Final farewells: The end is real

Last Wednesday was the Inagakuen closing ceremony. Kira, Aaron, Antoine and I all made our final speeches to the school in the morning. Kira and Aaron made their speeches mostly in Japanese with a little bit of English. Kira cried near the end of her speech, Aaron teared up a little. I made my speech mostly in English, with Japanese at the end. I didn’t cry, but I did start choking up. It got to the point where I skipped over a few of the lines I prepared and wrote down, and just went straight to the end. I mostly talked about how Inagakuen is such a special school, and how lucky I felt to have been able to stay there for five years.

I was expecting Antoine to make a long speech in Japanese, burt he actually mostly just shouted BONJOUR! and ran around the stage, and took pictures of the students before making a short farewell statement in French and Japanese.

After the closing ceremony, I made another final farewell speech to the staff of House 2, all in Japanese. In this speech, I actually mentioned that I was heading off to graduate school to study International Education Management. A lot of my co-workers think that means I’ll definitely be coming back to Japan afterwards. I’m not so sure that is actually going to happen, but if possible, I would love to come back and visit for the 2020 Olympics.

After making my speech, I actually went around the school to say some personal good-byes to some of the English teachers that I worked with, and I gave a few of the teachers some of my hand-knit scarves as a good bye present. When I gave my gift to Tsuji-sensei, she actually started to cry, then I started to cry. Overall, it was a very emotional day.

Basically, after saying good bye, I spent most of my time at work cleaning out my desk, and packing everything in boxes since 2 house will be renovated over the summer. Now that everything is moved into a temporary English office in 6 house, I’ve been spending most of my time packing, and bringing over things to leave for my successor when she arrives.

I’ve also been bringing so many things to second-hand stores, and just straight up throwing some things away in the trash. I feel a bit guilty for being wasteful, but at the same time, everything has to go, and the second-hand shops in Japan don’t always accept everything. It’s been stressful, but I think I can say that I’ve got it all packed and ready to go when I leave this July 31st!

Last week, some of my lolita friends threw me a good-bye tea party. It was technically a joint tea party with our friend Yumiko, to celebrate her birthday. I gave everyone a goodie-bag of accessories and jewelry that I know I’m not going to wear anymore. I also included some hand-knit accessories and some tea that I never drank. Everyone was glad about their bags, and I basically said, “I hope you enjoy your good-bye presents. Do not hand them back to me.” 😉

Included in each goodie bag was a personalized note for each of the girls who attended. I wrote Yumiko’s and Hina’s notes in Japanese. Hina opened and read her note before the end of the party, and started crying. At least I’ll see some of the girls one more time before I leave Japan.

In my free time this past week, when I’m not packing and making preparations to go back home, I’ve been playing Pokémon Go. Charlotte, Serena, and I were watching with jealousy as our friends back in America, Australia and New Zealand were able to start playing weeks ahead of us, but it finally became available in Japan last Friday. You’d think it would’ve been released in Japan earlier, considering this is the country where Pokémon is from. It is definitely an addicting game, that eats up my phone battery real fast.

I’m glad it came out before I leave Japan. I can get some of the playing out of the way before I have to start studying next month, and it actually makes my Japan experience just that more Otaku-like. Actually, the day it came out, Charlotte and I went to the park across the street from the school, and ran into some groups of our students also playing Pokémon Go. The students got real excited when they saw that we were playing it too, and we’d point out where in the park we saw certain Pokémon.

It just makes me that much more sad that I’m leaving, because this game is another thing that I could talk about and use to bond with the students, but now I’m leaving. 

Either way, I’m counting down the final days here in Japan. I’m actually looking forward to going home, but the reality of the situation hasn’t quite sunk in yet.

Anyway, I have two days left! I’ll let you all know how the transition home goes.

Sayounara.

Bittersweet and Awkward Good byes

As always, I’m really bad at writing consistently, but I think I have a good excuse. I’ve been busy with finishing up all of my financial aid paperwork for grad school, packing things and shipping them home, sorting clothes and other things in my house, and making multiple trips to second hand shops like Hard Off and Kinji.

It’s kind of frustrating when I pack so many things to get rid of, only to have the second hand shop refuse to take most things. Yet, on a good day I can convince them to take everything, even if they’re not going to buy everything from me. Also, in the past week, I’ve just been trashing more and more things, just so it’s out of the apartment.

