2023-6 Blog Entry List

     On Tuesday, June 6th, I attended Chuo Secondary School’s Sports Day, which was held at Takasaki Arena this year. During the opening ceremony, the teams displayed their flags for all to see, representing the four different-colored teams. Before the events officially began, all of the students took part in what is called “Radio Calisthenics”. This is something that I was aware of being practiced in Japan, but it doesn’t exist in any present-day capacity in the United States to my knowledge, so it was very cool to witness such a large number of people doing that in person for the first time. Many different events were held throughout the day, but I think in particular, the ones I enjoyed most as a spectator were the large coordinated dances performed by each team, the “gag” relay race, and then an event in which all four teams tried to remove the ribbons off of each other's helmets to win, while sitting on the shoulders of two other students lifting them up and acting as their legs the entire time.

　6月6日の火曜日に、今年は高崎アリーナで行われた中央中学校の体育祭に参加しました。開会式では、各チームが四つの異なる色の旗を掲げ、見る人々に示しました。イベントが正式に始まる前に、全生徒が「ラジオ体操」と呼ばれるものに参加しました。これは私が日本で行われていることを知っていましたが、私の知識では現在のアメリカでは存在していないので、初めて多くの人々がそれを直接見ることができてとても興奮しました。その日はさまざまなイベントが行われましたが、特に私が観客として一番楽しんだのは、各チームが行う大規模なコーディネートされたダンス、"ギャグ"リレー競争、そして全チームが相手のヘルメットからリボンを取り除こうとするイベントです。このイベントでは、2人の生徒に肩車され、足の代わりにされながら全員が参加しました。 

     The gag relay race was definitely the most memorable event for me of the day, in which students of different clubs wearing their respective outfits had to race against each other, with the stipulation being that they had to literally act out their club’s activities to progress in the race. For example, the swimming club member was not able to run as one normally would, but rather had to dive onto the floor multiple times and try to swim his way to victory. Movements which were of course futile, but hilarious, by design. I was thoroughly impressed by the concept and execution of this event, and I feel it was both humorous and extremely clever. The final event of the day was a real relay race, which was quite intense. Absolutely eardrum-shattering and explosive cheers were let loose, and the excitement in the air during that last part was at an immeasurable level.