Wednesday, October 01, 2008

10/02/08 The Sports Festival, The Second Time Around

Today there were no classes due to the annual sports festival. It seems strange to have this and the tournament day so close to each other, but no one is going to hear me complain about it. This morning was actually a bit cold, and it was misting rain intermittently, a pretty rough time to be running around outside. I sat under one of the many tents most of the time, half watching the kids play and half working on my kanji. I've gotta learn 300 of those little beasts.

The kids competed with each other based on which little class they are in. They did group jump rope, tug of war, relay races, and a few other things I have only seen in Japan. I didn't bother taking any photos this time, as I feel like I covered it pretty well last year. As far as I could tell, it was the exact same program only with a few new faces. You can relive the magic and see the story and video of the practice here, and the blog about the real deal festival is here.

Several parts, most notably the marching and the calisthenics, seem a bit militaristic at times. Watching them practice sometimes felt like watching a little boot camp. Most of the students seem to really enjoy it, though, so whatever. During one marching practice, some of the kids in the back row mentioned something about North Korea, then he and his buddies did a bit of sarcastic goosestepping when their teachers weren't looking. Maybe there is hope for these kids after all.


I've been trying to keep up with the news on the American economy, but the situation seems to be changing so fast that I can't keep up. All of this delicious news has been a smorgasbord for the likes of John Stewart and Steven Colbert. I think that they have a really good position for commenting on our society. They can say whatever they want as long as its funny, but it often comes out very true as well. Stewart especially comes down with some scathing commentary that I cant seem to find anyplace else.

Here are a few of my favorite clips from the Daily Show episode on September 25th. Alas, they are a couple of days old, but they age like a fine ginger ale. Enjoy.








1 comment:

  1. Those videos are hilarious, especially the first one.

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