Kindergarden Sports

It's Friday!

You know how we roll. Tidbits from my crazy life- usually about Japan. Lately, Japan has been keeping the crazy on rapid-fire, so I've got lots of pics and vids.

Thursday was the Fall equinox. It was also a holiday here. (As was Monday. Between those and school rest days, I only taught one day this week!) And Thursday was also Kindergarden Sports Day.

It started out with a mini-matsuri (festival) where the 5/6 yr olds played taiko and the rest of the school pulled a float.




The kids march on for the Opening Ceremony.


The Kindergarden does this cheer every year. It says stuff like "Fire trucks are red, Ambulances are white." Red (aka) and white (shiro) are the teams at all school sports here. A! A! O!


Here's Sumire (3yr olds) with the "Goldfish Got Out" Race. You had to crawl through the tube, grab a plate, pick up the goldfish, throw it in the pool and run to the finish line.


Is that an eyeball with a body? Yep! He's Medama (which is Japanese for eyehead). He's from Ge ge ge no Kintarou. Actually he's Kintarou's father. He died, but then he decided that he didn't want his son to be an orphan, so he came back as eyeball! In this race the kids had to find their parents who were hidden behind the Medama things with just their hands poking out.


The Principal of one of my elementary schools. Every year, they find some madness to make the invited guests do. This year, we had to put on an apron and a headscarf and sweep a beachball down a track, around a cone and back. I did pretty well, since I'm (was) a hockey player.


Tanpopo (the name of the 4 yr old class) doing their dance. Crazy Pink Shoes is in this class. She's guaranteed to entertain with her energetic spazzness.


The beginning of Himawari (5 yr olds) dance. This is their last sports at kindergarden. My babies grow up so fast! My neighbour, P, was like "What if they kick the balls at us?" And I replied, "The won't kick the balls at the invited-" WHOOSH!




This game is the best. It's called Time Vocan. White Team parents have to flip the squares over so that the white side shows. Red team parents have to flip so the red shows.


Hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to check out my Banned Books Giveaway and the WHEN ROSE WAKES giveaway.