Shikama's School Festival

June, 2007

Every year there is a cultural festival held over 2 days at my school and it was that time of year. Obviously I was experiencing this for the first time and so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. The students are involved in various club activities (which are like extra curricular activities). Many of the clubs prepared something for the festival. I belong to the ESS club (English club) and so we were preparing an Australian display. Each year level had to prepare an item to present at the festival. First graders had to sing, second graders performed a dance and third graders set up stalls selling different types of Japanese foods including okonomiyaki, yaki soba, takkoyaki, twisters, hamburgers, popcorn and many more things. On top of all of that the students in the brass band also performed. These band students are amazing – the level of their playing is unbelievable.







At home it is pretty much up to the teacher to organise the item, but in Japan it was basically left up to the students. Can you imagine what sort of performance you would get if this was the case in Adelaide? Well here in Japan it was amazing. The students worked so hard to perfect their performances and they were all quite professional. I was very surprised at the standard. Of course I enjoyed watching the dancing the best and I have now got many ideas for my dance routines for when I return back home. I even videoed some of the performances. The kids were very into it –boys and girls and performed enthusiastically. It was fantastic to watch. The food stalls were also very well set up. Each stall had the required cooking equipment and the students just got to it. I even got to watch a Koto performance by some students and got to take part in a tea ceremony. It was a very exciting 2 days for me as it was something very different to what I was used to. It was good to see all the students happy and involved in the happenings of this festival. At the end of the 2 days everyone helped to pack up and before you knew it the school was returned to it’s normal state. That’s one thing I love about Japan – as soon as a festival finishes, you blink and everything’s been put away.