Oct 8, 2010

Sports Day! How Different is Japan's from Singapore's?

Just had my first Japanese Sports Day at school. :D

It was such an interesting experience! There are many similarities and yet many other disparities as well.

I liked the variety of races that the school had. Besides the usual olympic style races such as 100m, 200m, 1000m run, hurdles, shot put, long jump and high jump, etc, the Japanese also have the tug-of-war, multi-legged race, skipping with 30 people, and other innovative games such as 足きり or mixed race (doing a variety of activities such as transporting a ball with a dustpan?! :P)



They concentrate not only on individual excellence but group efforts as well. Relay games have more members, 6 or 8, which is unlike Singapore's with only 4. And the 30-member games such as skipping, tug-of-war etc, all encourage massive class efforts. Something which I hope we have when I was in school.

I really miss my secondary school days...

At first I thought running on the sandy-like earthy field will be very difficult, but it functions as well as our rubber tracks at home, too. Had my very virgin run in my 3-legged race, which ended with 2 falls.. -_-" as we never practised running, we always walked. But in the real race, everyone's running so the legs just ran along with the rest. Unfortunately the pace is different, hence I fell not once, but twice! Super malu lah!!



TIP
Since I am on the topic of fields. Here's a tip, or rather, a warning. Do not step on the baseball field. It is out-of-bounds for non-players.


And the weather... It is so nice to exercise in an autumn day, with the breeze and the sun. Yet, it is not too sweaty. I love autumns!

But I'm still unused to having green tea (both hot and cold are served) during Sports Day. I miss my milo trucks dearly. Sports Day= cold milo!



I miss my secondary school days dearly! It's so nice to be so young and full of dreams...

By the way, this coming Monday is a Health and Sports Day, a public holiday. Wonder if there are any special events? Is it like NHLC in Singapore? Mmmm...