Taisha's Culture Festival - Bunka Sai 2007

More pictures to show off...

I posted my pics from Taisha Jr High's 2007 Culture Festival (bunka sai).

This took place at the Urarakan and in the TJH gym on October 25th.

In the morning, each of the 12 homeroom classes sang two songs at the Urarakan, the music hall across from the school. The Principal (kocho sensei) and Vice-Principal (kyoto sensei) and some of the teachers acted as judges, and three prizes were given out in each of the three grade levels - best conductor, best pianist, and best singing.

The kids all have to sing the same first song, and then can choose what song they want to sing for their 2nd song.





One or two of the kids from each homeroom plays the piano for their class and one kid (but sometimes two) conducts. I only took pics of the 3nen sei kids singing, since my pics at the Urarakan never come out that great - the lighting is always a problem and the zoom lens on my Nikon is not that powerful.

The singing takes from about 9am to about Noon, and then we go back to school for bento lunch. Then, in the afternoon, from about 1:30 to 4:30 we have cultural performances and a kind of talent show, where the 9th graders get to perform comedy skits, sing, perform with their band, etc. That's the fun part of the day for me - I'm always curious to see what hidden talents my kids have - who can play electric guitar - who is funny on stage - who has a future career as an MC.

This year the kids did a kind of kabuki performance, did a traditional dance with wooden clappers and there were some funny skits (I can only judge by the laughter of others since I can't really understand the jokes), and three of the boys played in a rock band. And my 9th grade chorus girls performed their English song - Seasons of Love from the film/play "Rent." They did a great job. (I had helped them rehearse and was very proud of them!)
The art project this year was a giant paper mache origami-style crane that they hung from the ceiling of the gym.

And we had a group of high school students from Finland visiting, so they got up on stage and sang two traditional Finnish folk songs.

Click on any photo to see more from that day - and I'll try to individually label them soon, but it's 1am now and I have school tomorrow, so it's off to bed. Oyasumi nasai. :)

-Jason