My co-worker has just given me his pictures from the school festival so I thought I would put some up to show you what went on. The theme of the whole thing was preservation of the environment. It was called Challenge Seibu. The first one is of the students doing a traditional dance from the northern area called Hokaido. The dance is called Saranbushi. The practiced it for two months. I was really amazing. Boys and girls here are so good with arts subjects. Boys want to be good dancers just as much as girls. They are really good at expressive movement.
The next picture so of the koto performance. This is a traditional Japanese instrument that has long strings kind of like a harp. It is based on the pentatonic scale. For some reason, you have to take your shoes off to play it. Two people play on one instrument. You would recognize the song they played if you heard it too. It is exactly the song that you would expect to be played on this instrument.







Then there was a huge round robin tug of war tournament. They had to stand in lines that faced each other. Then they would blow a whistle and then each kid would have to crush a tin can to be recycled and through it in a basket. Then they would run for the rope and start pulling. Basically, who ever could recycle the fastest would have the advantage.
This picture is of a musical number. They guy in the men's yukata is a teacher and the guy in the suit is my principal. He never thinks twice about getting up and dancing in front of the whole student body. I am on a volley ball team with him when we play against the parents every so often. He really goes for the ball. He is the tiniest man ever too! I park my bike in front of his office window. Every morning when I arrive at school he runs to the window to shout good morning to me.
There were tons of classes you could go to put on by members of the community too. This is a group of students learning how to make Japanese sweet dumpling. Once again, guys and girls participate equally here. It is really interesting to see the differences in perceived gender roles here compared to north America. There was also pottery, metal working, pressed floral arrangement, bead working and weaving. At lunch time I got to be in a tea ceremony which was cool too. There are all these old ladies dressed in kimono teaching the students how to perform the ceremony. It was so tranquil and nice. The tea was quite bitter but you were given a sweet bean ball to counter it. My legs fell asleep in the worst way because of how you have to sit. I could barely get up when it was over! When a friend of mine was in one last week, he actually couldn't get up. Some of the old ladies had to help him. You just lose all feeling in your legs and feet. Well, these are just a few of the highlights of the festival. There were some boring parts that were all power point too but for the most part it was quite fascinating. I really had nothing to compare it to either. We just don't do things like this in Canada. We are much too young of a country I guess. It was incredible to see how deeply invested they are in preserving their cultural heritage. I was impressed to say the least.