There were so many people at the school. I even saw many of my junior high school students. Sports Day is like a prolonged half-time show at a football game. There was a little sport, then maybe three dances, then another short race, followed by more dancing and pom-poms.
It was a lot of fun. I think I will enjoy the middle school one more since I will know the people participating, and might be able to help out instead of just watching.
Some pictures:
Sunday was the trip to Karuizawa in Nagano. I almost missed it. Although I had set my alarm, I never heard it go off. Luckily I woke up without it, but I woke up with less than 10 minutes before the train I wanted to be on left. Needless to say, I missed that train, even though I was able to make it from bed to out the door in less than two minutes. After the stress of getting to the train station (all along wishing my bike was in working order), I managed to arrive at the meeting place just minutes before the bus pulled up. It was a delightful bus ride through winding roads, mountains, and forests. Bottles of tea, boxes of rice cakes, sweet potatoes, ginger, and sweet buns were passed around. Our first stop was a local grocery store where we were able to stock up on local produce and omiyage (gifts for the co-workers). Next was the meal. It was scrumptious. No pictures of the meal since we ate it so quickly. But here is a post-picture. You can spot the deserts.
After lunch, we went to a museum. It's an old house, and apparently very famous, but I couldn't figure why that was. It was a lovely house though.
After that, we went to a famous street with lots of shops on it. It seemed very European. I even spotted a Turkish store. For souvenirs, I bought a belt (which I had been regretting not bringing) and a small framed picture of the town, Karuizawa. Around 6, we boarded the bus to head back to Ota, and encountered the worst traffic. We didn't move for an hour. Finally the traffic broke, and we were able to continue back to Ota.
