Drama, Drama, Drama

And at a sports festival too. Who would have thought it.

I awoke yesterday at 6.00, was on a train by 6.30, arrived at school by 7.00. I had to sow on my numbers to my school shirt because I didn't bring it home. No one told me, how was I supposed to know? I ended up failing at life and Akane did it for me because my stitches looked like a three year old had done it.*sigh*

So, Taikasai. As you may have previously read, it is our sports festival. There are seven classes in each year level and at Taikasai the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years from each class get together and become a 団 which loosely translates as brigade. So, I'm in 2nd year, Class 5 and along with the 1st and 3rd years from Class 5 we became 五団。 Go dan.

Every dan had a colour:

一団：Yellow

二団：Orange

三団：Red

四団：Green

五団：Purple

六団：Blue

七団：Pink

In the morning, every one was bright and happy, ready for a hard day of fun and games.

By around nine, the sky was looking dangerously overcast and it had rained earlier that morning but the teachers still gave us the ok to do our sports festival outside. By 9.45 we were all wet. But we continued, nonetheless, inside and outside our tents dancing away, trying to prove that we were the best to the audience of umbrellas. Everyone was ridiculously enthusiastic, doing their best to remember all the moves and be energetic at the same time. Then it started raining harder and reluctantly the Kansho staff decided to take the whole thing into our school gym.

We all lined up, after having changed our shoes of course, for こうしん。 Marching. Everyone is very fond of complicated marching patterns but luckily this one was fairly simple. We marched to the front, did a little dance and then returned back and watched the other 6 groups do theirs. Everyone was still pumping.

After that came something I really didn't expect, the unveiling of each group's mascot. I didn't even know we had a mascot so it was all news to me. I think it was the job of the third years but they all came out really well. Ours was what looks to be a panther, either way, it is pretty awesome. It had a newspaper covering it initially with ''It's Showtime!'' graffitied on top, that being our group (5団). Then when they revealed our picture, our group all yelled, ''It's Showtime'' because we are awesome like that. Nana Dan had a pretty cute one too.

Once that was all over and done with, we moved in to the festivities, first up was つなひき　or Tug-o-war, which I participated in. Our match was first against Roku Dan, as soon as the guy yelled よい！and snapped his two pieces of wood together, we started losing. We then lost even faster due to most of the front half falling over. When I saw the dominoes starting to cascade towards me, I quickly let go of the rope and moved safely out of the way. I didn't feel like falling over and getting dragged along the ground in front of everyone. Roku Dan came second, losing to Nana Dan but it was close.

We returned to the classroom feeling slightly defeated but still pretty buoyant. I had a snack and we all prepared to do our little plate dance, のんのか。The thing we had been practicing for every morning and after school all week, not to mention for the last two weeks in P.E and this week, all day. We were all pretty nervous but we shouted encouragement to each other determined to do it and do it well.

((Side Note: My class also recently discovered my ability to yell English very loudly and thus, being Coccomi (an abbreviation of Kokusai meaning international, and Communication.) I have been recently used as the encouragement person. Basically, we gather around in a circle and I yell something like, ''Go Coccomi'' or ''We are Coccomi'' or ''Go-chan is really really deaf''. Don't blame me, they asked for that one, I just translated. Go-chan (Nakagami Go) is our home room teacher who is pretty nice but has a lot of trouble hearing students answers, especially Sayaka poor kid. She always ends up yelling.))

So, having discovered this ability they asked me to yell something before we danced. Lolz. We ran inside with another group on each side, flanking us. We all huddled in our starting positions, and it all quiet inside the gym, and Yuuri and Chika were like, ''All right, go!'' So, much to my public embarrassment I stood up and yelled, ''Let's win, Coccomi!'' And Coccomi cheered and then I sat back down and waited for the music to start.

How do I describe what happened next? Well, I guess we can just say we heard the faint, incoherent drifts of music from afar and thus, we, and the other groups all kind of looked around. The other groups moved forward and started dancing, someone quickly turned up the music all the while, our group was in the center shouting back, ''もう一回！'' and ''聞こえなかった！'' meaning, ''One more time!'' and ''We couldn't hear!''

You see, our beginning is quite impressive and it was a real shame to have us miss it, that being the reason that we persisted. However, when it became quite clear that the judges weren't going to restart it, we quickly rushed into position just in time for the basic dance. The rest of the dance went pretty well I thought, I, knowing the show must go on, slapped a smile on my face and tried to dance as well as I could to regain our lost credibility. In hindsight, I must have looked like an idiot, shouting something odd in English and then our group being all weird in the beginning. Great.

The dance finished, people clapped, I only made a few minor mistakes, I wasn't used to doing the dance with the plates which we are meant to clap together in time with certain moves. The plates are only small, two in each hand and very breakable. When every one stopped holding their final pose, it was only then that I noticed Anna, who was next to me, crying. I patted her on the back, slightly confused. Then as we were jogging out, it was only then that I noticed that nearly everyone in my class was crying.

I was like, WTF?

It was sad about the beginning, but it wasn't the end of the world. Was it? It must have been a real disappointment, as they had come first last year in Nonoka and with our catastrophe in the beginning, it was all but impossible that would win. Not to mention all of the effort everyone had put in practicing and Minori and Sayaka choreographing it and all but still...crying? It was only a dance.

After everyone exited crying, with all the other groups waiting for their turn staring and wondering what happened but not daring to ask, I searched for someone to ask where Rika pan (the sport were two people wear a giant pair of pants and run together) was as I knew it was coming up soon. However, I couldn't see anyone in my class that wasn't hopelessly sobbing to ask, so I asked someone who wasn't crying as much.

