Saturday - April 26th - Volleyball and Track & Field

The whole Taisha team!
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

I spent Saturday, the 26th, in nearby Matsue and Kashima, watching and cheering for two of the clubs at my schools - Volleyball and Track & Field.

Volleyball was in the morning, and unfortuantely, I only got to watch my Taisha girls play once, and they were eliminated - after having also lost their first match of the day.

The girls from Hamayama JH - seen below....



Did a little better - winning their first match, but losing their second, meaning they were also eliminated from further playing.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stick around to get some pictures of Hamayama's team, since I had to rush off to watch Track & Field over at the Sports Park in Matsue. I had wanted to take a group pic of the HJH girls before their first match, but they asked if I'd wait, since they prefer their red uniforms to the ones they were wearing at the time - their green uniforms. So I'll have to catch them at the next tournament.

I did get some great group pics of my Taisha girls tho, including shots of me with the 9th graders....



and fun shots of the five 8th graders on the team...



I really love cheering at Volleyball matches, as I get to be loud and genki and no one seems to mind. And the girls on each team at both my Jr High schools are great kids - always appreciative of me showing up to cheer them on.

It's great that I can support both schools when I go to their regional tournaments, but tough when they have to play against each other.

Kashima is about 15 minutes north of Matsue, and about an hour by car from Taisha, but they have a nice sports facility there, and I don't mind the driving - I actually enjoy the drive - it's scenic and I can listen to my CDs and just chill out a bit.

After Vball I drove over to watch T&F, but most of it was over by the time I got there. I did get to see the girls and boys 4x100 relay - none of my schools did that well.
It was incredibly windy, and just sitting under the tent with the team was a challenge in the high winds.

So that was basically my Saturday from 9am to about 5pm - but I love spending time like that with my kids - away from the classroom and in their chosen environment, where we can have casual conversations in mostly Japanese with a little English thrown in.
June is the big month for tournaments, with the regional, prefecture-wide competitions happening that will determine which schools go on to the next level. Good luck to all my teams!

-Jason