Sports Day and Enkai 2010

*pictures coming soon*

September 11th:
So today was my jr.high school, Takase’s annual sports day. An Undokai (sports day) is an event set up by most schools in Japan full of competitive sporting events and cheering competitions. The goal is to win some king of trophies or prize, and you tend to receive a trophy for both the athletic and cheering parts of the sporting event. I showed up bright and early at 9am on a Saturday ( >.< ) at the school and found a spot under the tent to watch all the events. I was really excited to see that the two teams had Sengoku Basara banners representing their respective teams. Yukimura represented the red team and Date Masamune represented the white team.

The sports day was much like the ones I saw last year, cept this time I didn't have to juggle two sports days at different schools at once, AND I knew what was going on XD At the end of it I believe the Red team won the overall sports competition while the white team won the cheering contest. Most of the time I assume if one wins the sports competition the other team automatically wins the other trophy as to be fair. At least it seemed that way at the sports days I attended last year. However this year, the division was truly clear between the teams athletic ability and cheering strengths.

Of course even though the reason why I would be bothered to be awake at 9am on a Saturday for school was for the sport competition, this was not the highlight of the day. As usual I was looking forward to the Enkai we would be having later on that evening. I decided to drive there and realized that the place ( Kintaro Onsen) was actually the same Onsen I had my very first Enkai at by the same school. After being escorted to the room where we were to wait for dinner I sat down and watched a little TV. I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but it had been so long since I watched TV (not TV shows, but TV itself) it kept me interested.

When it was time to eat the staff drew numbers to see where each person would sit, opening remarks were made, and then we were free to eat. I talked with the teachers around me, and served them beer like any other Enaki and karaoke was brought up. I was asked to sing and so I sung two songs. One dedicated to a young female teacher 　because she was so happy about me singing. She really is the cutest thing and only one year older than I.
Of course this didn’t end the night, after dinner we all jumped on the bus and headed to a karaoke bar near where I live and there we spent another two hours singing and having a good time. Right as we leaving the karaoke bar a group of 10 to 15 Japanese people came in. They looked to be around my age and for some reason I had an unshakeable desire to join them. So I did. I said goodbye my fellow teachers and even convinced one to stay behind and party with me. She agreed and we joined the group. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! And the first time I took it upon myself to mingle with Japanese people that weren’t connected to people I was already with or knew. They talked with me so much and we partied and they bought me shots and one even changed the name in a song he sung to my name. I had a blast! When it was time to leave I had ever intention of walking home. However for some reason the bartender stopped me and asked me to sit down. I thought I was in trouble for something. He asked me to sing another song and then closed the bar down. His wife and him said they wanted to take me home so I let them. It was rather strange how that happened but I was out of the rain and I didn’t have to walk. So nothing but pluses!