Sports

     I think in Japan, sports play a very important role in education. There are two reasons why I think so.

     First of all there are many school events related to sports year around. For example, most elementary schools and junior high schools have athletics meets, we call it undokai. It’s an annual event, and you can see sports festivals held in schoolyards. It is usually held on the second Monday in October because this is ‘Sports Day’ holiday in Japan although some schools hold it in May. Students take part in competitive sports, fun games or track and field events. Parents and relatives of the students and local people attend undokai and sometimes they also join in light-hearted games like ‘tamaire’ and ‘tsunahiki’. So I think undokai is a good opportunity to socialize for students. In fact when I was an elementary school student, I and my classmates wrote some invitations for local people. Most high schools also hold athletics meets, but we don’t call it undokai. We call it kyugitaikai, taiikusai, etc. This picture is from my yearbook of high school. These photos were taken on the day of kyugitaikai. It was one of the most popular events among our high school students. We were very exciting and enjoyed it!!

     Another is club activity, we call it bukatsu. It is not compulsory, but most students, especially junior high school students, belong to a bukatsu. We can communicate with other year students and students from other schools through bukatsu. When I was a junior high school student, I was a member of volleyball club. Our club sometimes has practice game with students from other prefectures, like Iwate, Yamagata and high school students. So I could meet many people and make friends. This photo is also from my yearbook. Most of my friends belong to bukatsu.

Thus I think sports is very important in education in Japan.

Gender

     In Japan most of the elementary school students use randoseru, which is a kind of school bag, although some private school students use designated school bags. Of course I used a randoseru when I was an elementary school student, but I don’t have any picture now, so I attached two pictures from google. Boys use black randoseru and girls use red ones in general. I thought it was quite natural, so I hadn't realized that many companies, such as AEON, Ito-yokado and so on, have recently started selling colorful randoseru. If you go to the randoseru corner, you can see various colors of randoseru, not only black and red but also blue, yellow,pink, orange…..maaaaaaany colors!!! So I thought the idea that black randoserus for boys and red ones for girls might be based on gender bias. In fact, when I was an elementary school student, one of my friends used a light purple randoseru. At first boys teased her about her color of randoseru. They said things like she used a purple randoseru in spite of a girl, for example. I remembered such memories when I went to AEON and saw a lot of randoserus last weekend.

pictures: http://www.google.co.jp/search?tbm=isch&hl=ja&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=506&q=%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E3%82%BB%E3%83%AB&btnG=%E7%94%BB%E5%83%8F%E6%A4%9C%E7%B4%A2&gbv=2&oq=%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E3%82%BB%E3%83%AB&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=0l0l0l6007l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0

Globalization

                Last weekend I attended my sister's wedding ceremony in Gunma prefecture. She is 26 years old and working as a nurse. She and her husband have been dating for 7 years and 8 months, so many of her and his friends, including me, were looking forward to their marriage. The wedding reception was wonderful. The atmosphere of the chapel and the garden were so nice. It was not so big, and it made us feel comfortable. In Japan the style of wedding has been shifting. Most people wore kimono as wedding costumes at one time. After that people came to wear western dresses due to the influence of internationalization. And now, an eclectic style of traditional (Japanese style) and modern style (Western style) has been drawing attention. For example, some couples hold a wedding ceremony at a chapel wearing traditional kimono, or others arrange “chiyogami or oriduru shower” instead of “flower shower”. In my sister’s case, she wore both traditional kimono and modern dress during her wedding reception. And the food was a mixture of Japanese and Western styles. According to the chef, the concept of the food was “Western food -eating with chopsticks-“. For example, we ate steak with miso sauce as a main dish, and green-tea gelato as a dessert. Anyway, the wedding ceremony was excellent! And I had a really good time ^^*/