Bunkasai and the 13 days

You've heard me say I've got a 13 day week going on. Maybe you're wondering how this happens. Here's a quick explanany!

You remember when you were a little kid? Maybe kindergarten. Maybe primary school. And they'd have these programs sometimes where they made the whole school sing, dance, act, etc. And they'd put up all the horrible fingerpainting and lopsided craft you and your classmates made. Usually, they had these things at like the end of a term. And the names ranged from Christmas/Easter Program to School Recital.

You had those as a kid, right?

Well, in Japan every school has them. That's right. EVERY school. From Kindergarten to University. Of course the content at the kindergarten is different than at the university, but same concept. Also at the kindergarten and primary school, they're called Gakushuu Happyoukai- Learning Presentation. And they're called Bunkasai- Culture Festival from Junior High up.

So anyways, I teach at 4 schools- 1 kindergarten, 2 primary/elementary schools and 1 Junior High. Which means 4 of these festivals. Thankfully, the kindergarten bunkasai doesn't happen at this time of year. But the other 3 hit me rapid-fire.

Second last weekend of October
Saturday: Junior High
Sunday: big Elementary
Last Saturday: small Elementary

Monday of one week to Saturday of the next = 13 days

Here are a few tidbits from the festivals.

This is the San Francisco project that I was working on. I now know so much about San Fran, I'm contemplating doing the next Far Out Friday on San Fran instead. lol.


And I translated the Japanese myself. Here's a break down:- 3 weeks research, 1 day translation, 1 day finding pics, cutting them out, and making the posters.


My kiddies got skillzies.




The second years at elementary did a play based on an old rakugo (one style of Japanese play) about a kid with a really long name. This was the name.

I'll write it in roman letters for you:
Jugemujugemu-gokounosurikire-kaijarisuigyono-suigyomatsu-unraimatsu-fuuraimatsu-kuuharutokoronisumutokoro-yaburakouji-noburakouji-paipopaipopaiponoshuuringan-shuuringannogurindai-gurindainoponpocopiino-ponpoconano-choukyuumeino-chousuke! Yeah, suddenly that name you thought was odd, it ain't so bad, huh?

Here's a vid.
The mother comes out to tell Long Name's friends that he's still asleep. Then she calls the grandmother to tell her to wake up Long Name. Grandmother asks, Wait is Long name still asleep? Long name! Wake up. Kids go to play. (They're incidentally singing a song about a Japanese monster.) Then his friend picks Long name in the game. He hits her in the head. And they go tell the mother that Long name hit her. And she calls the dad and tells the Dad that Long Name hit her. Dad: What did you say? My Long Name hit his friend in her head? Long name, why did you hit your friend in her head? (I didn't understand the joke at the end, so I can't translate.)

On an aside, he got the long name from 3 wise men or wizards or something that appeared to the parents.