Sports Festival
The Gifu-kita Sports Festival was a spectacle to behold. Honestly, I have never seen anything like it in my entire life. The students were so excited. The events were. And the competition was tight.
Now, this is not a sports festival like one might think of a field day in the States. Every event at the festival was one that I had never seen before. The primary purpose of the festival is to get ALL students involved, not just the athletically talented ones, working together and supporting one another. The amount of school spirit I saw at the festival was amazing, completely over the top actually.
The events themselves were incredible. I kept shifting between complete excitement and amazement, to horror and disbelief. During most of the events I sat there thinking to myself, “Wow, this would never happen in the U.S., way too many lawsuits.”
The men’s relay race caused my heart to race just a touch. One leg of the race was the pole carry. Two students held big metal poles for a third student to sit on. Then, they would run the length of the field without dropping the man off the pole. Of course, this being a relay race, they would also do it at top speed.
Then there was the cap stealing game. Two teams (there were four teams; red, white, blue and black) would compete at a time. Three boys, without their shirts on, would carry another boy with a cap on his head. They would run around the field and try to steal the caps of the opposing team. The team that had stolen the most caps was the winner.
And, what sports festival would be complete without the tire tug game. Twenty tires, of various sizes, were lined up along the center line of the field. When the starting gun sounded the boys would charge from each side of the field toward the tires. They would then pull the tires back towards their side of the field. Larger tires were worth more points and the team with the most tires, and points, on their end of the field when time was up, was the winner.
And, so it continued for the entire day. Tons of zany games and crazy activities. The winning teams would get points for each event that they won. Then, the team with the most points got a trophy at the closing ceremony.
The red team won!
More photos of the Gifu-kita Sports Festival are on our flickr page! Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries about halfway through the day, so I don’t have pictures of all the events. Sorry!!
OK, just an observation here, but there didn’t seem to be many photos of events for girls. Were there fewer events for girls or was it just that the photo ops were better for the boys events? None the less, it looked like fun…except for the pole rider!
Actually, there were just as many events for girls as boys. They alternated, girls event then boys event. Many events were the same for the boys and girls, like tug o war and relay (minus the pole riding. But, as a whole, the girls events were far less interesting and daring than the boys events, and as a result, weren’t quite as compelling to photograph.
I think you are right. These types of activities are not likely to happen in US schools. Perhaps as you suggested it is our litigious society that prevents it. They are more the type of activity and enthusiasm that happens at a summer camp. At least it did in my day. Did many kids get hurt?
Dad
Nope, no one got hurt. But one student did pass out from the heat. All in all, it was a successful day!