Sports Day

In the fall, every elementary school in Japan has a Sports Day on some Saturday or Sunday. This past Saturday, our local elementary school had its Sports Day. The whole family goes to watch the children take part in various competitions as well as the parents joining some of the events. We got there to see kindergarten children with their parents taking part in a relay race involving rolling huge soccer balls:
and then running in over-sized shorts:
The next event was for elementary school children and their parents. They had to stick their face in rice flour to find one small rice ball:
and then run (looking like a clown) with a soccer ball around some pylons:
The next event was for adults from the nearby areas. I helped my local area in the tug-of-war event:
Here are some close-up shots of me in action:

And finally, here is Ayako and myself in front of the 'close friend' gate (exit gate) where the competitors leave through after each event (the entry gate was called the 'try your best' gate):
This was only a small bit of the entire day. We left at the lunch break and ate lunch in a small park nearby.
Since I've heard many stories from students taking part in or watching their children take part in Sports Day, it was fun for me to experience it as well.