Getting to the place were everyone was assembled, I looked around for my partner, who hadn't arrived yet. Seeing a group of my class crying in the back, I went over to join them but I felt kind of odd not crying or showing any sign of crying. Then, some of the third years comforting them started crying as well. It just kept getting better and better.

We lined up and started moving towards the gym, arriving in front I was like, ''Uh...my partner still isn't here...'' and then everyone was like, ''Oh...'' and I was like, ''Thanks guys, that helps.'' (In my mind, of course.) So, I ended up sharing a giant pair of pants with Hitomi who I hadn't practiced with at all but we came second which was pretty good. However, everyone was still sobbing when we left even though they tried to look happy.

When we returned, everyone was sitting in the classroom looking depressed. The message I wrote on the blackboard kind of just sat there and mocked me. I nearly wanted to rub it off but I refrained. Yui tried to relieve some of the tension by getting everyone to dance but it ended up with everyone crying again. Then the third years came in, thankfully, they helped calm everyone down. Lunch was pretty awkward, it was all still pretty quiet.

After lunch, and the ran had stopped, the teachers decided to have another shot at holding Taikasai outside. Half of the groups did their おうえん which is like a group dance for the entertainment of the audience. That was followed by relays which we had a tendency to lose but I took some semi-decent photos, the one below isn't really one of them but it has Morishita running which is always amusing.

The relays were then followed by the third year's dance. Below: Mai Sempai who is a terrific performer, seriously, she puts everything into every move.

Guess what they danced to? All for One from High School Musical 2. That made me cringe and hate the irony of being in a different country but still being unable to escape hearing Zac Efron blasted over a loud speaker. Angst.

We danced our Ouen which was a combination of Japanese and English song parodies like most of the others, one of them being Mama Mia. ((Performed again by the boys and Yui inside the classroom.))I tried to sing when I could but having all the words in Japanese does make it a touch difficult. Then, the day began to come to a close. We all lined up in our class numbers, marched to the center, stood and bowed an unnecessary amount of times before sitting and listening to a few speeches before they announced the winners of events.

We became more and more disheartened as Yon Dan won a large amount of things, with only a few cheers for our group. When Ichi Dan won Ouen, there was a loud, collective, 'Ehhh?' from everyone. Then came Nonoka:

In 3rd place: Yon Dan.

In 2nd place: Nana Dan.

The tension was tangible in the air, everyone was clutching their hands together, and staring at the announcer who had left a dramatic pause just to tease us all a little longer. We all knew that after the fiasco in the beginning it would be impossible to win, but still...we had to hope.

In 1st place: Go Dan!

Everyone erupted in applause, squealing and flailing their arms in excitement and then the tears came rolling down everyone's cheeks in wracking sobs, all the while I just sat their with my mouth hanging open, thinking: How the bloody hell did we manage that?!?! My second thought was: God, these guys are emotional. My third was something like: At least we didn't let Sayaka down.

We came second overall for the whole day, whilst Yon Dan came first.

Naturally, it started raining again. We returned to our tent where the whole weird day had began and gathered around in a circle for the thank you's which are so ritualistic here. The third years thanked us for our effort, and apologised that we didn't come first like last year then they all started crying, including our 団長 who is the ultimate leader of us all.

We ended up doing our Ouen again, and somehow we ended up in a giant circle with all of the other groups in the pouring rain which then turned into a mosh pit as we all jumped up and down for no reason.

We returned to the classroom and everyone finally felt like taking some photos. I tried to take some earlier but I felt bad beause every one was still crying, I didn't get any in-action shots of me either, having no one in the audience I could trust with my camera. So, sorry. But I've got some photos at least even though it meant risking the rain, and putting my camera in my obentou bag and tying it to various poles inside the tents so it wouldn't get rained on. Kind of risky, but I had to get SOME photos, being my only Taikasai ever and all.

I would like to direct your attention away from my horrible looking self in this photo and instead look at Morishita who is the second boy on the right hand side. His pose is hilarious in the closeup.

My shoe schedule for the 11th of July: Loafers-Slippers-Sneakers-Slippers-Gym Shoes-Slippers-Sneakers-Slippers-Loafers. Imagine how much easier it would be if we wore only one pair of shoes, or even two instead of four! Four pairs of shoes in one day! Seriously.

Akane and I arrived home around 6.30-ish and much to my delight we went out to dinner to a very atmospherical restaurant called Nanayozuki. 七夜月。 It was traditional style with bamboo and plants on the outside and on the inside it was very dark, all the walls were black. It was very slick and streamlined with mirrors and dim lanterns, we had to wait in the foyer for around 20/30 minutes but when we finally got into our small booth, seperated by the others by a bamboo drape which gave it the exotic Japanese feel. We all had a mix of chips, karage, om rice, spaghetti. The food was very good, as was the desert.

Tadaa! Mini Chocolate Parfait which wasn't so mini...

Home came by car, I showered and quickly went to sleep, and now here I am, telling you all about it. Lolz. I watched Japanese cartoons this morning. Currently popular: Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, Fresh Pretty Cure, Yattaman and Detective Conan.

There are also some funny ads on Japanese television, so far I have seen Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sam Neil, Emmy Rossum, Tommy Lee Jones and someone else whose name I can't think of.

Here is a Japanese Ad which makes me laugh for no reason at all: Click Me! (Youtube)

And now, I'm going to go because I am hungry and I want some lunch.

<3

Ashley-chan.

P.s: Gosh, I'm tired. Lolz, I watched Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone in Japanese on Friday Night and tonight they've got Prisoner of Azkaban on. Wohoo!