School Sports Day

[khiemtran]

So, Pokemon acquired, and after a series of (for me) predictable adventures involving suitcases, a GPS-enabled smartphone, a bowl of ramen and a maze of narrow laneways all alike, I find myself in Nakameguro, where I'm meeting some friends at a school sports day.




The little kids are racing with giant balls...





Then the parents get to join in...





The red team is winning on points. Ganbatte, White Team!



I'm pretty sure school sport was never this fun for me...



All this takes place to a non-stop musical soundtrack. It certainly puts our local school to shame.



Now for the highlight. The bigger kids form up for a combined gymnastic/dance routine. (Note the score in the window: Team Red is still leading...)



Keep on eye on the guy on the podium. He knows he has something special up his sleeve...



Well, that looks easy enough...



Oh.



I think they might have practiced this before...



Now they are forming waves of human pyramids, popping up and down in different sequences. The crowd cheers.



Now for the big finale. The entire years five and six attempt to form a human pyramid.



Can you imagine what it must be like to be part of a pyramid with your entire year group?



Nearly there. Will they make it?



Yes!!! Victory!



After the cheering, there are races still to be won...



Team Red wins! Better luck next year, Team White!



Oh yes, and in Japanese schools, the bike racks are filled with unicycles...



On our way out, we can see the posters the kids made about the Sports Day. すごいでしょう？ (Amazing, right?)

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Are the unicycles for transport or just for fun? I actually once saw a chap on a unicycle riding round the mountain bike trails in our local forest. A couple of young men had just collapsed off their bikes after toiling up a long steep hill, only to stare in complete amazement as this guy on a unicycle came up the same hill and carried straight on past them. I have rarely seen anyone look so astonished. :)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

That must have been something to see! I'm pretty sure these unicycles were just school sports equipment...

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Looks like a fun day! I like the little white hats that the kids wear. I see a big unicycle craze in the US next year.

I noticed something in the alt-text of the first image ("crop7") that leads me to think that you might prepare multiple crops of particular images. I never thought about doing that, until now.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. From memory, I think that first image is actually uncropped. (I have a pretty unsophisticated work flow: I just make copies of photos I think look promising then load them into Microsoft Photo Editor for cropping. I've found my anti-virus software doesn't play nicely with Photo Editor and that seems to be the safest way to do it.)

Yes, the white hats are interesting. I should have included some Team Red photos to show that they had the same white uniforms, but with red caps.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

These photos are so なつかしい！I remember the sports day at the daycare where my kids were, when we lived in Japan. One thing they did was carry nuts over to a giant Totoro they had made out of papier mache. That was my first exposure to Totoro! That, and the ninja girl singing Arukô, arukô, watashi wa genki.... (... that is not the ninja girl in the video... but she sounded pretty much like that when she'd sing the song)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Wow, that must have been adorable! Totoro is such a great character. I still think of his tree sometimes when I see forest from the shinkansen.

I was quite amazed at how much effort and care they'd put into the sports day - and this was just a small school too. At our little local school, we struggle just to organize a car boot sale. Oh, and my earlier post about reading like a first grader was confirmed when Young Master Six exclaimed "かんたん、だよ！" when I mis-read a kanji.