Saturday the 9th, I went with Ryan, Lindsey, Aaron and Dave to a middle school near Enoshima. Ayumi was teaching there for three weeks for her college coursework, and she invited us to check out the sports festival.
I got there late because I did not get off at the right stop, and it was an express. About 40 minutes late, I met up with the gang out in front of the train station.
School sports festivals are pretty common in Japan. This is the first time I saw one, and it was pretty much how I expected. Everyone’s parents were cheering their kids from the sidelines, and essentially all the classes and all the grades competed against each other. There were some 5 legged races, jump rope, and running. It was mostly relays, but they were all fun to watch, because no one team was much better than the rest, so there were no blowouts. For the most part, the sports at the festival were mostly running sports, it might as well have been a track day. We all had a lot of fun that day, although the weather kind of sucked a bit.
This is the only picture I had of the race where Lindsey, Ayumi, and Ryan ran in a PTA race. We were all laughing so hard on the sidelines because Ryan destroyed a bunch of old Japanese women at a race, then capped it off with a celebration at the end.
After the festival, we went into Machida and ate at LP. This is everyone on the train on the way home. Left to right: Dave, Aaron, Lindsey, and Ryan. After LP, I watched a movie at Aaron’s, then we all went to Sho’s apartment for a little partying. A good time was had by all.
Needless to say, it was a little crazy.
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