Konnichi wa,

Last week classes that study Japanese were lucky enough to experience an Undoukai (Japanese sports day). Riisa Sensei (the Japanese assistant teacher for Tasmania) visited us to teach us the games and we were loaned special equipment to use.

All classes were divided into two teams: aka (red) and shiro (white). We wore special hachimaki or headbands to show our team. The session started with rajio taisou (warm up exercises) and then we tried out some of the more interesting Japanese games such as oodama (large ball games), tamaire (bean bag in basket), daruma hakobi (the stretcher game and deka pantsu (gigantic pants relay). The games have a focus on teamwork and cooperation. We know how to line up, march as if we were in Japan and even learned how to cheer in Japanese.

Wickins Sensei