Anyway, I officially move out of my apartment on July 31st, and I fly out of Japan on August 1st. I also found out who my successor is. I won’t write her name here though, but I do know she’s around the same age as me, and is recently married, so her husband is coming over with her. Since I have many random household items lying around, I’m just going to be leaving my old dishes, laundry items, space heater, fan, and bike for her to use once she gets here. She doesn’t arrive at Inagakuen until around August 5th I think, so I won’t be meeting her.

I’ve also been finishing up my final classes at Inagakuen. It feels so weird, because I know I have no more classes to teach, but it still feels like I’ll be coming back to these same students in  September.

I said my good-byes to my students at Okegawa high school a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sad, because I’ve only really known these students for about 3 months at most, so I didn’t really feel an attachment to them, but I am going to miss some of the teachers that I worked with. I also went to the Okegawa English department’s drinking party, and since I am leaving, I was given a good-bye present. They actually gave me a money envelope with 3,000 yen! Of course I stashed it away to use for moving expenses later this month.

Even though I finished up my classes at Okegawa two weeks ago, I got called back again last Wednesday so that I could make my final farewell speech to the staff at the morning meeting. It was very short. I basically just said that I was returning home, and that everyone was very kind, thank you. However, before I left, I had to say good bye one on one with the Principal and Vice Principal. Once I did that, I said my final good-byes to the English teachers (again) and then rode my bike back to Inagakuen.

Later that same afternoon at Inagakuen, there was a foreign language teachers’ meeting, and Kira, Aaron and I gave our good bye speeches to the staff, and we were each given a bouquet of flowers and a gift. The gift turned out to be Japanese geta. They’re beautiful, and I’m glad whoever bought them was smart enough to buy the large size. They just fit my feet.

Last Friday was our final Sogo Eigo class, which is the elective English class that’s focused on debate. We had a short end of term party for the students, and even had a mini talent show. Many of the students tailored their talents to me. Two girls did “quizzes” for their talents, and included questions about me. Two girls knew I really like the movie Frozen, and did a lip sync to “Love is an Open Door.”

I haven’t really started crying or tearing up much during all of these good-byes, but I actually tried really hard not to cry when another two of my students sang an Okinawa song for their talent. I’m actually really sad that I won’t be able to finish the school year with them. I know I’m technically not supposed to play favorites, but that Sogo Eigo class is my favorite class to teach, and has some of the best students.

All of my classes at Inagakuen have finally finished, and I’ve been cleaning my desk and sorting through things to leave for my successor for her to use when she arrives. I also have to pack everything in boxes and move it to either House 6 or House 4, since House 2 is being renovated, including the Foreign Language office.

Tomorrow is the closing ceremony, and Kira, Aaron and I are going to be giving our good-bye speeches to the whole school. I’m kind of mad at myself for not learning more Japanese than I have in the five years that I have lived here, but I guess it’s part of the circumstances of my job, and the people who I’ve made friends with here. Anyway, most of my speech will be in English, with some Japanese thrown in. Let’s see how well I can keep it together tomorrow.

Not a dull moment at Okegawa High School

I had a few fun firsts at Okegawa High school yesterday. Usually, nothing much out of the ordinary happens when I go there. Anyway, in one of the first-year homerooms that I teach, there is a student who is severely hearing impaired, and wears hearing aids in both of her ears. She sits in the second row, and there is a special transmitter kept in the front of the class so each teacher who comes in can put it on. I had to clip it on to my shirt while I did my self-introduction lesson. I also noticed that my co-teacher was making a lot of gestures whenever I was giving instructions, more so than usual. I don’t think he knows a lot of Japanese sign language though. When I saw what he was doing I made sure to use a lot of clear gestures too, since I don’t really know Japanese sign language, and I’m not sure how good the student’s English Listening skills are.

