School Festivals

I spent all of last weekend at school festivals (bunkasai in Japanese). From what I have seen, every junior high and high school holds one of these cultural festivals every year. I was quite impressed.

On Saturday, I went to Kita Ko. Below you can see groups of students selling and eating food in the courtyard.


One of my favorite students is in this picture. She always talks to me and is always excited. When she saw Jonas she said, "Oh my God. Everyone come for a picture."


The students were very good at selling their ice cream, floats and shaved ice treats. I felt compelled to buy one of everything since the students kept asking me to buy something until I did. Jonas did not seem to mind and was still able to nap after all that sugar! The picture on the right is a group of students in the temporary cafeteria. They had many lunch choices for sale.



Inside their were stores and displays of student art.


































Above are students playing Go and the Koto club playing beautiful music. Afterwards they let me try and we took a group picture.


This is the illustration group


The festival ended on Saturday afternoon with dance and singing performances. Prizes were awarded to the classes that earned the most points.

On Sunday, I went to Akita Senior High School's festival. Three of my four schools had festivals on the same weekend. They had a wider variety of food, including jacket potatoes.


This is the broadcasting club. I was impressed with their communication center.


They had an interesting competition...which boy makes the prettiest girl...

number 3 won and was incredibly excited.

Many of the class projects at this school seemed to carry a political or social message. This particular one addressed the increasing prices of food and other necessities.


There was also some major rock and roll going on. This band played Red Hot Chili Peppers along with their original music and Japanese rock.

See the Stitch fan above? Now that it is hot here these fans are everywhere. Air conditioning is not used nearly as much as in the States as a way to conserve energy. I like this.
Here is another rockin' band. This band also played original songs. I love the name of this band - P!nk Shell.


This picture includes a group of track and field students who eat lunch with me every time I visit Akita Senior High.


After dance performances, a quiz show and a skit in the gym, there was a night festival that included fire.


Then more band performances, including a teacher led band. The teacher wore leather pants and sang "We Will Rock You." I thought of my nephew Holden (once when we were watching a KU game and they were losing, Holden yelled out, "Hey KU, get the mud off your pants." Yes, the actual line is face, not pants, but he was six. Close enough).

Here are the students dancing to a student band.


And finally the festival ended with fireworks. Yes, a high school festival ended with fireworks. It was July 6, so it was my substitute 4th of July celebration.



I think the school festival is a great tradition to take back to the states. The students organize this festival and take on a lot of leadership. The festival builds community and pride among the students, as they organize and display their hard work. Parents and community members have a chance to see the students' hard work. I love the Japanese school festival tradition.