ジェト・プログラムのジャスティン

２００７年９月２１日

今週の漢字: 文化祭

Culture Festival:
At Mito High School, last Wednesday was the culture festival. It was very fun and tiring, although the students and other teachers must have been more tired. Anyway, let’s do something different and just jump around the day. Ready?

I went to many classes. If you didn’t know, each class prepares something like a café or an activity. So what did Mito SHS students do? There were exhibitions on foreign cultures, juice, Japanese summer festival games, juice, handmade instruments, casino games, bingo, juice, chocolate covered bananas, shaved ice, juice, candy, and more juice! Yes, you heard me. There was a lot of juice from vegetable to orange to grapefruit and more. It was all very yummy, but I think at the end of the day I turned into fruit punch.

Speaking of the end, there was a closing ceremony as every event seems to have one in Japan. It was very good. The brass band performed songs like the Doraemon theme and a Disney medley. Oh how much I enjoy my Disney… Speeches followed to mark the official end of the festival.

When I arrived at the school, all the teachers were running around. Actually, only a few teachers were running around. Most of the teachers were already in the gym with the students. I went to the locker room in order to change into a Mito SHS teacher t-shirt that many teachers bought for the festivities. It’s cute, and you’ll probably see it in a picture in the coming weeks. The ceremony opened with speeches of course. A few performances followed: cheerleading, art and history club performing a skit about a famous samurai, 1-E hip-hop dance (very well done), and then a few teachers sang a Jpop song by Yui titled “My Generation.” This included me. It was very interesting trying to memorize the lyrics. I was quite proud as I memorized the first half very well. The second half is another story. Let’s just say that I knew about 75% of the song by heart. About four teachers decided to do a bit of air guitar between the chorus and the bridge. It was very fun watching them razzle dazzle the students. I heard that one of the teachers is known as being very serious, so the students were very surprised by his air guitar antics.

After I sampled the classes (except for one because of lack of time), I went to the English club’s quiz game to help out. They had the participants split into groups and asked many questions. They showed flags and had groups write down an answer. Then there was something similar, but instead had variations on flags and asked the groups to select the correct flag of the country they called out. Then there were English to Japanese translation questions and vice versa. I asked the last bunch of questions that I made earlier on the English language and culture. One question I had was, “What does T.G.I.F. stand for?” It went very well, and the winning team won Harry Potter folders. I wonder if the teachers who participated would’ve also screamed with glee if they won those folders.

For lunch, I had yakisoba, frankfurter, and orange juice. Yum! After eating, I continued to take what would end up totaling to about 100 pictures. I went to the gym to find a rock band of students playing. Many students were getting really into it and helped to make it a live concert feel.

The rest of the opening ceremony had more performances. There was a magic act by a magician who graduated from Mito SHS. I found it funny with having an alumnus do a show for the students because there’s an unintentional connotation: “Students, look what you can aspire to be…a magician!” A hip-hop dance followed, which was performed by D.O.D. and York. I don’t know who they are, but I imagine they are professionals?

The PTA made and served lunch. They had different options: udon, yakisoba, frankfurter, and of course more juice!

Stay tuned next week for another update!

今週の写真: 2nd Trimester opening ceremony, natto, and 文化祭.

校長先生 introducing me

Speech to the students

Self-explanatory

Eating natto (fermented soybeans)

Reaction (I don't think it's THAT bad. I can tolerate it.)

きれいですね。