However, the introduction lesson seemed to go well enough, and I saw that her classmates were willing to explain things more clearly to her when she couldn’t understand everything. When I finished the lesson and was cleaning up, I started humming to myself, and she started running up and gesturing to me to take it off because she could hear my humming in her ears. Oops! Now I know that I should be more mindful of what I’m saying and doing while wearing the transmitter. There’s only one transmitter in the class though, so I wonder how classes will work with more collaborative team-teaching in the future, or if we’re going to have to stick with me being the main instructor in most of our future classes. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The other fun, yet actually kind of scary, event we had happened later in the afternoon. During one of my free periods, there was an announcement over the loud-speakers. I didn’t quite understand it, but I saw a lot of the teachers in the office sit straight up and start closing all of the windows. Then, they started clearing all of the PE students from the field outside. One of the second-year English teachers came up to me and explained that a helicopter was going to land using the school field as a pad because of a medical emergency. Apparently this happens about once or twice a year, but this was my first time seeing it.

A fire-truck had to come and spray down dirt field to make it the dirt more compact, and last dusty for landing. After the helicopter landed, and ambulance arrived and they transferred their patient into the helicopter before taking off. The medical helicopter was labeled as a “Doctor Heli.” I think they missed a golden opportunity to call it a “Doctor Copter.” So, no one at school was hurt, it’s just that the local hospital uses Okegawa High school’s sports field as a landing pad, because they don’t have one at the hospital. It was very interesting to watch, but I hope the patient is okay.

It was definitely a more entertaining day at my visit school. Golden Week is coming up soon. I don’t really have any plans for the long break, but I’ll still try to enjoy it.

Earthquakes and the New School Year

Well, first thing’s first. I’m sure everyone has heard of the large earthquake that hit Kumamoto prefecture last week. Kumamoto is all the way down on Kyushu, however, I live in Saitama on the middle of Honshu, so I wasn’t affected. I did feel some shaking, because it was a large quake, but it wasn’t large enough to set off my earthquake alarm. I also didn’t feel any of the after-shocks myself, though I know Kumamoto is still feeling them. As far as I know, all of the JETs in Kumamoto are safe and have been accounted for, and 12 of them have been evacuated. I am personally safe in Saitama, going through life as usual, and all of us here are hoping that Kumamoto’s after-shocks come to a stop soon, so that aid and recovery can start to come through.

Anyway, since I last wrote, I had just finished my spring break trip traveling the Chugoku region of Japan. Our school opening ceremony was actually on April 8th, but team-teaching classes didn’t start until the middle of the next week.

There were a few surprising changes when I came back to work. I didn’t realize that Kanda-sensei, the Vice Principal for House 2 was leaving, and came back to work to meet a new Vice Principal. He doesn’t speak English, but he seems nice. We do have another new Vice Principal in charge of the ALTs, and he is Suzuki-sensei (though not the same Suzuki-sensei from years ago). He is in house three and he seems to be a bit more laid-back, but I haven’t had a chance to get to really know him since he’s not in my house.

Of course there are some new English teachers, but I do not teach with any of them this year. However, two of them are in House 2. Yoshida-sensei, and Saito-sensei. Tokuyama-sensei is back in house 2 again, and she’s my advisor this year! It’s been really great to catch up with her, even though we aren’t team-teaching together.

Also, I am back Okegawa high school again for this academic year. I guess it was just easiest for the teachers making the ALT schedules. This year at Okegawa, I am teaching with Hayakwa-sensei again, who I taught with my first year at Okegawa. I am also teaching with a new teacher, Tokui-sensei. What’s interesting is that this year I am only teaching with two teachers, and I teach with only Tokui-sensei one week, and then only Hayakawa-sensei the next week, when I used to teach with a mix of three teachers every week. I have only had one full day of classes at Okegawa so far, with Tokui-sensei. So far, the students seem excited, and we’re using a sticker points system with the students to try and encourage them to volunteer more in class. I’ll be bringing my sticker supply over to Okegawa, since it looks like I’ll be using them more over there.

Most of the first classes at Inagakuen have been going smoothly. My Sogo Eigo, English Conversation, Essay Writing, and English 2 classes are all using mostly the same beginning lesson plans from last year. We made a few improvements to the materials and all of those classes are going swimmingly. However, we have a completely new plan for the English 1 students. I’ve only had one class for English 1 so far, and it was definitely the guinea pig class. The beginning of the class went smoothly, but putting the students into their groups and handing out their materials and scripts was a bit of a mess. At least we have time to see what does and doesn’t work in the lessons so we can improve it for the next class.

