Field Day - Undoukai
The second Monday in October (the 12th in 2009) is Japan's national holiday, "Sports Day." It was established to commemorate the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which opened on October 10. Many schools held a "Field Day" around this time, which includes various physical events. Some common events are the 100 meters relay, tug of war, mock cavalry battle and so on. The children are usually divided into two teams: red and white (the children all have red and white reversible gymnastics caps). "Field Day" is a fun event for the entire family. Some parents get up early to reserve a space at school grounds so that they can get a good view of their children. Moms are also busy making special bento lunch boxes for the family.
Japanese translation
Comments
お疲れ様です。This is really an interesting blog. Keep going, you help a lot of people with it. I personally like your dictionary with the pronunciation. I’ll visit again and read more for sure =)
I am in Osaka, Japan studying PhD engineering. I joined a japanese family program and we may meet on next Monday. Thank you for informing us about the reason for this holiday.
Thank You Namiko San, great website, great blog.
D. from Italy
hello namiko san how are u ..have u personal emai address send ..i am study jepenes 2 year before now i am forget jpenes i like to learn more jpenes
Thank you so much Namiko San
your blog help me out to speak japanese fluently and i will looking forward for next writing in your blog
Zulmi from Japan
Wow. I didn’t know Field Days existed elsewhere. Here in America, we usually hold Field Day at the end of our school year in June. I always hated it because I wasn’t particularly good at sports. I only ever one ribbon for Field Day. Third place for the bag toss. *sigh*
While my wife and I were in Japan, we happened to walk past an elementary school in Tokyo that was holding competitions. We found out later that the the races were held for Undoukai, and my wife many many such memories from her childhood. It was the first among many experiences that brought a feeling of comfort for me that persisted throughout our stay. As we drove north, and later taking a ferry to my wife’s home island Hokkaido, I began to feel very familiar with the farming lifestyle of northern Honshu and Hokkaido; although I had seen such pictures of these landscapes growing up, it was not so dissimilar from where I was raised in the United States.