Sports Day (Undokai)

Today was my school's undokai which basically means 'sports festival' or 'sports day' which we all call it. It was initially supposed to be held last Saturday but had to be postponed due to rainy weather. Its a major event on the school calendar and the students normally start preparing at least two months before and many parents are usually in attendance. What struck me about the undokai was that EVERYONE participates. I remember in high school when we had sports day, only a select group of persons ran the different events and usually those persons came from the track team. In Japan every single member of the student body participates, it really promotes team work. There are several different events as well, not only track and field. There was also tug-of-war, a game called "The Typhoon" and obstacle courses. For the races they jazzed it up, it wasn't just regular races .... u had teachers running with students, boys running with girls, clubs running against each other etc. All the races were relays so there was always a level of excitement on the field. All in all it was a great day (even tho it was sooo cold) and the kids really enjoyed it (I did as well). I took tonnes on pics so i"ll post a few (the entire album can be viewed on my Facebook page)

Temple Visit (Part 2)

Some more pics of the temple visit in Yamadera:

Buddhist tradition of offering pennies and making wishes, like they just stick them in a crevice in the wall and they just stayed there .... found that so cool 

A Japanese couple offering their penny and making their wish

 

Not sure if these were statues or gravestones

One of the MANY sets of stairs we had to climb

:) Why dis man looking at me like that doh .... lol

Elementary School Welcome Party / Hiking Trip / Temple Visit

My first ES visit was on September 30th. ES kids are super genki (Japanese term for enthusiastic or lively) amd active. I felt like a celebrity when I arrived, all the stares and 'oohs and aahs' haha .... I loved it. They were just awesome, here's a few pics of a welcome party planned by my kiddies (again excuse the poor photo quality from my phone)

Last weekend I went hiking with a couple other JETS. We took a train from Sendai Station to Omoshiroyama then hiked from there to Yamadera. The hike itself was pretty easy but the walk into Yamadera town seemed to take forever. We had some soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles) in the town then walked to the temple. The temple was very scenic but we climbed about a MILLION stairs to get to the top .... It was a great trip though. Here are some pics (again with my crappy BB camera, sorry lol)

The first of many waterfalls that we saw along the way

Beautiful Autumn scenery

Another waterfall

 

 

Rice fields I'm guessing .....

Entrance of one of the temples

 

 

 

 

Omiyage (Japanese word for souvenirs)

Lovely view