For the new school year, the Inagakuen choir put on an opening concert at the Saitama Performing arts center in Yono-hommachi. All of the teachers were given free tickets, and I decided to go and see some last student performances for my last year at Inagakuen. The performance was really cute. There were two acts to their concert. The first half included traditional choir songs in Latin and Japanese. Of course, the students opened the show with the Inagakuen school song.

After the intermission, the second half of the show was the students’ rendition of the movie Sister Act 2, which was really cute. Many of the students had cute nun costumes, and the students who were playing American High school students made some interesting fashion choices (Mostly baggy sweat shirts, half of them with engrish sayings on them) The boys who played the monks wore these short, gray cloaks that made them look more like the hobbits in Lord of the Rings, than actual monks. Most of the songs the students sang were in the original English, although one of the songs they sang the Japanese version. They also got some audience interaction during the fundraising scene. Basically, there was a fake dollar included in the program that was handed out at the beginning, and the students came out with hats to collect those dollars. It was really cute. At the end of their mini-musical, the students got on stage for one final song, and even had some former graduated members of the music club to join the stage with them, and sing the final song together. It was really sweet. I am also really impressed with the choir. The students are better singers as a whole than my old high school choir.

I’m looking forward to how my classes will flow for the rest of this term, and Golden Week is just around the corner. I’ll see you then!

Skit Contests and the Last Debate

Classes are finished at Inagakuen, but this past Tuesday we held the final skit contest for the first year students.

During our last term, the first year students’ big English project with the ALTs was to write their own short skits and perform them in groups of three or four in front of the class. The group with the highest score/ best skit represented their homeroom in the final skit contest.

The students performed in front of the entire first year class in the volleyball gym. It was a lot of fun to watch. I think it’s a great project for the students, because even the students who aren’t in the English course at Inagakuen can still take part and enjoy it.

One of my favorite skits involved a boy who actually dressed up in all of his mountain climbing gear, and in the skit he meets Elsa and Olaf while trying to climb Mt. Everest.

Another favorite skit of mine involved some boys finding out that one of their friends is actually a robot. The robot, upon being found out, decides he must kill his friends to keep his secret, however, one of the other boys is secretly a Jedi, and uses the force to save his friends. It was pretty funny.

The skit contest finished before noon, and later around 2:30 in the afternoon we started the final English Conversation class debate tournament. Their was one team of four students to represent each  English Conversation class. There were two rounds, and four judges to judge four matches at once. Okachi-sensei had to step in as a judge at the last minute because Charlotte was sick with the flu and wasn’t in school that day. The motion for this debate tournament was: All high schools in Japan should adopt a 6-day school week. The students have been practicing debate with this exact same motion for the past term.

I felt kind of bad, because in the first round of the debate, one of the teams I was judging was a team of my own English Conversation students that I had taught that year, and yet they didn’t win. They tried very hard, but I felt that they didn’t hold their arguments well against the opposing team. Oh well, at least this didn’t affect their grades.

After two rounds of debate matches, we had to add up the scores, and watch the top two teams debate in a final round in front of all the English Conversation students in the large conference room by the English office. It was a good round of debate, and after handing out the certificate for the top two debate teams, it was time to finally release the students, since it was already 6:30 pm by the time we finished everything.

This academic year at Inagakuen has ended on a pretty high note. Tomorrow is the closing ceremony, and then spring break starts. I’m using my free time at work to prepare materials for next school year, and making sure my final scholarship applications are sent in before spring break starts.

After the closing ceremony tomorrow, I’m going to be taking a bus down and spending a few days around Hiroshima. Honestly, I just can’t wait for cherry-blossom season!

Graduation 2016, and saying Good bye

This past Tuesday, March 15, was the Inagakuen graduation ceremony. Normally it starts at around 10 am, but because there were major delays on the Takasaki line, the ceremony was pushed back an hour to accommodate students and parents who were arriving late.

Now, other than starting late, there wasn’t anything too different about the graduation ceremony. It was mostly somber and serious, like most of these Japanese ceremonies are. They called out the names of all eight hundred graduating students. Their names were read by their homeroom teachers. Instead of having all of the students come up and give certificates, they just had the students stand up where they were as their names were called. All of the female homeroom teachers who had graduating classes wore hakama including my advisor Tsuji-sensei.

