Undokai (Sports Festival)

In the past few years, we had extremely hot weather on the day of the Undokai (Japanese sporting event). However, on October 6th, we had very nice weather. It was sixty-nine degrees. All the parents and family members gathered under the big tree near the park to watch the Undokai. We even saw some parents wear cardigans.

The Undokai started with a speech by two students from JFL High School in both Japanese and English. All the students from Kindergarten to High School were separated into Blue, Red, White, and Orange teams. The Blue team won the first event easily which was the ball toss game. Some students threw five balls at the same time and everything went in to the basket.

Many students’ favorite event, where everyone runs and tries to get bread from the string with their mouth, was held right before the break time. Grandparents of some OCG students woke up early in the morning and made bread with red bean in it (Anpan). Kento Jaramillo, a Fifth grader said was so happy to be able to eat Anpan. I wasn’t really good at the Ball Toss game, but it was still fun.” Kimiko Fujii, a 3rd grader said liked getting Anpan with my mouth. It was fun. Red beans inside the bread was so sweet and delicious.”

Any students 3rd grade and above participated in the biggest event, Tug of War. Ocean Lee, who dominated the tug of war event as the anchor for the blue team said, “I was so looking forward to tug of war. I go to the gym so often.”

Many students practiced the Three Leg Race during class. It is very difficult to get your movements in synch, but Maya Rubio and her partner had their movements completely together. While most students walked during the race, they were able to run from the beginning to end and made it look easy. Julie said “we practiced at school when I was in 4th grade, but that was it. I play Volley Ball and Ice Skate, so probably that was why our movements were in sync. After the Three Leg Race, the Red team had 550 points, the Blue team 550 points, the Orange team 450 points, and the White Team 450 points.

The Undokai championship came down to the last event, the Relay. In this event, only the 5th graders and
up could participate. All the students cheered for their team as loud as possible. The Blue team won and got the
championship.

One of the school’s instructors, Iwami-sensei said “The weather was perfect today. I saw the kids enjoyed the Undokai, and it made me feel that it was good we did this event again. It warmed my heart when I also saw the young students cheering for the older students in the Relay race.”

When the event was over, everyone came back to the school for a lunch potluck. There were so many different and delicious foods. All the students enjoyed the food with smiles on their faces.