Shougakkou bunkasai

- or Elementary school culture festival, to English speakers.

I work at two elementary schools. There is really only one word to describe elementary schools in Japan. That word is: crazy!

The first of my elementaries held their bunkasai, on Sunday,Ostober 25, a day after the Middle school. As usual there were a couple of hilarious performances.

Sixth grade is the final grade in Japanese elemntary schools. Every year the 6th graders'play has something to do with the dreams for their future. This year, the kids spoke of their dreams in front of their "teacher" in a classroom. Now any good Japanese student production needs a twist. So, right after the children told their dreams, aliens landed! (These things happen more often in Japanese plays, than you would imagine!) The aliens said they had seen the future and the children would all become fishermen and rice farmers.

At that point, I got a little bit depressed, because that's quite possibly true. It's no secret that the emphasis is on "fitting in" in Japanese society. My town in semi-rural: farmers and fishemen fight right in.

But then the play took an unexpected twist- having lived in Japan for a year, the aliens were almost predictable- the kids refused to take the destiny the aliens gave them. They decided that they would be what they wanted to be. And the aliens? They had no choice but to leave.

One giant step for 6th grade. One small step for the town of Ichinohe. Maybe...






Another memorable play was the 3rd grade production. It was abotu Doraemon, probably one of the best known early anime characters. Those of you who grew up in Barbados, like I did, might know that cartoon as Albert and Sidney, because for some reason, that's what it was marketed as there. Anyhow. Back to the play. So these guys decided to kidnap Doraemon. Of all the places in the world to take him, he ends up in Ichinohe, where a group of schoolchildren find him. Then Nobito and company (including 4 girls who simultaneously play Shizuka) use the magic door to find him. But the kidnappers won't return him, unless they can answer some questions. Each time they get a question right they get a clue- a letter (or rather a syllable, because the Japanese alphabet is syllabic), but they miss the last question and so they have to do the town dance around the gym to get Doraemon back!

And by the way, the word they had to get was "to-mo-da-chi", the Japanese for friend.










I seem not to have any pictures o the second grade play. I found it hilarious, and I think it summarizes the Japanese take on Western religion and secular holidays.

There were 4 angels. They were happy in heaven until the Head Angel came along and blew them- yes, with wind- out of heaven. Why? Because they hadn't brushed their teeth! So they got blown to Ichinohe, and they saw the children decorating a Christmas tree and hoping to see Santa Claus. So they decided to call Santa and get him to come to Ichinohe, but they got his answering machine.

Being good little angels, they really wanted to give the kids their wish, so they decided to dress up as Santa and 3 reindeer! Then they summoned the children to the school in the middle of the night to meet Santa. When they did magic, they all had to shout, "Cupid Power!" I was absolutely dying!

When the children get to school, they start to freak out, because Santa Claus is there. They speak to him, and he answers in English. They think Santa is smart for being bilingual! Then someone asks where the presents are. The angels faces fall. They'd forgotten all about presents.

Then God arrives and he's hopping mad! (God, by the way, was played by the principal- who'd also already played an angel in May at Sports Festival!) God tells the children that Santa Claus is inside of all of them, and he makes the angels wish the children back home. "Cupid Power!"

The festival at my other school was relatively normal. It's a small school. Only 31 kids in 6 grades. For me, the highlights were first grader, Nanami's impression of an old lady and the fact that 26 of the kids were in the taiko (Japanese drum) band.



After the bunkasai, there was a mandolin player who sang and played, and had her songs interpreted by a deaf-mute. It was totally random, but there is nowhere in the world more random than that school some days.



That's all for now folks. Here's hoping you have a happy day, and if you don't, just scream, "CUPID POWER!"

Japanese school culture- JHS

So, I've been a bad blogger of late. It's been about 4 months since I've last spoken here. Apologies. There's a helluva lot of catching up to do. And it will be done- in time. For now, I'm just going to jump right back into the swing of things.

Last weekend was my bunkasai (Culture festival) at my Junior High and my big elementary school.

I was pretty exhausted since I left work after 6 every day because I was preparing posters on the Barbadian History and Geography and helping with practices for English recitation and speech contests. Last year, there was a part time English teacher here with me. Since Yuka wasn't involved in any of the other bunkasai preparations, she helped me with the preparations of the Barbados poster, and she translated it into Japanese. This year, Yuka is at a nother school which meant the translation fell to me. It took a long time and a lot of headache, but I managed to translate the major points of Barbadian geography and history into Japanese on my own. I had a teacher check it and I was proud of how few mistakes there were. I even wrote it out in KANJI all by myself. Maybe there is hope yet for me and Japanese!

Saturday was the Junior High School bunkasai. It started with the English Recitations which I introduced in English. It's really all for show, since I doubt any of the parents can understand more than "Good morning" and the names of the students. After the recitations, there was a Japanese Speech contest. This is always the point where it goes downhill for me. I tried to listen to the speehces, but could only understand snatches of what they were saying. Eventually I gave up and started on trying to translate the printed program and the copy of the Principal's and Student Body President's written speeches.

Then the band came on. This is always one of the highlights of my bunkasai. This year, they did Movie Sountracks and they played the Soundtracks from Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. I was so happy I could barely stay in my seat. I was dancing and singing along. I asked my English teacher (JTE) if he'd be doing anything crazy this year. Last year, the Japanese teacher, the Business teacher and the JTE had appeared and pretend sang a popular Japanese song as the band played. He laughed and said, No, but the Maths teacher would. In the middle of the rendition f "Under the Sea" some of the 3rd grade boys ran in, dressed as fish. Then the pushed out the MALE math teacher on a trolley. He was Ariel! Tail and all!

Immediately after the band there was a performance of a town legend by the first years. I don't know what happened because I couldn't understand what they said. But I do know that one of the characters got farted on twice! What a thing to perform in front of your parents.

At lunch recess, the school provided Chicken Rice and I bought an Ichinobe Melon Bread from the PTA. Melon bread is one of the crazy mixes that the Japanese actually got right. It is so good! Ichinobe is a local bread company. I'd never had their melon bread, but it's the best!

The recess was followed by the Choir competition. Each class has to sing as a class in this contest. Someone from the class had to direct and someone else had to play the piano. They do two songs and most classes have a different director and a different pianist for each song. I am always amazed by the number of people who can play the piano and how well they can play it.

The thing that really amazed me about this year's competition was that I actually knew more than half of the songs they sang! Have I been in Japan that long! 2-2 got a special prize for a wonderful a capella rendition. 1-2 won the first year contest, 2-2 one the second years and 3-1 the third. 3-1 won the overall prize.

Then they presented the prizes for the speech contest, the choir contest and the wall newspaper contest (groups of students had made little newpsapers to hang in the classrooms).

After the presentations, there were some more speeches and then, as a student was about to close the bunkasai, the 3rd years stormed the stage and began to sing. I was rather amused, in Japan it doesn't bode well to break the routine. I hope they didn't get into too much trouble and I can't hepl wondering what will happen next year, since the 2nd years are way crazier than the 3rds!

Stay tuned for new of the elementary bunkasai- Doraemon kidnapped, Santa and angels... fun stuff all around!