There were also speeches from a member of the Saitama Board of Education, the principal, and the president of the PTA. His speech was the most interesting, because he actually sang a song during his speech. I don’t know the name of the song, but I do remember that each verse started with the word “Remember” and ended with the word “welcome” in English.

The main ceremony ended around 12:45, and I was happy to get out of the gym because it was so cold! No matter what I do every year, I am always freezing. I always make sure to wear layers under my suit, and to bring many kairo but I’m always freezing even before they finish calling all of the names of all of the students.

As we watched the students process out of the gym, we clapped and cheered them on. There’s always some students who are crying, and this year, I saw many teachers who were crying, or at least doing their best to hold their tears in.

Usually, after the graduation ceremony, many of the students meet their club members, and hang around the school taking time to take photos and say good-bye to each other and their teachers. However, this year, Serena, Charlotte and I didn’t really have time to say good-bye to any of our students, because we had to eat our lunch quickly, and then report to the junior high school so that we could help conduct student interviews for their summer trip to Australia.

I can’t get too upset though, because at least I still received the teacher’s PTA graduation present this year.

Graduation sweets from the PTA, as a thank you for teaching their students for three years.

Even though this was my last graduation ceremony, and I was watching some students graduate whom I have taught since they were junior high students, I didn’t feel so emotional. There was no pin-prick at the back of my head signaling this is it. I guess maybe it’s a sign that I’m slowly detaching myself from this position, knowing I’m going to move away and go somewhere completely different come August. Maybe it’s a good sign; maybe it means the move will be much easier on me when the time comes.

Speaking of leaving, we know which English teachers are leaving Inagakuen this year. Shibata, Yanagawa, Kotoyori and Naruse-sensei. It’s strange, because Shibata and Yanagawa-sensei have been here ever since I first arrived at Inagakuen. But, there is also good news. Tokuyama-sensei will be back to teach this year since she left on maternity leave! Even though I’ll only be teaching with her for a few months, I’m glad she’ll be back.

Since classes are over, all of us ALTs had time this past Thursday to host a little good-bye “coffee-time” in honor of the teachers who are leaving Inagakuen.

Even though there are no more classes, we still have a final skit contest for the first year students next week, and a debate competition for all of the students who were in English Conversation class this year. The closing ceremony won’t be until next Thursday. That will be my last time to say good-bye to the teachers who are leaving, before I head down to Hiroshima for spring break.

Even though things are a little somber towards the end of this school year, I’m looking forward to the renewal that spring will bring.

Okegawa: The Last Day?

So it is officially finals season, and my full classes are really winding down, and as such, yesterday was my last day at my visit school, Okegawa High School.

This past term at Okegawa High school, the three teachers I teach with, and I, tried making all of the first year students make short English speeches. Since their level is not as high last the student’s at Inagakuen, we didn’t hold the standards too high, but we did require the students to write their own speeches. They had to write about My favorite thing. They only had to have two reasons and two examples, only speak for one minute, and they were allowed to bring their scripts to the front with them.

It seemed very rushed, since the students re-wrote their scripts, practiced, and made their speeches over the course of only three classes, but I was pleasantly surprised. Many of the students were very energetic, and many of the students were actually better with their gestures and eye contact than many Inagakuen students. During our last full day of speech presentations in class, one of the student teachers, and the Vice Principal, came in to watch. After class, the Vice Principal came up to me and said he was surprised that the students were able to make an English speech, and he was impressed, and then thanked me, because he never expected the students at Okegawa to do this.

I was very proud when  heard that. I’m so used to doing speech and presentation projects with students at Inagakuen, it’s become pretty routine for me there. I’ve been visiting Okegawa for two years now, and this is the only time that we’ve tried this kind of assignment. I remember seeing the students’ nervous faces when we announced that we were going to make them do short speeches, but at the end, I think most of them seemed to enjoy it. I think part of it had to do was that the students’ were able to choose what they wanted to talk about, and it was also an assignment that went beyond just repeating new vocabulary words from their textbooks.

This past Wednesday was my last day of visiting Okegawa High school for this academic year. There were some make-up speeches that I had to see at lunch time and after classes, but since most of the speeches were finished, and we were coming up on exams, I just played English jeopardy with the students. It was a lot of fun for the students. I even got the students to make their own team names for the game. I encouraged them to make the craziest names they could think of. The most creative ones were Chicken banana sauce  and A Block of baby. There was also team Very Very Very Delicious. 

