Sumo

19/11 Sumo. Fortunately the sumo championships came to Fukuoka City (close-ish) so we got the opportunity to go watch it. Sumo is alot more interesting and exciting than I had expected. It was very exciting even though the bouts don't last very long. The great thing about sumo too is you can go really close to the athletes. You can go watch them warm up and they just walk around before and after they compete. Most are really tall. One I saw was definately 7 ft. One thing I was really surprised at is how much muscle these men have. The last picture is the best display of this. Look at that muscley bum! Also their flexibility is amazing. Look at the second last photo. If only I had that flexibility, I'd be a gun at karate.

These are the champions EVERY year. They do it way to easy. Maybe they should pull 600kg

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Hard Gay contestants

These are the hard gay contestants that were in the race. They were actually very quick!

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ALL JAPAN KINMA CHAMPIONSHIPS

13/11 Kinma Race. We travelled 3 hours to compete in this national event. There is two part tot he competition, a performace and the race. These championships are serious stuff! For our performance we made plastic hula skirts, sang and did the hula! Actually we were sensible compared to some of the others. There were many "Hard Gay" impersonaters as you will see in the video. "Hard Gay" is a Japanese comedian (??) who dresses up in tight/short leather and runs aounr thrusting his pelvis saying "Fuuu!" I have no idea why it so popular or even why it is amusing but it is amazingly popular with Japanese people of all ages.
The race: 5 people drag a weight 21 metres up, around a pole and back. Obviously the people with the best times win. Men drag 400kg, women drag 200kg. Alot of time actually goes into the sled set up. Thanks to Terry for our sled. We came 5th out of everyone in Japan!!! Pretty good for the few times we practiced. My team was called Ohana 5, which in Japanese is "flower five" and in Hawaiin it's "family 5". We had a Hawaiin, Canadian, Japanese, New Zealander and me (Aussie), so it was very international! Terry had a team, made of NZers and an Aussie (I think). Unfortunately they didn't place either but they did a great Haka. Scary!
Ok Ok, confession: For this national event they were about 20 teams in the womens division and 40 in the mens. Many people in my town haven't heard of it! "You drag what???? Why????" We had a bit of a laugh when we rocked up and there was a massive sign "ALL JAPAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS". Oh, the reason you do it. First prize for the women's division is 200000 yen which is about AUD$2350. Men's first prize is 500000 yen or something. Not bad if you can win it.
I didn't put many photos on about this as the videos are the best display. 1st photo - emergency servces group, 2nd- oboetanai (can't remember), 3rd photo - "He" men, 4th-7th the dance group. It was traditional Japanese dancing and looked really fun. The dancing is unlike any other Japanese dancing we had ever seen. It looked like it was influenced by a few other countries. A man who sang/spoke during their performance was very strange the only words he said were "Hoi Hoi Ziga Ziga Ziga Heeeeeeeey." Well that's what it sounded like. Look at the bend in the flag pole!

Izumi township Bunkasai

12/11 Izumi township bunkasai. Steve, Nao and Nao's mother took me to this bunkasai mainly for the tea cermony. The tea ceremony was organised by Nao's tea ceremony teacher. It was very interesting to see the precise movements and care taken to perform this tradition. I am sure I would break something if given a chance. Luckily we were seated on chairs. not the traditional "sitting on your knees" as I am sure my legs would have fallen off. Because I was the foreigner, they even gave me a second 'tea'. The green tea used in these ceremonies is thicker and stronger than 'normal' green tea. There was a small display of Japanese art. Japanese art is very beautiful and unique. Nao's mother learns this kind of painting. The first picture is of some men making a basket from vine (??) ... unfortunately it was sold when we returned to have another look at it. There were stalls of fresh vegetables and Nao's mother bought me some vegetables even though I had just met her. Japanese people are so lovely. One funny thing was some Japanese ladies commented how nice it was of me to teach Steve English. We had a bit of a laugh about it. Steve from Hawai, I think it was his great grandparents that came from Japan.

Izumi Bunkasai

6/11 Izumi Junior High Bunkasai. This is one of my schools. An earlier posting showed all the students making these models and posters. Un- fortunately on this day it was raining, so I couldn't get good or many photos of the models. And due to the rain, they weren't burnt either. I am not sure what happened to them in the end as I spend the next week at my other school. 1st prize for the model was the vending machine. 2nd was the Majii Ranger (red) and it was either Stitch or Sponge Bob for 3rd. Stitch was my favourite. Out of the posters I cant remember who won but they all did a great job with them. At the bunkasai they also had a chorus competition where each class sings a song. There is little or no teacher involvement in the preparation, one student plays the piano and one of the students conducts the class. The groups were fantastic. At the end the whole school sang together. Approximately 500 students... it was a great sight and sounded great too.
P.S. Bunkasai = school festival

Kanda Technical High School Bunkasai

5/11 Kanda Technical School Bunkasai. This is the school that Ria works at once a week and is the high school for all the student that basically want to do a trade. These students are extrememly smart and learn to do things that I only starting learning about at uni. They built their own go-karts, work actively with lathes, built their own smelters, and compete in stuff like the robo-cup. (Sorry for those of you who don't about some of things I mentioned. Uni course people should). Ria mentioned to one of the teachers, Mr Tadashi, what my degree was and he invited me along to this day. It was very interesting to see what the student did and the Mr Tadashi was very interested in my thesis project (the apple picker). We arrived a little a little early and went up to this lovely man-made lake (Picture 1). Don't look too close or you will realise this beautiful scenerio also has smoke rising on the left and an open cut mountain on the right!! The second picture is of the smelter the students made for producing aluminium. It was amazing to see this is how they "made" metl back in the day. This 3rd picture is of a Go-Kart made by the students. The other three pictures are from the PAIPA- KURAFUTO KURABU.. the "paper craft club". They had models of so many things. I made a WW2 fighter plane... dont ask me the proper name of it! Sorry JB & Gary.