High School Culture Festivals

It's been a while since I wrote something (whoops) - sorry about that! I'll get some more stuff up soon!

Culture festivals, or bunkasai over here, are a massive part of the Japanese school year. I'd argue that, besides entrance exams for the third years, they're probably the most important thing for students. The Culture Festival is a campus-wide showcase of student talents that goes for usually one day, often on a weekend. Families come and visit the school to support their kids, and the students put on loads of performances and shows. It's often a very tight schedule. The morning begins with an official opening ceremony including an address from the principal, then the second year classes (16 year old/year 11 students) put on stage performances, usually plays or musicals. Each lasts for twenty minutes, and they're all judged by a panel of staff, then one winner is chosen.

Lunch is usually snack stalls organised by the third year students (18 year olds/year 12 students), which sell popular, inexpensive Japanese festival foods - takoyaki (octopus meat deep fried in a round ball, with a sweet kind of dark sauce, mayonnaise and bonito flakes), yakisoba (barbequed noodles and vegetables in a special BBQ sauce), etc. Most culture festivals are in summer, and often have shaved ice and ice cream for sale too. The middle of the day is the time to wander around with your snack and have a look at the first year students' (15 year old/year ten students) classroom decoration competition. Students transform their classrooms into mazes, trick rooms, themed photo studios, giant games, etc. Again, a panel of judges will select the best room. 

The middle of the day is also when a lot of the clubs and societies will showcase their talents - choirs and dance teams will alternate performances in the quad, bands will play in the gymnasium, the tea ceremony club will be set up somewhere to demonstrate the fine art of the Japanese tea ceremony. By the middle of the afternoon, it's time to return to the gymnasium for the results announcement and the closing ceremony. Then the parents head home, the students and teachers do a frighteningly efficient sweep-clean of the school, and everyone heads home.

I've now been lucky enough to attend three of my four schools' Culture Festivals. It was actually a pretty intense time; my last three weekends have just been crammed with them, one after another. They're very exciting and exhausting days. But the students get so, so excited, and they're so much fun. 

My base school in Soja was hands down the largest festival. Theirs is called "Nanshousai" and it goes for two days. I had to take off Friday at my visit school in Yakage to attend the first day of the festival, because it's so important to the school. Some Australian exchange students had arrived in Soja the day before, so I spent the first day of the festival with them, exploring and enjoying. Nanshousai definitely had the largest, grandest and most impressive opening ceremony, with teams having a cheer-off, and each class performing a small skit while their class banner was unfurled. There were just so many classes at my base school; I didn't even work out on the day which class had won. There were a lot of competitions, too, and they read out all the results at once, so it was very difficult to follow. But the students throw so much effort into each challenge!

Banners designed and painted by students, one for each class.

The haunted house banner was the winning design. There were a lot of art course students in this class.

My base school has an excellent art program, so a highlight of Nanshousai was definitely the art exhibition on the fourth floor. I wandered around in there for ages.

Shout out to my VCD classmates. What a throwback.

I really loved this. I loved the careful detail the student put into the stone lantern.

This piece was selected as a poster design used to advertise a local summer festival.

The second day of Nanshousai, we were visited by one of Okayama's Prefectural Advisors, Moses, and another ALT from Takahashi called Tom. I met them at the school entrance and took them around for the day. Hilariously, all the female students excitedly asked if Tom was my boyfriend, and were disappointed to learn that we'd only met for the first time half an hour earlier, and that he was not my boyfriend. 

Tom and Moses (Se Se).

Super popular shaved ice desserts. Basically like a slushie.

DIY Instagrams are always super popular. This class transformed their home room into an "Under the Sea" themed room.

My face is always too small for these things.

Trying some special "Okayama Strawberry" ice cream. With Pocky. Everything has to come with Pocky, apparently.

One class did a kigurumi (onesie) photo booth room, even though it was 35 degrees and 90% humidity. Death.

The "Where's Wally?" themed room consisted of a giant human-sized board game, where you are the piece and you roll an enormous dice, and play quizzes and games when you land on certain squares. It was very well done. This classroom was the winner.

The students' chalk board art continues to be consistently amazing and adorable.

A cute Rilakkuma prize I won from the "Where's Wally?" room.

Saturday was the day all the dance and stage performances were happening, and twice as many family members attended compared to Friday, so Saturday was definitely the best day. The highlight from Nanshousai day two was definitely the dance performance in the gym. My base school's dance team is heavily trained and award-winning, so they are very skilled and professional dancers. They performed a wide range of styles, from jazz to hip-hip and contemporary. No tap, though, which I was hoping for! All their routines were amazing, and I was incredibly nostalgic for our dance comps in high school. I miss dancing!

My visit school in Soja had their bunkasai on a Sunday, and I was so wrapped up watching student performances that I completely missed the food stalls somehow. This school was the only school that had a choir performance, which was lovely. I haven't seen many choirs yet in Japan. It was stinking hot, though, which was a shame as many performances were out in the quad, where we all baked under the sun and got stuck to the benches. My visit school in Soja is also an academic school, but has an amazing arts course, including textiles and fine arts. The second year plays at this school were particularly great, and the third year fashion students showcased their final pieces, which was utterly mind blowing. The third years had made full on evening gowns. Big, poufy, gathered, ruched, twinkly ball gowns, in every colour imaginable. Some were satin or silk, or tulle. So finely detailed and carefully made. The white gowns could honestly have been worn as wedding dresses, they were so amazing. You could tell how much hard work had gone into them; the students modelled their gowns and many of them were crying on stage. Such a huge achievement. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I was seriously stunned. The third year fashion show was definitely the highlight of the culture festival.

One class at my Soja visit school had a balloon art themed room.

More adorable chalk board art.

Under the Sea is a popular theme.

Just realising that I really didn't take many photos at the Soja visit school bunkasai. Whoops.

My visit school in Yakage was the very first bunkasai I attended, and it was actually my favourite of the three. It was a lot smaller than the other two schools, and it's in a rural town, but a lot of family members came along, so it was quite busy. Yakage's culture festival had a wide variety of things to do and eat. The second year plays at this school were my favourite so far. One class did an abridged version of Beauty and the Beast, which was cute. Another retold the famous folk tale of Momotaro. Another was a series of dances from an array of Disney movies, creatively using hand painted signs that flipped over and made pictures when all put together. One of the classrooms at Yakage had been turned into a cute second hand book sale, where I found a hardcover colour edition of one of my favourite underrated Ghibli movies (it's a children's book, so it will be great for practising reading Japanese). The third years at Yakage were in charge of the food stalls. One class sold ice cream with frosted flakes and Pocky. Another sold pop corn in colourful boxes. Another did takoyaki in cups. The students at Yakage were particularly high spirited - the most excited and cheerful of all the schools. For me, the general atmosphere at Yakage was the best. 

Preparing for the opening ceremony.

Takoyaki in a cup.

Students designed their own tickets, which you purchased from the stall and then exchanged for the food item of your choice.

Ice cream with frosted flakes... and Pocky, again.

I dunno what this series is, but it's super cute.

Panda-co-Panda picture book.

So cuuuuute.

Yuri! on Ice chalk board art. Not sure of the relevance, but still cute.

So that's it for today! The last bunkasai I will attend is my visit school in Kurashiki's, but there's is not until November. I feel so lucky to be able to participate in wonderful school community events like these, and am feeling extra grateful today for the JET Programme experience. More to come!