Fall means school sports festival time in much of Japan.
This means that the schools divide up into two teams...Red vs. White.
John and I went up in the mountains to the elementary school I teach at every week in Nozawaonsen to cheer on the teams and enjoy the celebration.
This is the opening and all the kids march in together in the two teams.
To start things off everybody does warm-up exercises to get ready for the days activities. And everybody really does mean
everybody!! Not just the kids, but the teachers, parents, grandparents and town officials ALL warm up to start the day off.
There's always the tug-o-war. You might notice that the two teams have quite different strategies...
A wheel chair does not stop you from participating with your team!
Always a dance performance.
The race is on! Pass the ball...over..under...
and then make a body railway to get the 'marcher' back to the starting point.
Always the 'chicken fight' to see who can snatch whose cap first!
You cannot just let all those adults sit idle all day...so there's a red vs. white race to see which group can pass the giant ball around the circle the most times in a given time period.
Intermission and some of the kids are demonstrating their 'chicken fight' skills for me ;-)
My effort at trying to support both the red and the white... and always sharing His message.
The 5th and 6th graders always have a special display of their skills.
Lots of practice time before this day.
They have to learn to trust and work together.
Balance in life is important...
You have to have a stable foundation.
And you must know how to work together to make the waves flow smoothly...
These were supposed to be part of the previous post but somehow didn't make it...
I did want to share them though as I thought it was great that even when it came to the human pyramid the young man in the wheel chair was not excluded. He rolled right on up...
exited the chair, and took his spot with the others :-) Great job!
This crew wanted to be sure I knew that they knew I was there!
And as John and I headed toward home there was a minor delay as one town area was holding their fall festival and their 'mikoshi' or float, was making its way down the main roadway.
Celebrate life!
