ウォーキング大会

Every year at this time, our town has a ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally).

It’s organized by the local 小学校 (Elementary Schools) PTAs and it’s open to everyone in the town to meet and walk around the river for a morning of socializing and exercise. It’s especially popular with the elderly and the children who attend the 小学校 (Elementary Schools) and their families.

I’m on the PTA of my youngest daughter’s 小学校 (Elementary School).
She’s in sixth grade at 小学校 (Elementary School)…this April she’ll begin 中学校 (Junior High). (And my oldest will begin 高等学校 (High School)).

Since I’m on the PTA, I helped with the ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally).
I’ve joined this ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally) a couple times before…but this was the first time I joined it as part of the organizers.

There are two courses. A 3 meter course and a 5 meter course. My daughter’s school’s PTA helped with the shorter 3 meter course. So, that’s the course I did. My daughter and her friends walked the 5 meter course.

The event started at 10:00. The start-point was at an Elementary School near the river (not my daughter’s school).
I and the other PTA members got there at 9:30 to set-up and welcome people when they came. At 10:00, the school principal gave a welcome speech and then the gym coach led us in warm-up exercise…then the people doing the 5 meter course left first. The rest of us waited about ten minutes to give them a head-start so that we could all finish around the same time.

We began our walk at about 10:30 and finished at about 11:30. It was a very relaxed pace because, as I said, there were many elderly people and young children. It was enjoyable.

I walked at the rear of the group to make sure everyone was fine. I, as well as the other PTA members, wore a PTA armband.
An old woman walked next to me and told me all about a trip she took to America many years ago.

Once we all got back to the 小学校 (Elementary School), we were handed a ticket with a number on it for a lottery-type game.
There were twenty prizes and random numbers were drawn and called out by the 校長先生 (school principal). People with winning numbers on their ticket were given a prize.
I didn’t win anything…but my daughter won a box of cookies.

Next year I won’t be on the PTA anymore…but I may join in the ウォーキング大会 (Walking Rally) again.

運動会

Yesterday was my youngest daughter’s 運動会 (Sports Day event) at her school.
She’s in the sixth grade (which, in Japan, is the highest grade in 小学校 (Elementary school)), so this was the last Elementary school 運動会 (Sports Day event) for my kids.

運動会 (Sports Day events) are usually held from kindergarten to high school in Japan in September or October…but my oldest two daughters had their 中学校 (Junior High School) 運動会 (Sports Day event) last June (it was the first of my kids’ 運動会 (Sports Day events) that I didn’t attend because it was held on a weekday due to rain on the original day it was scheduled. (Click here to read my post about it)).

運動会 (Sports Day events) at Japanese 保育園 (Nursery Schools), 幼稚園 (Pre-schools) and 小学校 (Elementary schools) usually are decorated with strings of world flags hung over the school yard (中学校 (Jr High) and 高等学校 (High School) usually don’t decorate this way for their events).

My daughter played the trombone in the marching band for the commencement of the 運動会 (Sports Day event), and she ran in a couple races and other events during the day. As they usually do, the 運動会 (Sports Day event) started at 9:00AM and went until noon and we stopped for lunch (my wife and daughters had prepared an excellent lunch for us) and after lunch, the games re-started and the 運動会 (Sports Day event) finished at about 3:30PM.

I participated in the PTA 綱引き (Tug-Of-War).

A long day. But, as always, alot of fun!

This was the last 運動会 (Sports Day event) at the 小学校 (Elementary School)…next year, my youngest two daughters will be in 中学校 (Junior High School) and the oldest will begin 高等学校 (High School)!