It didn’t really hit me that this was the last day at Okegawa until one of my co-teachers Tomita-sensei, told the students that this was their last team-teaching class, and at the end of class, all of the students said “Thank you” and one of the boys stood up on his desk to wave good-bye.

Also, I cleaned up my personal items from my desk, and I told my co-teachers that although I’m staying in Japan until July, I wasn’t actually sure that I would be coming back to Okegawa in April for the new school year. Depending on the Inagakuen class schedule for the ALTs, I may not be going back, it might be another ALT that gets sent to Okegawa. I said my tentative good-byes before I left Okegawa, and Naitoh-sensei made me promise that I would show up to the Okegawa Good-bye/Welcome party in April.

The most surreal part of the day was taking out my shoes from my shoe locker, keeping my indoor shoes in my bag, and leaving my locker empty. I wasn’t crying, or overly emotional, but it did feel weird. I guess it’s something I have to get used to the closer I get to the end of my contract. It’s the start of many good-byes I’m going to have to make.

Inagakuen: Winter Cup Champions!

Once again, I was there only ALT available to go to an English debate tournament with our school’s debate team. This time, the tournament was on Valentine’s day. However, I don’t usually do much to celebrate Valentine’s day except buy a lot of chocolate and eat it all by myself, so I wasn’t upset about it, like I was when I had to go to the last tournament on Halloween.

Anyway, this debate tournament, the Winter Cup, is always in February, and doesn’t count going towards nationals. However, Inagakuen still participates because it is close by, at Municipal Urawa High school, and is still good practice and experience for the students.

I felt a little bad in not helping the students do much preparation before  this debate tournament, but I can’t feel too guilty about it, because the students did most of their practices on Wednesday’s, which is when I go to my visit school, Okegawa.

Anyway, this time around, the debate motion for this tournament was: The EU should accept more refugees.

This is the first time that the students have debated a motion at an official match that isn’t related to Japan at all. It was a bit difficult for them to argue, but I heard from my advisor, Tsuji-sensei, that the German ALT actually gave quite a lot of information, and helped translate some articles from German into Japanese to help the students understand the situation.

Anyway, I judged three out of four rounds of debate. Most of the debate matches I judged were really good. Between each round, the students and judges would head back to the auditorium in order to receive information about the next round, such as which teams would debate against each other, and in which rooms. Whenever I would meet back up with the Inagakuen team, the students kept telling me they were winning each round they debated in. I was pleasantly surprised, because I knew that they did not have as much time to prepare to for this debate, and I thought it would be more difficult for them.

Then, after the fourth and final round of debates, everyone piled into the auditorium one last time, so that the officials could tally all of the wins of each debate team, and add up all of the “communication points” in case there were ties.

Before starting the last round of debate, they posted the list of the top ten teams. It was funny, because instead of listing an 8th or 9th place, they just skipped over and said that three schools tied in 7th place.

To our surprise, Inagakuen, along with two other debate teams, were in a three-way tie for “second place” and so had to janken to see which two teams would debate against each other.

The top ten teams before the final round

In the end, Inagakuen debated against Municipal Urawa team A. Inagakuen was on the affirmative side, and Municipal Urawa was on the negative side. It was a very close debate match. I’m glad I didn’t have to judge it, because I though the arguments on both sides were pretty strong.

At the end, it was announced that the five judges were split in their decision. 3 judges chose one team, and 2 judges chose another team of who they thought were the stronger debaters, and it was a lucky day because Inagakuen won first place! This is the first time we have ever received first place at a tournament this large! It most definitely makes up for not winning at nationals back in December (although the fact that we even got to go to nationals last December was a pretty big deal.)

I am so proud of my students. They have actually worked very well these past two years. After this great Valentine’s Day victory I am actually kind of sad that I won’t be here next year help coach them and see how well they do at the Inaho cup next fall.

Regardless, it was a great day for the students. They worked so hard, they deserved this win, and I’m glad that the last debate tournament that I went to ended with such a bang!

