Sports

The idea of sports here is a little bit different from what I'm used to.

Yesterday, our school had an Intramural Sports Competition. Instead of the usual ball-oriented activities like basketball, baseball, and volleyball, we had a series of huge-group-activities throughout the day. All 350 students had to participate.

All of the sports consisted of different classes within one grade level competing against another. For example, one group of 30 kids will be doing tug of war against another group of 30 while chanting things like their homeroom teacher's first name (Ma-sa-shi), their homeroom teacher's nickname ("biton"=beautiful pig), or "me-ta-bo", which I think means metabolism.

Another activity was the 40 person jump rope. The entire class would jump in unison as the two taller students of the class kept the rope going. It's really an amazing sight.

Perhaps that's where Japanese people get their group-oriented thinking. No matter how fast or slow someone is, you can't quite excuse yourself from the competition. You're a part of something much bigger than yourself.

I'm currently watching TV and the program that's on is yet another thing I've never seen before. Different junior high schools around the country send their students to this football-like stadium. And in this stadium, they do a 100 meter sprint...in a line of 30 students together!! Crazy, I tell ya.