and preparing their original dances, so when the day of the festival finally arrived, they were raring to get started. Despite forecasts of rain, the weather gods were appeased for a change, and the festival went off without a hitch.

In the morning session the students competed in individual track and field races and relays. The students went all out in their events, and while they were always aware of the team score, the emphasis was on individual effort and working together as a team. The students were divided into red, yellow, blue, black and orange teams, and they designed decorations and uniforms in their given color.

The highlight of the afternoon, as always, was the "Ouen-dan" dance competition. All five groups came out with strikingly original performances, that were energetic and well choreographed. Despite tough competition, the yellow group won the dance competition with their "Arabian Knights" performance.


Other afternoon events were the tug of war (fought to loud cheers of "O-S, O-S"), water-gun fight, and "bohiki" (where students fight off each other to capture as many bamboo sticks as possible). The penultimate event was a sports club relay, where all of the clubs dressed up in their uniforms and demonstrated their skills. The gymnastics club was the crowd favorite, as they acrobatically tumbled their way around the track.

When the festival was over, the orange team was the overall winner, while the yellow team won the decorations award (for the huge "Alladin's Palace" they had made) to go along with their dance award. But considering that many students afterwards claimed it was the best sports festival they had ever taken part in, nobody was really a loser.


Due to a Saturday holiday in the middle of the month, the Culture Festival was held just a week after the Sports Festival ended, on September 16 and 17. While this didn't give the students much time to prepare, you wouldn't have known it from their final product.

The students turned their classrooms into photo cafes, game rooms, haunted houses, dance rooms, and planetariums. Meanwhile, other classes performed ambitious plays, including "Macbeth." My English Speaking Society performed an English puppet show of "Peter Pan" that was popular with both children and adults. For those looking for traditional Japanese culture, the tea ceremony club was there to fill the bill. While there were more interesting attractions and performances than I have the time to describe, the show stopper was "Soranbushi," a Japanese taiko drum/ dance performance that wowed the crowd. Mr. Horii sang with the brass band, and while the effort was there, it's a good thing he didn't quit his day job.

With only a week between Sports Festival and Culture Festival, I honestly didn't see how the students could pull it out. But by working together for hours every day, the students made both festivals rousing successes. We don't have a sports festival or a culture festival in America, which is really too bad, because American students are missing out on a lot. The last Takatsuki-Minami Sports Festival and Culture festival of the millennium were rousing successes.

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