The 10th annual Inaho Debate cup

This past Saturday I spent my Halloween judging at the 10th annual Inaho Debate tournament. I”m mostly bummed that I had had to spend Saturday doing this, but the students did get good results.

Mostly I’m bummed because I really wanted to have a big blowout final Halloween in Japan, but I couldn’t because four, out of us five ALTs conveniently already had plans, and the there had to be at least two ALTs, but of course me being the only free ALT, I was the one who got to go. Also, the Inaho debate cup has always been on a Sunday, and this year, whoever decides and organizes the dates decided to just do it on a Saturday this year. I’m kind of angry at these circumstances that are out of my control, but I guess that’s adulthood.

Anyway, this year’s debate tournament topic was: Japan should relax restrictions on it’s self-defense forces in order to more actively participate in UN Peace-keeping operations. I enjoyed judging this debate more than the one two years ago, which was about Japan joining the TPP. Japan joining the TPP is an interesting topic with many issues, but the students two years ago mostly kept talking about “protecting Japan’s tasty rice.” This year, many of the different high school teams were able to produce a wider variety of points and issues.

I judged three rounds of debate in a row. It’s usually very tiring to do that, but I was not the head judge for each round, so it was easier to bounce ideas off of the other judges before making our decisions of who won which round. I can’t imagine how tired the students must be actively debating for all four rounds in a row though. It takes a lot to debate all day, and the students must really like it to put themselves through it.

Anyway, since I didn’t judge the fourth round, I got to sit and observe the Inagakuen B team. Some schools send in more than one team if they have a lot of students in their debate club. A teams are usually second year students, and B teams are usually the first year students. Some schools will even send in C teams, and those teams are usually comprised of the clubs weaker/younger debaters.

Inagakuen B won their fourth round, and soon after, all of the debate teams and judges piled back into the auditorium to wait to see which two top teams would debate against each other in the fifth and final round. For the first time in the five years that I have been here, Inagakuen actually made it to the final debate round against Municipal Urawa High school! Municipal Urawa High school actually ended up winning the final round, but even so, Inagakuen was still in second place. Inagakuen hasn’t won such a high place in years for this official tournament. Also, this means that Inagakuen will advance to nationals!

I’m so excited for them! Although now this means that debate season isn’t officially over yet, and us ALTs still have to help students with speech contests and English Drama all through November. There never is enough rest for us in the fall term.

Inagakuen Sports Day

On September 18th, Inagakuen held it’s sports festival at Ageo athletic park. We actually were not sure if we were going to hold it on that day, because we consistently had rainy weather on and off that whole week leading up to Friday. We also weren’t sure if we were going to get hit by a typhoon. All of the ALTs and JTEs kept their on their eye on the weather, but even by Thursday afternoon, we had no official word beforehand whether or not it would be postponed until next week. Finally, we were told that if it was canceled the next day, we would receive phone calls early that morning to let us know to just come to school and hold classes like normal.

Anyway, I woke up at my normal time on Friday morning, and didn’t receive any phone calls, so I assumed that Sports day was still going on, and hopped on the bus to Ageo. Most high schools in Japan just hold their sports day on their own high school campuses, however, because Inagakuen has over 2000 students, we don’t really have the capacity for the students to all sit on bleachers to watch and participate in all of the events, so we always hold it in Ageo at Ageo Sports Park.

The weather was still kind of rainy in the morning, but it cleared up in the afternoon. It was a bit misty during the Opening Ceremony and warm-up exercises, but no one got drenched.

These are ALL of the students on the field for the opening ceremony.

Each flag represents each house at Inagakuen. Red is House 1, and dark blue is House 6.

Now, I don’t remember the full schedule of all of the sports events, or who won each and every round, but I can give a basic run-down of some of my favorite competitions.

Every year, Inagakuen always starts with the jump rope competition. They hold each round for each grade of students. It’s always fun to watch large groups of students try and jump rope together, but I was a little worried that they might slip and fall on the wet track. Luckily, that didn’t happen.

Jump rope competition

One of my favorite sports events to watch is very Japanese. I don’t remember the original Japanese name of this event, but I always call it the Carp Race because at the end of the relay, the students have to climb up a pole, and attach a carp flag to the top.

