Track and Field Day?

Shiota Junior High School, Sports Festival – September 17th

A typical Sports Festival for Japanese schools includes the following events:

Running, Running, and more Running
You name it, every kid in the school ran it. 100 and 400 metre Dashes and Relays, 3200 metre Long Distance, Obstacle Courses – wait a second, I don`t remember this event in Canada...Whatever happened to the Hurdles? The Long and High Jumps? The Shot Put???

Dancing and Cheering
I thought to myself: “The what and the what now? How can these possibly be classified as events? Am I reliving Frosh Week without the mind-altering substances? Well, the outfits are pretty flashy!”


Q: Were you involved in the Events?
A: Unfortunately, yes. I was weasled into racing in this obstacle course by my Kocho Sensei (Vice Principal). At first I thought, “Yeah dude, I`m gonna kick ass!”, and then they lined me up beside a group of 14 and 15 year old hormone raging BOYS!! I mean, I couldn`t even beat hormone raging boys when I was 14, and let`s just say for the record that I`m a wee bit older and not as fast as I used to be. I am Jayne`s absolute sense of embarrassment. The only thing that could have made it worse was if it was on videotape – oh wait, IT IS!!!!!