Day Two of Tennis @ Hamayama Park

Day Two of Tennis @ Hamayama Park - 2
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

On June 13th and 14th, my Jr High basically shut down while members of the various sports teams at my school went off to compete in city wide competitions.

I'm not kidding about the shutting down part - that Tuesday and Wednesday, the kids that did have to come to school (the kids in the band or chorus or not in a club for instance) got to go home both days after third period, and there were no classes to teach as the first three periods were basically study hall periods.

What's funny is how much complaining you hear here about the declining academic performance of Japanese students and how they should go back to a 6-day school week, but then you have days like this where everything stops for sports. Hmmmm....

Anyway, these teams from my school were competing:
Kendo, judo, baseball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, and track & field.

So I had to go to shogakko during the day both days, but after lunch I was free to go and cheer on my kids. Last year I didn't have my car yet, but this year I was mobile, so I headed over to the local sports ground (Hamayama Park) on Tuesday to watch Tennis, and then I caught the end of the volleyball competitions at another local Jr High.

It was really fun seeing my kids compete and cheering them on, since I was the only one shouting encouragment in English.

What's kinda sad is as I go to more and more of these special events, how little I see other ALTs. I know many don't have just one base school like I do, but some could make the effort and support their kids, cuz they love seeing us there.

On Wednesday it was more volleyball (we lost), a little soccer (we won), and the girls tennis finals (we won).
Track n Field was actually happening that Sunday, and I went to that too (pictures soon).

Click on the pic here for more pics of the various sports.

Go! Fight! Win!