It's a cat!
Other happenings include my school's 100 year celebration last Friday. The whole school met at the Rose Theatre (the same place we saw the musical) for the whole school day. We had a practice ceremony in the morning so the students would know exactly what was going to happen. In the practice ceremony the speeches were much shorter. The real ceremony started in the early afternoon and the place was packed with honored alumni, PTA, donors, families, etc. I understood almost nothing that was said during the 2-plus hour ceremony and might have even dozed off a bit during the keynote speech by some famous Japanese soccer player/coach who I can only assume went to school there. But I did participate in the singing of the school song thanks to a translation from Kanji to Romaji by Andrea. I knew the tune because ever since the October 1 school assembly where the students sang it unsatisfactorily, they have been playing it during lunch every day. The students didn't sing along during lunch but I guess it was a threat to say, "If you don't sing it better at the 100 year ceremony we'll keep playing it during lunch every day for the rest of the year." I guess the principal was satisfied because they haven't been playing it anymore. The ceremony was capped off by a performance by our nearly-Olympic qualifying rhythmic gymnastics team. It was pretty impressive. And then a taiko drum performance finished it all off which was amazing and very loud. Also a little awkward when a few of the drumming guys came on stage in nothing but what appeared to be a sumo-type diaper. The reaction of the students made me realize that these students are not all too different from American students after all. So despite my inability to understand much, it was a nice ceremony and a good chance to be around all of the students and teachers in a different setting. I also got to wear my suit for the first time since Tokyo orientation.
Yesterday was Sports Day at my school. It's the annual day in the fall where everyone participates in sports instead of going to class. This is something that would never be allowed in American schools where parents would call and complain that their child shouldn't be forced to play sports. Here everybody did it and they took it seriously, evidenced by the high number of injuries that occurred. The school nurse was very busy. The first-year students played handball, second-years played volleyball, and third-years played basketball. I was an alternate for the 36 homeroom boys basketball team because they only have 5 boys but I would only play if one of them got hurt. I wanted to play but I didn't want anyone to get hurt so I didn't mind not getting to play. I'm also not very good at basketball so it was probably best that I didn't play. I did get to play on the teacher's handball team that played the winning boys handball team at the end of the tournament. I've never played handball before so I was kind of thrown into the fire a bit but I guess I held my own. I definitely had the biggest cheering section of anyone that was playing with constant cheers from all of the students of "Kory gambare!" I have to admit that made me feel pretty good. In the end the students won 8-7 in a sudden death overtime. And I got a nice scrape on my knee. Battle scars.
So sports day was fun. In May or June there is another sports day that involves more team building exercises, many of which look extremely dangerous to me. So when that happens I'll try to take some pictures. Other than all that, it's been mostly work and regular daily life. I'm definitely feeling like I've got a pretty good routine. I'm enjoying work and the cooler weather. Mt. Fuji has been looking very pretty lately with snow appearing on the top. It's amazing how much closer it looks when it's clear outside. Yesterday I could actually see the fifth station with my naked eye from a window at school. So we'll try to get some more pictures of Fuji-san soon. Please remember to check out our Flickr site for all of our pictures.
I hope everyone is doing well. Sometime soon for anyone who is interested I'm planning to do a post about some of my lessons so you can see exactly what I do in class. But I'm tired of typing now so it'll have to wait.
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