Monday, October 12, 2009

Happy Sports Day!

Update: This is a little late, but here's the photo gallery of Sports Day at CA. It was a great day shared by students, their families and CA staff. We can't wait until we can watch Maximo run around at Sports Day!

Today is Sports Day - a national holiday here in Japan. Businesses are closed and most families accompany their children to school so they can watch and participate in what we would recognize as a field day.

After doing a bit of research, this national holiday started after the Olympics were hosted in Tokyo in 1964, so it's to commemorate this event and to promote a healthy lifestyle. It is held on the second Monday of October.

As I write this, I have yet to experience Sports Day, so energy and time permitting, I may update this post. The kids are coming to school for a half day of events and parents are welcome to join.

I hear it's a true cultural experience to watch a "real" Japanese school on Sports Day. There's a large Japanese school across the street from Canadian Academy and it's been intriguing to watch the coaches and school workers come out to prepare the fields this past week and on Friday, while I was outside with my students, we watched them practice a choreographed opening ceremony of about 300 students.

At this point, Sports Day doesn't mean a whole lot to Max, except the fact that he doesn't go to Yume Club, because it's closed due to the national holiday. So, he'll come to CA and stay at the Peter Pan daycare on campus until I can go home at 12:15... John will soon follow at 1:00. It'll be fun once he does go to school at CA and one of us can participate in events with him!

Possibly more later!

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