Cultural Festival at School

All of last week, Yumesaki Junior High School spent the afternoon class periods preparing for their cultural festival. Each homeroom class has been practicing a song for the choir competition, and the school halls and grounds were filled with groups of students singing. I wasn’t sure what else might occur on cultural festival day, but it had to be big! On Monday, the entire school spent a half hour doing “big cleaning”. This actually meant “gardening”. So instead of just having an adult run a lawn mower over the grass, everyone was pulling up handfuls of grass and weeds. I’m sure if I asked why, I’d get the standard answer that this teaches the students discipline. And I’m sure they’re right about that!

On Tuesday, we had no classes at all. Instead, students spent more time practicing the songs and toured the art room and home ec and science labs where students’ projects were on display. The home ec room was particularly interesting. The 7th graders had learned about doing laundry (they could teach me a thing or two. To start with: how to read the detergent boxes. I’m afraid one day I’m going to buy bleach thinking it’s detergent and then I’ll be really sorry!), the 8th graders learned about cooking, and the 9th graders made children’s toys.

All the students also took their chairs into the gym, so that they would be ready for Wednesday (the day of the festival), and then they practiced getting up on stage and going back to their seats. (In the photos, you can see the white name tag stickers on the back of each chair with a student’s name on them.)

Finally, yesterday was the cultural festival, and I think the best comparison to make is to say it’s like Parents Night, the school play, and maybe the School Holiday party – but all on one day (not during the evening). Lots of parents came, and I was amused to see they all brought shoes or slippers to change into when they went into the gym. I asked a teacher if they had been told to do that, and she said no, everyone just knows.

The program of the day was as follows:
Greetings and singing the school song
Performance by the school brass band (they were quite good. The band teacher seemed very pleased!)
PTA choir sang a song
Speeches by students
“Who am I” game – basically killing time while the school play set up. I was honored to be one of the people featured in the game.
The school play, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. It went pretty well, just a couple minor hiccups. The actors spoke in English, but everyone in the audience had a Japanese translation of their lines, and the narrator also explained in Japanese.
Then after the lunch break, the much-anticipated school choir competition! There were 15 songs, one for each homeroom class. They were all good, but three of the five 9th grade classes were fantastic! I’m sure the judges had a very difficult time deciding. Here’s a short clip of a 9th grade class. (Just 45 seconds. I was keeping myself entertained by playing with my new camera. Can you tell?)