Bunkasai

School Festival is a time for the students to exhibit their talents and involve the local community in what the school is all about. Though I was a bit upset to have to go to school on a Saturday and Sunday, I am extremely glad that I did. It was really fun.

On Sunday, each homeroom had their own activity going on. Some sold food, some had game booths, some provided entertainment. Most clubs also had a presentation of their work. Saturday was spent at the music center next door to city hall. Here, they exhibit their musical and drama school. I was really impressed with their work.



Each homeroom designed their own shirts.
I love the manhole.

Akie is a sannensei who won the speech contest last year. She speaks really well and sometimes I play with her with the tennis team. She's a cool kid.


I'm a dork, just had to take a picture with Nakashima, the little high school rock star.


And here he is rockin' out.

From the crowd's view.


This is a hologram the science club made.



I did a little tea ceremony, but i'll talk about that soon enough.


Again, science club and their little

Funniest part of haunted house, i thought.


Here is some footage of making mochi. Mochi is made by pounding rice over and over until it turns gooey and sticky.

After the pounding, they are rolled into little balls and covered in a sweet powder.


It is delicious with green tea.



These girls are ninensei. Miki was another girl who I met helping with her speech. She's the one next to me. When we met, I was like....oh, ya, Miki, like the mouse, huh? And she gave me a serious face and said, "but I am not a mouse!" She's also on student counsel so I always find her doing cool stuff like chilling with the bands backstage and organizing activities. I love when she includes me in stuff and explain what's going on. Her friend, Sato-san, in front of her plays bass, and I really wanna play with her. She also likes to tell me about her boyfriend. In return, I made them mix CDs.



On Saturday, one of the performances was Shoji or drawing Kanji's with a big paintbrush. Cool or what? (I oftentimes get Shoji and Shugo confused, maybe even now. One is calligraphy and the other Japanese chess. I'd go look it up, but I'm in a zone right now, so i'll change it if someone calls me on my ignorance.



I'm writing genki. It means enegetic/happy/excited.

These girls are in tea ceremony and flower arranging club. These traditional japanese activities usually call for wearing yukata. Aren't they lovely? The girl in the middle, whose name I'm totally going to find out next time i teach her class, plays phenomenal piano. Also, she's barely ichinensei! Crazy talented, these kids.

See what I mean? Here are some works by the art club. Jouzu, ne?

They also made this cool dragon.

Science club once again with a little demonstration table of the elements. Like my pun? Was it a pun?

A couple of cuties.

Japanese chess. I really want to learn how to play. Better put that on my summer goal list. I'm a big fan of chess.




These are a few sannensei girls who are performing Rollie by the Skakallabits


This is a Mr. Children song performed by two kids in my OC class. Daiki is playing bass looking all rock and roll with his spiky hair, and Hayato is singer. I was really proud of him. He's also really clever and likes to make jokes in the assignments I give the class. I realized from this festival that he's the little ladies man. In fact, there were alot of little socialy things I noticed between the students, but I'll go into that in another post.


I forget this sensei's name. I know, i'm a douchebag, especially because he's always so kind to me. I thought his song rocked, though.
And last, but not least, our school's brass band. Unfortunately, I could not get longer footages of their awesomeness due to having only a 520mb camera card.