Japanese Primary School Sports day

SO last weekend we had all the plans for a sport-filled weekend: swimming lesson on Saturday with high chance of getting the next badge, followed by elementary school Sports Day on Sunday.

Mummy as ever (fruitlessly?) engaged in the battle of trying to achieve the best of both worlds for Weechan, had arranged for her to be allowed specially to take part in the Sports Day, in advance of her going there every day when the International School holidays start in a couple of weeks. All this to ease her transition so she doesn't stand out like the proverbial sore thumb, nor the nail that requires hammering down, depending on your cultural perspective. Not sure what the teacher really thinks of all this, but she's graciously going along with it.

So, I was ready on Saturday to hit the shops to gather the appropriate materials to make the mother of all bentos (packed lunches), to rival all the neighbourhood bentos, thus assuring my acceptance into the local fold of mothers, as is required for a Japanese sports day.

Needless to say, true to the B-movie script which is life in the On the Pond family, 2 minutes before departure to he shops o Saturday, Mairi decided to ram her scooter into the plastic drainpipe on our balcony, shattering it, and sheering a dramatically sanguine gash into the back of her heel.

Surprisingly, I did not in fact ignore the spurting blood of my daughter and grab the camera to prove this to you, but instead mopped, disinfected and dressed the wound as I contemplated the now fresh page of my weekend plans.

She's fine by the way. It was deep enough to cause alarm, but not bad enough to require stitches.
However.
No pool, no running now possible.

And so it was that we found ourselves as spectators with the neighbours' cousins at the sports day the following morning.

Weechan decided she wanted to wear her uniform anyway, to show solidarity for her classmates.

There were lots of the usual events:
Eye of the Typhoon

It was not just the school kids' day, but also a community event. Here is the lovely T-chan, daghter of one of Mummy's colleagues, who has just moved into the neighbourhood.

Our district was in the white team.

But Weechan's classmates and our neighbours were in the red team, so we could just support everyone without getting in trouble.

This horseback battle always impresses me: you have to make a pyramid.

Then run at the enemy and try and steal their hat.

Really surprising no-one usually gets hurt.

2 of Weechan's classmates are Dr Dad's colleagues, so they had plenty of important doctory things to chat about.

The view from the sports field.

As in any country, the parents are avid fans!

As usual, despite best efforts, we ended up standing out a mile for all the wrong reasons. Weechan was a bit shy.

She was really looking forward to running in her race, but we enjoyed watching all the fun anyway.

This game didn't involve any running so we took part in it.
Mummy even got one in!

But in the end the red team lost.

Twice!

But the big kids were really kind to Weechan so we achieved our aim. She can't wait to go every day.

K-chan and Weechan's classmates entertained us with a great dance.

And then the neighbours invited us to join them for their impressive bento.
Next year, I will show my culinary mettle, I promise!

Thanks to the I-family for their picnic hospitality!