Sunday, October 26, 2008

Bunkasai at Tsuyazaki Jr High.

Bunkasai/Culture Festival time at my Jr High last weekend. Much like everything else in Japan, this was prepared for at length, for about two weeks.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders all put together plays, musical performances, art, sculpture and other artistic whatnots.

Art from the special ed students.
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The first graders put together nature related art/displays.
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I still don't track exactly what yakiniku has to do with it though.
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And of course, origami. Those are all origami cranes/tsuru. The kids were folding them forever. I did one and it was horribly complex.
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The 2nd graders make posters and presentations from their week of on the job training out in the working world a month or so back.
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Some particular cuteness was brought by the kids who worked at the local yochiens/kindergartens.
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Others worked at local shops.
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Or with the local firefighters/rescue folks.
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Nursing/old folks care/healthcare.
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And everybody works on paintings.
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I don't know why but I loved this one.
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But the big shindigs of the day are the plays put on by the 3rd graders in the gym.

The opening ceremonies. Yes, those are capes. [Japan is awesome.]
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And synchronized dancing, of course. It's not Japan unless there's sychronized dancing.
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This year's plays included something about a mouse school...
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...a bank robbery/hostage standoff...
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...a re-working of the Cinderella/Snow White/Sleeping Beauty stories...
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[The girl playing Cinderella is one of my favorite kids. And yes, those are the dwarves. With Cinderella. I told you it was a re-working.]
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[Special effect of the day. One teacher + one student + one desk = one horse. Wish the pic was less blurry.]
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...and a crime/missing money story. [You can tell by the fedora.]
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As always, I only half understood the plays, language barrier and all. Though understanding incrementally more at each year's bunkasai is kinda fun.

Lunch break!
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About 4-5 kids did New Zealand homestays in August, and made a presentation as well. Why no, I have no idea how they got illegally downloaded and copied songs from New Zealand for their presentation. Why do you ask?
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Added bonus, the kids who went to NZ are, generally speaking, some of my favorite students. Doesn't hurt that they, you know, actually are interested in English and foreign cultures. Great kids.
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Also at lunch, the PTA runs a bazaar/sale. While I didn't score anything as cool as last year's Hawaii Kona coffee for 100yen, I did score a 100yen 'Best of' Marvin Gaye CD. How cool, yeah? Plus some reg coffee/mac n cheese/etc, etc...
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You know, the brass band is good, but usually their music selection is a bit... laconic. But this year they were jamming pretty hard. Swinging, moving, jazzing and even, dare I say it, a little bit funky. I was a toe tapping white boy. They were really, really good.
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And the kids this year, first time since I've been here, all had choral performances. All classes did a separate pieces, and then the whole student body had a number.
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And then... tremble... the teachers did a couple songs. Including me and my no-understanding-singing-phonetically self. [Hey, if it was good enough for Nat King Cole...] But I didn't mangle it too badly, I don't think. Pretty fun.

Not the best pic, but I'm the only shaved head foreigner, so you should be able to spot me.
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And then... the closing ceremony. Which this pic does no justice. Though I did snag a couple good moments in the vid [that I'll throw up online once I finish putting it together.]
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