First of all, all the students participate. Also, the parents come to watch. Lastly, there are no individual events.
Events include relay races, tug-of-war, and several events I'd never seen.
This is like a gunny sack race, except the students have their legs attached by rope. They have to move in step, or they move very slowly or fall over!
Here all the students on the team link arms and race.
In this event, several large bambboo poles are placed in the center of the field, with competing teams on each side. Each team tries to get as many poles dragged or carried over to their side. If you grab a pole that nobody else has, you just take it to your side. If someone from the other side grabs it too, it becomes a tug-of-war.
Here, a team's flag is stuck on the end of a heavy pole. Part of the team stays to hold the pole upright, while part of the team goes to the other team's pole and tries to get their flag.
Reminds me of Eddie Izzard's "Do you have a flag?" routine!
It also seems like something that would make an American school's lawyer cringe at the thought of possible liability...
Here's another one that had liability written all over it. Four boys hold up a fifth boy, and they grapple.
The teachers that I talked to seemed surprised when I told them that we didn't have anything like this in American Schools.
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Yeah, you can't have real fun in American schools anymore because of all the liability BS. I wonder if you can even play dodge ball anymore here in the U.S.
Here all the students on the team link arms and race.
How is that a race if they're all running together? I mean, I know Japanese culture is less about individuals showing off and more about teamwork, but doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of a race?
You have to admire the three-legged race, though... that does take some cooperation to do a three-legged race with three people instead of just two.
BTW, you can have SOME fun in American schools. For example, instead of wasting time learning to play team sports that will be really hard to keep up once one has left school, my daughter is learning to rollerblade in her gym class. I sure would rather have done that than play softball!
I was unclear about the race where the students link arms...there are still two separate teams, each made of students linking arms. Of course, that way neither team really moves that much faster than the other.
If nobody can fail, does that not also mean that no one can win?
No individuals win or lose, but teams win or lose.
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