Ready, set, go!

My Otoosan and I walked out of the house and into the morning sunlight tempered by the shadows of clouds and an autumnal breeze, sweet and refreshing. It was Sunday and the streets were busier than usual - for the weekend - and there was something different about the way people moved. They were all heading in the same direction, toting sports bags and bags with snacks and drinks, and instead of business suits and school uniforms the outfit of the day was was work-out clothes: sweat pants, tennis shoes, towels. It's not everyday Sunday that people bust out the work-out suit (although every Sunday so far it seems that I have for one reason or another - running with my Otoosan, playing bball) and that day was not just any day. In fact, it was a very special day that only comes once a year and sweeps up the neighborhoods with fervent excitement and it's called: undokai.

Now, there's nothing quite like an undokai in America, and the closest thing to an English translation would be "sports festival." In America we may gather together for a sports event - a pro game or a school game - or we may get together at someone's house to watch a game on television while enjoying good conversation and good food, but there's never a time where the WHOLE neighborhood gathers together and EVERYONE (toddlers and the elderly included) participates in a myriad of silly, serious, fun games in which you're competing against another maybe 10-15 other neighborhoods in an all day extravaganza.

In Japan undokais are a big thing. There are undokais for school, neighborhoods and companies, but since colleges (it's only elementary school to high school) usually don't do undokais and sinceI'm not part of a Japanese company, I only got to experience the wonders of the neighborhood undokai


The main event that I was signed up for was the 400 meter relay, but before that, I also did this game where you had to try to get as many balls as you can into a basket lofted into the air on a really tall pole. My Otoosan put me in it expecting that I would be good because I play basketball, but I think I might of gotten only one in. Despite my lack of finesse, however, we still won. =)


After that I did the relay, during which I realized about half way through I had not yet recovered from the weekend in Tokyo (we had just come back the night before and I was still tired/sore from walking around ), but we still got first place and advanced to the finals and got second place overall!

While the 400 meter relay is something one would expect to find at a sports festival, there were many other events that were quite a first for me. Examples:

punt-a-football-through-you-legs-and-run-around-cones relay


Grab-as-many-fruits/veggies-as-you-can-and-drag-them-over-wooden poles-on-a-platter-without-overturning-it relay

And my favorite:



who-can-grab-an-eel-the-fastest-and-put-it-in-a-bucket relay

Some other events that I did not see but heard about were: the bread eating relay, marshmallow eating relay (you have to stick your face into this trough of flour and grab a marshmallow and start running), and a relay where you roll around a huge ball, among many others.

Overall, my neighborhood Makura-cho came in 2nd place, which is farthest they've come in years! After the undokai we had dinner together in this outdoor lot a couple of houses away from my house and celebrated with sushi, this mochi-azuki soup, and other delicious foods and drinks (beer for the older people, calpico for the younger ones;)). It was an exhausting day, but fun nonetheless.

Other than the undokai, here are some other brief updates in my life:

Like I mentioned earlier, the Thursday-Saturday before the undokai was the AKP field trip to Yokohama, Kamakura and Tokyo. Here are some pics:

Daibutsu (Big Buddha) at Kamakura

Hachiman Shrine in Kamakura. Find of the day: An afro Buddha keychain at one of the nearby shops.

Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo

Asakusa, Tokyo - this is the street leading up to the temple. It was packed with people and there are stands selling food and trinkets lining the walkways. We bought these fish-shaped cakes with azuki bean inside (azuki = sweet red bean paste...sorry I hate using the
word "paste" because it sounds so unappetizing when in reality its super good, but I can't think of another word at the moment...I'll work on that)

And finally, this past weekend Kyoto hosted the Japan writer's conference (for English writers) which I got to attend as an intern at Kyoto Journal. It was great being able to attend such lectures on how to create characters through dialogue and how to go about writing children's books...and also we got to hear Vickas Swarap talk about his novel Q&A which was the basis for Slumdog Millionare!!