October 15, 2008

Sports Day

This Monday was a national holiday in Japan called Health and Sports Day, aka taiko no hi. This is a brilliant holiday- basically a day off to promote athletic activities - and we think that this is a tradition that needs to brought back to the U.S. The focus of our Sports Day were the activities at the kid's school. Instead of having the day off, they have a half-day filled with color war-esque races and sports events. All the parents were there to cheer on the kids.

Ilena , who has been getting her PTA shwerve on, was co-coordinator of the indoor part of Sports Day, i.e., running the PTA fundraiser by bringing in fabulous venders to sell food to the parents and students during the event. Mike (was) volunteered to help out to, and spent some of the morning slinging curry and samosas at the extremely popular Indian Booth. (Other food booths included Thai, French Pastry, and the PTA Booth (AKA the Costco Booth - muffins, cookies, and drinks).

The real action was out on the fields and in the gym. In the morning, each elementary school kid got paired up with a high school buddy, for the outdoor events. In the second session, the younger kids did relay races in the gym, while the older kids continued with events outside.




As you can see, everyone had a blast!


5 comments:

samflutch said...

The second Monday in October is a national holiday in Japan called taiiku no hi. Tokyo Olympics was a very important event for Tokyo and all of Japan. It was a chance to show the world that it had completely rebuilt itself into a peaceful and modern country that was headed toward an unprecedented prosperity and on the way to becoming a leading nation in the world.
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Samflutch
promoters

Unknown said...

Jacob got paired up with that guy who has a twin brother who's always the last one to school!

Alexis Jacobs said...

I agree, something like this needs to be brought back to the states. What grades are your children in again? I am wondering if your kids will be together?

Can't wait to meet you! I am hoping to jump into PTA with both feet.

The Kasdan Family said...

That is great Alexis. Our kids are in KA (the younger Kindergarden) and 1st grade. Ilena is getting really involved in the PTA these days too!

When do you guys arrive?

The Kasdan Family said...

That is great Alexis. Our kids are in KA (the younger Kindergarden) and 1st grade. Ilena is getting really involved in the PTA these days too!

When do you guys arrive?