Saturday, May 29 – Tuesday, June 1, 2010-

June 1^st – the best day of the year for Bato High School students. You want to know do you? Really?

Well I’ll tell you. It’s because we get to spend all day outside celebrating the school’s annual sports festival AND it’s also the national fishing opener for Ayu Sweetfish in the surrounding rivers!! Score =)

<-- My Fishery Homeroom Class

Haha, but I would say that today was undoubtedly one of my favorite school events of the year. Somewhere above the day I got to make sushi rolls in foods class and below when I got to spend a week in tropical Okinawa! Wow, I’ve done a lot this year, haven’t I? That being said, today and part of yesterday were spent out on the Bato High School athletic fields battling it out with my classmates in a fun, surprisingly high level soccer competition worthy of this month’s main international attraction: the 2010 South African World Cup! We scraped, we jumped, we shot, and we scored. It was the best feeling to be back on the pitch with teammates, reaping the rewards of a hard day’s play: sunburn, blisters, and sore legs!! Aka a feeling I will always associate with summer and my soccer crew back home.

Synchronized School Stretching

We ended up winning almost all of our games, but tied the eventual champs 1-1 in our own bracket, but ended up competing in the consolation bracket nonetheless. It was still an excellent afternoon with flawless weather, and I couldn’t have been more relaxed and at home than when I was once more out playing the world’s most popular sport. Thank God I chose soccer because it truly is a game that can be played all over the planet, connecting races and cultures that might not otherwise find themselves together. Now I can’t wait for the World Cup!!

PS at the bottom are a handful of photographs taken by the newspaper reporter during our kayak trip. Luckily I could copy some of their shots onto my computer in order to share with you all. Enjoy

All 12 homeroom classes at the school fielded a boys soccer team

Back on the pitch

Sekiguchi-Sensei snapping our class' photo down the line

Lunch with Oshima-Sensei. The guys are in the background playing pokemon on their gameboys...welcome to Japanese high school

Some of the daily lunch crew

I asked Miki to watch my camera while I played and he even took some photos for me!

I feel like this describes each of us rather well

Some of my third year classmates lining up for their homeroom photos

More kayaking pictures from last Friday

Our send off speech

Out on the river

One by one

It was kind of like a colorful follow-the-leader game

Shioda checking out the rapids ahead

We actually went through patches much rougher than this, even one I think ranks as a level three rapid shoot, but the photographer couldn't get close enough for those spots

Slowly meandering down the calmer patches

My "I sure had a great time" face and accompanying thumbs-up