Great Undoukai, BAD Enkai!

Friday was Yabuzuka Chuugakkou’s undoukai (sports festival), which is a huge day for the kids and their parents. The kids have been practicing for the various events for a month, and a lot of their parents come to watch their kids race, jump rope, and do other crazy events.

It was a big day for me, as well, as it was my first chuugakkou undoukai! I have been to three shougakkou undoukais and I went to Toyama Minami High School’s a million years ago, but I had to miss Yabuchu’s last year because of a stupid ALT conference. Well, I skipped it this year so I could see the undoukai, and I am VERY glad I did! It was definitely a highlight of my being here.

It is amazing to see how hard the kids work for this! The closest thing you would get to an undoukai in the States would be field day, but that is just for fun and not nearly as much work/organization, etc. Each class within a grade has their own color (with they wear as headbands, use for pom poms, etc.) and they compete with the other classes. The events include races, crazy-ass jump rope events (one that I can’t describe which is crazy, and one in which all 30something kids in each class have to jump together with one huge jump rope), bukatsu competitions (this one is pretty much just for fun…the kids have to race in their sports uniforms. Needless to say, it SUCKS to be a kendo player during this!), and all kinds of other things. The craziest one by far was seriously the most random relay I have ever seen. First one person from each class takes an envelope that has a list of random items in it. They take those items from a pile of random shit, then run to the next part, where a team member spins around a cone 10-20 times (I dunno how many), then runs to the next part, where two kids have to pull a team member on a tire for 50 meters (this sounds harder than it is!). Then the next three kids in the group do a 3-legged race to the end. It was crazy!

Anyway, the whole day was sooooo fun. I just hung out with the kids and cheered with them. It was so amazing to see them cheer for everyone, whether they were in their class or not. They were all really supportive of each other and working their asses off. It actually made me really proud of them, and it showed that they aren’t bad kids after all. So yeah, sugoku kandou shimashita!

That night about half of the teachers went out for an enkai (drinking party), which was extremely fun at the time but BAD NEWS BEARS IN THE END!!!!! Holie!!! At first it was quiet and awkward, as they always are, but after a few beers everyone got genki and rowdy. I fortunately got to hang out with the two youngest teachers, who are muy cool. However, we kept pouring each other beers OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER, as you do at enkais, and it was baaaaaaaaad! I have a feeling I said some stupid-ass shit, but I don’t really remember all of it to be sure! Um, that is scary! After that we went to Shirokiya for the nijikai (2nd party), where I had 3 cocktails that I did NOT need. I am pretty sure I DEFINITELY said stupid stuff there. It is scary, tho, because what happens at an enkai stays at an enkai, so they might know shit and never say it! I guess that is good, but still scary. Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself. Anyway, at Shirokiya, my kouchou sensei busted out this breathalyzer thing that he has? First of all, that is hilarious that he keeps one in his pocket. Second of all, I tested myself, and I SWEAR to god it said 5.0. Um, doesn’t that mean I should be dead?! Surely that can’t be right. Tho I wouldn’t be surprised!

After surely embarrassing myself in ways I don’t remember, I caught the last train back home and promptly ASSED OUT on it. I woke up at what I thought was my stop, but turned out to be the stop AFTER mine! Being that I was shit-faced beyond belief, I wasn’t even surprised, I was just like “Oh, of course!” and started the 30-minute drunk-ass walk back to Yabuzuka eki. Fortunately thanks to my “flat love rate” with Cindy, I was able to have her entertain me via free keitai!

I eventually got back to the eki, drunk-rode my bike home, assed out in my chair in front of the computer, then woke up two hours later and puked my guts out. AWESOME.

Needless to say, the next day was BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD! BAD BAD BAD. I wanted to die. Somehow I made it to Shibukawa in the afternoon, but there were points that I just wanted to end my life. DAMN YOU ENKAIS