Event
Takatsuki-Minami High School has many school events that take place throughout the year.
These events are the highlight of many students' high school life,
and the memories formed at culture festival and school trips last long after the event
itself has ended.
In June the second year class goes on their "shugaku ryoko," or "extended school trip"
in English. This year's class will fly to Hokkaido, where they will spend four days
and three nights in Japan's northernmost and most beautiful island.
1999 was the first year that students used an airplane on their school trip,
and for many of the students it is their first experience flying.
Meanwhile, during the same month, the first year students go on an overnight camping
trip to Hiruzen, where they hold a campfire and have a barbecue at night.
The next day they visit the town of Kurashiki and go to a famous museum
before returning home. This trip is an unofficial orientation to high school life,
and prepares the students for the longer and more elaborate school trip
they will take the following year.
After the summer vacation ends, the students quickly get back into the swing of things
by preparing for two September events: "Sports Festival" and "Cultural Festival."
In the sports festival the students form teams that compete in a variety of athletic events,
from footraces to obstacle courses, to tug of war. The students fervently compete to get points,
but more important than winning or losing is putting forth an all-out effort.
Takatsuki-Minami is known for its original students dances, and during a half-time break
between the morning and afternoon session of the sports festival,
the students hold a dance/cheering contest in which students choreograph their own moves,
which each group having a different theme and color.
When the students have finally calmed down from their sports festival exertions,
just a couple of weeks later they have to rev it up all over again for the culture festival.
At the two-day culture festival, or "bunkasai" in Japanese, each class turns their classroom
into a cultural theatre, where the students show off their original ideas and
themes to other students and parents. Among the most popular exhibits last year
were a haunted house, a shop for artwork the students had made themselves,
and a game room in which all the games had been made by hand.
The school clubs also get into the picture, as each cultural club gets a chance
to show their wares to the rest of the school.
Finally, in February all of the students go up to the mountains in Tenozan
for "winter hiking". Putting mind over matter, the students challenge a long,
uphill course, and get a chance to build up their fitness while experiencing
some of Takasuki's natural beauty.
