Sports Day is a huge, very important tradition in Japan. Each school has their own Sports Day, which extended family members come to watch and celebrate. This is our third and last Sports Day at Hanazono Yochien. Sean has really flourished there, here he is giving the welcoming speech with his classmates(in Japanese)

Everyone getting ready to parade onto the field

Catie didn’t like that she had to stay with her class rather than us, so we saw this face intermittently through the day

But she perked up when she was participating in most of their activities…here she is lined up for the start of her race

(she came in third) and here she is getting ready for running a relay

(her team came in first)

Sean has been really stressing about Sports Day, apparently practices have been pretty grueling at school, but everything turned out great

Here he is doing the “bamboo horse” , essentially walking with stilts. First he was helping one of his team mates

and then he was able to do it on his own

hopefully I can get a little video of that uploaded as well, I’m so amazed he was able to do that.

Catie got a ride on Jeff’s back as her class had a parent/child activity, (I’ve been waiting 2 years to have him do all this with the kids!)

Then more races for Sean

A few eisa dances by Sean’s class and the class just younger then theirs, with Catie’s class providing the dragons, and Catie crying all the while

A tug of war for the parents

And a parent child dance to close out the day

At the end, all the children get a medal, bag of snacks and a small gift. Sean was so fast I didn’t get a picture of him, but here is Catie, happily getting her rewards

We’ve been keeping busy this fall. Our computer service has supposedly been upgraded, so hopefully it will be easier to post than it has been all summer. Jeff was gone to Korea for September, but
Sean, Catie and I still kept adventuring…here they are at Fruit Lands feeding the lorikeets

we went to the island wide Eisa festival

had a trip to the children’s museum and zoo

and Sean kept up with Tball.

Jeff came home the end of September and his Marines put on a great Change of Command ceremony for him, with very little time to practice.

And this is how Catie dressed for the ceremony, since nothing is more beautiful or special than a Princess dress.

We also had a trip down the American village to ride the big ferris wheel, since that was still on the “things to do when Daddy comes home from Iraq” list.