奈良。小学校。秋季大運動会。

 I wondered if sports meetings in Japan are like those in animations, so I went to see one myself. One that took place in a primary school in Nara. It was on a Saturday morning in October. I woke up before 7am and managed to arrive in the primary school before 9am. When I was still wondering the reason why I had to get there so early since the sports meeting would not start until 10am, I understood immediately the moment I saw how crowded the playground was and how difficult it was to find a spot for sitting. It was because that was my host parents’ grandchild’s sports meeting that I was able to enter the primary school as everyone visiting that day must have a name tag with them that clarify which family they were in for security reasons. The playground that day was basically blue except the central part since each family had one big blue plastic mat to sit on. All families were sitting next to each other, and it was also one of the situations in Japanese life in which one is required to take off shoes before walking on the mats.  In addition, if one had to walk pass other people’s mats before getting to his or her own, then one must say “excuse me” constantly before he or she enter the area of his or her own mat. The area of a family’s mat symbolized the territory of that family for that period.  This might be reason why parents and grandparents were willing to wake up and arrive much earlier that day in order to put their mats on desirable areas. A desirable area that day was one where good pictures could be taken and competitions could be watched closely and clearly.

                Based on how crowded the playground was and the fact that almost all family members participated, I assumed that the sports meeting in primary school is considered a family event in Japan.  Later, I found out that there are four events in primary school every year in which parents and other family members will probably show up. There is the culture festival every February and the sports meeting every October. These are two primary school events in which families of all students will participate. And then there is the ceremony for new students every April and one for graduated students every March. In these two events, families of the first graders or the six graders will show up.

                Simply put, the primary school sports meeting can be regarded as a collective activity of primary students in which they compete with each other base on athletics skills. However, it is much more than that in Japan. It is a complicated system operated under the influence of parents, teachers and the national education department and even the change of Japanese society. There were four groups in the sports meeting each represented by its own color, and each group had its own winning slogan. At first, I thought that those four groups were simply four different classes, but at the same time I wondered why there were only four classes in the whole school and each one with so many students. But it turned out that I was completely wrong.  Students in the same class were first divided into four groups, and then students in the same group in each class come together to form one single big group. In other words, one big group was formed by students from different classes in different grades. This also meant that students in the same class were competing with each other since they were divided into different groups. This might be an action to create the maximum equality and friendliness between groups since one important aspect of the sports meeting was that the result would not matter as long as the students learned how to corporate with each other and try their best. It was very interesting for me to find out that in Japan, a country where people are always encouraged to try very hard, words like “ganbatte” should be avoided in public announcements during the sports meeting in the recent decade. The reason is simple. Parents do not want their children to bear more pressure by hearing “ganbatte” from their teachers since their children are already trying very hard. Personally, I do not think this is a good change and it may be explain the reason why the young Japanese generation is so spoiled in a way.

                There was no reward for the first group which won the most points. It was only one school announcement about which group was the first followed by claps by everyone. At the end, every student received the same gifts no matter what group they were in. Again, the winner or the loser was not emphasized or even paid attentions to in the sports meeting. And the final results were counted towards the groups instead of individuals. Recently, students were taught to value study much more than sports. As a result, the sports meeting became an occasion for students to have fun which is not seriously considered since its results do not affect one’s academic performance and exam ranking.  But I personally think that physical health is as important as academic performance.