Sports & Clubs

This is just a quick note to say how much fun I had after school yesterday with the track team! Japanese junior high schools are packed with club activities (what we'd call sports teams, except these kids don't try out, they just join): baseball, softball, volleyball, basketball, track & field, tennis, judo, kendo, table tennis, brass band, art, home economics. . . there are probably more but I can't think of them right now. The school day finishes at 3:55, and club activities go from 4:00-6:00 p.m.

Since we've been having such nice weather recently, I've felt the pull in my bones to get outside and DO something! Honestly, I've always been kind of anti-sports: my physical activity usually consists of yoga or mountain climbing, not chasing a ball around. But recently I've really enjoyed throwing Frisbees or kicking a soccer ball, so I figured I'd try my luck with sports at school.

I changed into my snazzy track pants and t-shirt and went out on the playing field, which was crawling with students! The basketball team was running laps, the soccer team was out playing, the softball and baseball teams were playing, too, each in their own corner of the field. I wanted to run with the track team, since I did such a good job at it in 7th grade in 1995 (school record: 1 mile in 7:02!!!). The track coach actually wasn't there; instead, one of the 3rd grade girls was leading the 30 students through practice.

First we ran around the perimeter of the school to warm up, then we did stretching excercises. We lined up and skipped halfway down the track before taking off in a dash to finish. We did these weird walking excercises to stretch your hamstrings. And we ran a little bit more.

Later, everyone in the team split up: some dragged out heavy mats and poles and practiced high jump, some got shot puts and started thowing them, some jumped over hurdles (hu-ru-du in Japanese), and others just ran laps. I skipped around from group to group, doing a little jumping, a little shot putting (terribly), discovered I can't do one pull-up on a bar, and finished off playing jump-rope with 7 first and second grade boys. The whole experience was in about 70% Japanese and 30% English. I was so impressed with the students' ability to go through with practice even though they didn't have anyone there yelling at them. Sure, there were some girls who ended up gossiping on the high jump mats instead of actually practicing, but overall, everyone was doing something.

When I said goodbye to everyone, one girl said, "Mata kitene!" (Come back!) I was so inspired that I went directly to Saty after school and bought another pair of track pants so I can join again! Now my schedule will be: Monday and Wednesday, Japanese class; Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, track practice!

Maybe I should try out all the other sports, too. . . maybe I'll discover I'm not as incapable as I thought I was. It's actually fun!