because our food was waiting.  The restaurant part was more traditional styled where you sit on flat cushions on the floor, with a lazy-Susan in the middle of the table and the food is placed on the lazy-Susan for people to spin around and get their food. It was more Chinese styled food, served in smaller portions so there was a lot of selection. There were chicken based dishes, some hot some cold, some shrimp, spicy curry, and other stuff that I have no clue what it was.  And at an Enkai it's all you can drink beer, and people refill your cup before it gets empty, so if you're not careful one can get drunk rather easily.  Luckily I ordered something other than beer, and had a glass of beer that I took very small sips from, and water...so drinking 3 different things (one of which you have to re-order from the server when you want more so it can't be tipped off) made it so that I could keep a better eye on how much of what I drank....and having three things meant that taking small sips from all three equals the drinks not getting topped off as much and having water as a selection meant I could toast with it and drink as much as I wanted without worry lol....plus drinking water when drinking anything alcoholic is always a good idea.  Anyhoo, all in all  it was a nice way to wrap up a sort of exhausting and long week :).