There are three parts to this relay. The first part, which is actually difficult to explain, so bear with me, the student who is running is passed along two rows of students, whose arms are joined, and they bounce the student down the line. It kind of looks like the runner is a fish bouncing along the line. Second, once that same student reaches the end, they jump onto a wooden board, with four poles. Four other students grab onto these poles, and quickly run and carry the student across the field towards the pole. Third, once the runner reaches the other side, they jump off the board, and start climbing the pole, When they reach the top, the attach the carp flag, and then they’re finished. When they’re done, the next runner starts and repeats the same process. The winning team is the team who can attach all of their carp flags first. Also, the poles aren’t stuck in the ground, they’re constantly being held up by other students. It really is an overall team effort.

Climbing up the pole in the carp race.

The next race I like to watch is the Mukade or centipede race. It’s like a three-legged race, but more extreme. There’s a team of usually eight students, and they are all lined up really close to each other, and all of their ankles on one side are all tied together with the same rope. The students have to hold on to each other, and run as fast as they can together. It’s a lot of fun to watch them run, and it’s kind of fun to watch them fall down too. I know that sounds mean, but it really is funny when it does happen. Sometimes the teams fall down as a unit, or sometimes you see one person trip, and there is a slow chain reaction as people trip after her. Sometimes the teams are able to recover quickly and keep going, but other times, not.

The Mukade race.

Sometime after the mukade race, the rain got a little heavier, and they held off activities for about ten minutes to wait and see if it would get heavier, or go away. Eventually it got lighter again, but the track and field got wetter. Two events were canceled, but I can’t remember which ones. They must have just been different meter-length races or relays, because none of my favorite activities were canceled. If they were, I would remember.

There was also another short break while they waited between events and students were sent out onto the track, with what looked giant rollers, to help dry out the track. I’ve never seen these tools before, but I could tell the students were working really hard, because they went over the same areas of the track many times to make it drier.

Drying out the track.

Most of the events later in the afternoon were different races and relays. I don’t remember all of the details of who won which race, but I do remember seeing some spectacular falls. One student actually fell right before he was about to cross the finish line. He went down, and I could see his face and arm hit the track, but he picked himself back up, and finished sprinting the last few feet. It was too bad, because in the time that he fell and got himself back up, two other students passed him and finished before him.

There was also another student who fell, and literally rolled more than once during one of the relays, but he also picked himself up and just kept going. It was kind of cool to watch, because the moment he started to fall, I could see him starting to tuck his head and arm in, getting ready to roll as he hit the ground. I’m guessing he’s had some experience 😉

The last event was one of the relays, but my last favorite event, is also, definitely, very Japanese. Many of the sports allow both boys and girls to participate, but this one strictly boys, and it’s so strange, but so fun to watch.

Basically, all of the boys who participate in this event take their shirts off. Then, one boy is carried on the top of the shoulders of two other boys. The boy on top wears a cap that corresponds to the color of his house. The boys are all arranged in a circle and wait until the whistle blows to start. When it blows, the boys all run towards each other in this giant mass, and the boys on top try to grab the caps off of other boys heads, while keeping their cap on. If they lose their cap, they are out. The boys who collect the most caps win.

It’s just really amusing to watch a bunch of these skinny, shirtless, Japanese boys running around with their arms waving wildly. They look like crazy chickens scratching at each other. Actually, I learned from a teacher that years ago, the boys used to wear shirts for this event, but eventually it became shirtless, to prevent the boys from pulling on each other’s shirts in order to get at their caps. I definitely don’t see this sport coming over to American High Schools anytime soon.

Crazy shirtless boys, running around grabbing each others caps. Just a normal sports day in Japan.

The day ended with the announcement of the winners of the Sports Festival. First, they announced the homerooms that got the most points, and which grade got the most points over other grades. The most important one though, is which house got the most points. This year, House 2 actually got second place! I was really glad. Once again, my house placed somewhere in the top 3, when we never usually do. It’s really great to see the students in my house do so well in my last year here at Inagakuen.

And the number one top winner was . . . HOUSE 4!

4 House students celebrating their win

Many of us ALTs left quickly after they announced the winners, because;  One, we didn’t need to stay longer, and two, it started to rain again. Even with the not so great weather, it turned out to be a really enjoyable sports day. It was also the first, and only, sports day where I didn’t come home with a surprise sunburn. I’m really glad we were able to have the Sports Festival in the end.