Spring Tournament

So the past couple of weekends have been super busy...for my kids. =) On top of staying at school til 6pm on weekdays for bukatsu (club activities), students had to attend and compete in the Spring Tournament matches on weekends for their bukatsu. Oh, and some students had juku (cram school) on top of that! Clazy.

Anyway, I attended the badminton matches last weekend, and the basketball ones this past weekend. The kids had to stay at Airys Hall (where the matches were held) from 8am to 5pm, on both Saturday AND Sunday! Omg, how do they have time to be kids?!

Here are some pictures from the matches!


It wouldn't be a picture in Japan w/o the peace sign, yo.


Or, knee-high socks worn by my girls. =) Erika, the girl on the left, had to attend the badminton matches on Saturday from 8am to 5pm, then go to juku from 7pm to 10pm, then return on Sunday to stay from 8am to 5pm again! Saaaad! I am SO glad I never had to attend grade school in Japan!


A view of the court.


You see that little clear basket above Yumi's (girl on right) head? That's for the players to neatly fold and place their jackets before they begin their matches! HAHA. Now that's how you can tell the difference between a badminton match in Japan vs. one at home. Otherwise, it'd be hard since all badminton players are Asian, anyway. ;)


Here's a pic of two of my girls right before a rally. My other students taught me how to cheer during a rally...

When the players are in the midst of a rally, you would yell, "Ganba! Ganba! Ganba!" which means "Do your best!" or something to that extent.

When your team wins a point after a rally, you'd yell, "Nice lucky!" Um, yeah.

When your team loses a point, you'd yell, "Don mai!" I asked my kids what this means, but they didn't really know b/c it's in katakana so it's a foreign word. I think it means, "Don't mind!" as in "Don't worry about it!" I'm not sure how I know this, but I think one of my teachers may have mentioned it once.

So yeah, no wonder they can't speak English!


This is a cute picture. My two girls lost their match and were crying, so their teammates came to console them. Awwww. It's funny, but the students cry really hard right after they lose, then they're fine 2 seconds later!


Here's a picture of some of my 2nensei basketball players. Little did I know that they rock on the court! Btw, they are girls! Don't be fooled by the short hair. ;)


Now's here's a pic of my boys' basketball team. They are the ones in red. The game is about to begin....


Unfortunately, our boys' basketball team is painfully bad. In the words of one of the members, "Ichiban heta." = "(We are) the worst." SAD, but VERY possibly true. Oh yeah, and it didn't help that NOBODY was cheering for them! I was the only one cheering! SAAAD.


Aww, they look so tired in this picture. Sad for the teachers too, since they also act as the coaches and have to be there with the students, even when they know nothing about the sport at all, as in the example of the teacher shown squatting.


Here's a picture of the 3nensei girls before their basketball game.

Remember awhile ago, when I blogged about the drama between the parents of the 3nensei girls vs. the parents of the 2nensei girls on the basketball team? Well, anyway, there was drama b/c apparently, the 2nensei girls are much better players than the 3nensei girls, so some of the parents wanted more playtime for the 2nensei. Anyway, I got to see how this issue had been resolved during this game...

The starting lineup consisted of all the 3nensei girls, all four of them, plus one 2nensei girl. They game began, and well, let's just say they weren't doing so great. Three, and I repeat, THREE minutes into the game, the whole lineup changed!! I was thinking, "Whaaat is going on??" Anyway, the new lineup was made up of all 2nensei girls. And well, let's just say from the moment they stepped onto the court, I was on the edge of my seat til the end of the game! These girls are sooooo good, it's ridiculous! It was by far one of the most exciting games I've seen in awhile. They kept all the 2nensei girls on the court and only let one 3nensei girl back in (she's the one that's actually very good) for most of the game. In the very last minutes of the game (when we leading by enough where it was safe to let whomever get back on the court), the other 3nensei girls finished up the job. The final score: 64 to 32. Um, yeah. Woot! Oh, and there was definitely cheering going on this time around. =)

*Sad, but I just found out today that the 3nensei girls were not all that happy about the basketball team winning, b/c of the politics. SAAAD. I'm not sure how I feel about this whole situation. Hmm.