October 10 is a national holiday in Japan: Physical Education Day. It was created in 1965 to commemorate the Tokyo Olympics, which had opened on October 10, 1964.
In my hometown of Aya, Miyazaki, the weekend every year that is closest to October 10 we have what we call in English The Town Physical Fitness Festival. We hold it at the track and field facilities we built several years ago.
Each neighborhood in our town fields teams for various events. The town itself is divided into four sections which are four main teams: yellow, blue, red, and white. So in some events we face each other in teams; in other events, like the relay, we face each other as neighborhoods.
After the event the town magazine Shu-ho AYA publishes some representative photos. That was the case for the week of October 17, 1996. The following sheet of color photos dis-placed my article. So I'll be back next week with a mini-English-Japanese language lesson. In the meantime, here are some Japanese "cultural" photos you can't find anywhere else! All photos by Yuko Toyama.
TOPIC PLAZA: min-na no hiroba (Everyone's Area)
"Everyone is looking good! Great job!"
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| Men's Relay (those two in the lead are my buddies from the office) |
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| Women's Relay |
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| "Entertainment" where older pairs have to work together to get some race done |
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| one of the Cheer Leader Squads. Yes, cross-dressing. No, I don't understand it. |
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| Women's Obstacle Course. |
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| Mens' Obstacle Course. Often we would have exchange students participate, too. |
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| Team Jump-Rope....team with most times with no miss would win. |
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| Team Tug-of-War. This would go on all day with all teams until we got to the Final Match. |
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