Sports Day!

This last weekend we had the opportunity of going to an activity at Grace’s Yochien (kindergarten). The activity was sports day. It was a fun packed day with lots of different events. This is a very popular day at the schools. It is almost like a track and field day event in America, Just geared towards 3, 4, and 5 year olds. I was very excited to go since Grace had been giving us little sneak peaks at home. When we arrived at the school (half an hour early) the school was already packed with parents and relatives all staking out their clams on the sidelines of the event. Kindly everyone moved and shifted so that we were able to have a front row seat. Now I had no idea what to expect, but I had my video camera all ready to go. Right at 9am the kids all paraded out onto the playing field and were lined up by classes.
Then a bunch of old people gave speeches and people were introduced and then the games began. Up first was a race for the five year olds. At this age everyone is a winner so after they were done they all got medals the said good job. Grace’s first event was a ball throwing contest.
Her class of 30 kids was divided into two teams: the red team and white team. Grace was on the red team. As a team the kids tried to throw tennis ball sized balls into a netted hoop. The team with the most balls in the net basket won. Unfortunately Grace’s team lost both times. But overall she did a good job herself. After that it was her classes turn to race. So they had four kids run against each other at the same time. She was in the last group to go and she did pretty well. She came in second place.
We were proud of her because I don’t think that she truly knew what she was suppose to be doing. It was cute. The last activity that Grace participated in, was the Mickey Mouse dance. Her whole class did a dance routine to the Mickey Mouse song. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen, all these three year olds doing a dance and doing it well and in sync for most of the time. I was amazed at all the effort the teachers put into this short two minute performance for these little kids. After Grace’s event were done there were still two more amazing performances performed by the 5 year olds. They did a whole cheerleader type routine where they we all in groups of three or five doing pyramids and different stunts. Now these kids were doing amazing things with no adult behind them to catch them if they fell. It was the neatest thing I had ever seen. These kids really had a lot of talent. Shortly after this event it was the final performance. It was again the 5 year olds doing a marching band formation routine while playing their instruments. I could not believe it. I thought the whole acrobatic performance earlier was amazing, but this was even more impressive. The kids played their tiny kid sized instruments while marching around on the field. There we girls twirling flags and one lucky girl was the conductor.
They played two songs and in total their performance lasted 15mins. I was impressed. It was a very fun day and I am so glad we got to have the wonderful experience. Its days like that which make me want to stay in Japan and raise my kid. If Grace could play the piano and march in a band at five, what else would she learn to do? I wish everyone could have been there to see it.