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)