Bunkasai

that is, to say, School Festival!

So, Wednesday was supposed to be a set up day.  (Un)fortunately, another typhoon rolled through about that time and school was cancelled.  Which means that the kids didn't come, while we teachers set up the chairs in the gym (10 min) and then did random stuff (like lesson planning) until 12 or so.  Then we went home and fetched our passports from the ward office/town hall where (as you may remember from the previous post) they had been left.

Incidentally, I thought that since there is no snow here, there would never be reason for school to be cancelled.  Totally wrong.  Not even a month in and we've had 2 cancellations due to typhoons.

Now, during Bunkasai every homeroom class and club has to do something.  An act on the stage, selling food, a game, etc.  I'd say a good half of the classes elected to put on a dance.  Some of these dances were better than others, but most were quite entertaining.  In addition too the class dances, the stage also hosted some bands, the brass ensemble, a play, a fashion show, and a dance by the dance club.  All of these were in the non-air conditioned gym.  Between Thurs and Fri (mostly Thurs), I managed to see all the shows and enjoyed them all.  Now, there was one song that many different groups danced too.  That song got a bit old by the end of Fri.  (And then I heard it Sat in the grocery).  Some highlights: one of the classes I teach did Michael Jackson's dangerous, a couple times the classes had their homeroom teachers join them on the stage, and the band that introduced it's members as members of one of my favorite bands.

When I wasn't in the gym, I wandered around to the classrooms and tents set up outside.  Generally speaking, any class that wasn't dancing was selling food.  Suffice to say, I bought a lot of food during those two days.  For example, one time I went outside to get a little snack.  I ended up w/ 2 pancake fish, a helping of takoyaki, 2 drinks, and a hotdog.  Other snacks- Korean food (good), some kind of giant flat rice cake with a fried egg on top, cotton candy (or candy floss, to use the Irish term), sugared bread crusts, and some other things that I didn't get b/c of long lines.

The clubs usually had something a bit different.  The anime/manga club had cosplay, somewhere there was a shooting game, the English club had posters of all the exchange students, painting club displayed their paintings, etc.  One I particularly enjoyed was the tea ceremony club.  You went in, got a snack (mochi, yummy!) on a traditional plate, ate it w/ a stick (seriously), and watched while the tea was being prepared.  It was quite relaxing and lovely.  Then when the tea was ready you got to drink some.  More yummy-ness!

Also the flower arrangement club (I don't know what their official name is) had arrangements to sell.  I visited their booth, but though I would get something later.  Of course I never got back, but luckily for me they joined the ranks of students running all over school with their wares in a cardboard box trying to sell things.  So I got this cute little arrangement:

There's some viney stuff in there that I'm going to plant once the flowers start to wilt.

Speaking of pictures, this is what takoyaki looks like:

Also fish pancakes:

(They come w/ chocolate or cream filling)

There was only so much to do, so I spend the odd 1/2 hour hiding out in the teachers room working on lessons plans.  Also ended up staying late on Fri to clean up, but whatever.  It was fun.  Got to hang out w/ some of the teachers that I don't know yet.

Today, I got a futon.  Since it's big and bulky, I'm having it delivered tomorrow, when I will take pics to show y'all.