New Officers!!!!

President: Rebecca Gill
Vice President: Valerie Shih
Secretary: Emily Huang
Treasurer: Katrina Torres
Publicity: Elizabeth Kalt

やった！Yatta!
よし、がばれ！Yoshi, ganbare!

This will be my last post, ごめん　ね　みんなさま！ ....gomen ne minna~sama!
ありがとう for all those who actually read this blog and good luck to the new publicity officer!!!! ^_^

Club Meeting 2/24/10

This is what we did at the Japan Club Meeting.

We talked about:
- Multicultural Festival~ Congratulated the participants
- Where's Waldo? (Japanese version with food and differences)
- Put Hey!Say!JUMP's Hitomi no Screen PV on to listen to plus other Hey!Say!JUMP's songs

Hotaru~chan and I taught everyone:
- Colors: blue = aoi, red = akai, black = kuroi, white = shiroi, green = midori, purple = murasaki

I think that was pretty much it.

Club Meeting 1/13/10

This is what we did at the Japan Club Meeting.

We talked about:
- Multicultural Festival
- Sign Ups: Emily Huang, April Perez, and Jenifer Castillo
- Said it would be a fun experience --> All cultural clubs
- Still need clothes, models and dancers
- Ice Breaker was
- fun --> games
- planning for another one next year
- Taichou --> absent, taking a test
- Sweater Designs
- Only 1
- Only 4 people would buy old one, too expensive --> no sweaters this year

Hotaru~chan and I taught everyone:
- New Words
- "Konnichiwa Minna!" = "Hello everyone!"
- "Taichou" = Captain

Officer Meeting on 1/6/10

Hey officers!
Tomorrow, there's an officer meeting for Japan Club.
We will discuss about Multicultural Festival, Spotlight Week, and what we'll be doing for the next club meeting.
Anou, mata ashita (well, see you tomorrow)!

Gomen ne for not having been blogging for a while!

2nd Japan Club Meeting!!!!

On 10月２8日, we had a Japan Club meeting.
It was on our school's Halloween dress-up day.
We had Chinen Yuri as the 'Bishounen of the Day'.
We also played a game which represented the superstition of the Japanese, which was: if you made a tombstone fall or crack, its spirit will kill you when you sleep.
Anoo, that's about it, jaa ne minna!!!!

Open House!!!!

Ashita, watashi no gakkou ni open house ga arimasu.
I'm planning to go!!!! ;D
I'll be there around 12:30-1:00 pm.
I'm going to bring one of my magazines and one of my Hey!Say!JUMP calendars. ^_^
Also, I'm going to wear my kimono!!!! ><
Anoo, jaa ne minna!!!!

Health and Sports Day!!!!!

Health and Sports Day (体育の日, Taiiku no hi), also known as Health-Sports Day or Sports Day, is a national holiday in Japan held annually on the second Monday in October. It commemorates the opening of the 1964 Summer Olympics being held in Tokyo, and exists to promote sports and an active lifestyle.

History and Current Practice

The first Health and Sports Day was held on October 10, 1966, two years after the 1964 Summer Olympics. October was chosen for the unusually late Summer Olympics to avoid the Japanese rainy season, and Health and Sports Day continues to be one of the fairest days of the year.[1]

In 2000, as a result of the Happy Monday Seido, Health and Sports Day was moved to the second Monday in October.[2]

As Health and Sports Day is a day to promote sports and physical and mental health, many schools and businesses choose this day to hold their annual Field Day (運動会, Undō-kai), or sports day. This typically consists of a range of physical events ranging from more traditional track-and-field events such as the 100 meters or 4 x 100 meters relay to more uncommon events such as the tug of war and the Mock Cavalry Battle (騎馬戦, Kiba-sen).

Most communities and school across Japan celebrate Sports Day with a sports festival which is similar to a mini Olympics. These festivals include many of the traditional track and field events, such as 4 x 100m relay, 100m sprinting, and long jump, as well as many other events. Some of the events include: ball toss, tug-o-war, rugby-ball dribbling races, sack races, and so on. Another common event is often simply called the “exciting relay”, which is an obstacle course relay including any number of different challenges: Three-legged races, making a stretcher with a blanket and bamboo poles and then carrying an “injured” teammate, laundry hanging, crawling on hands and knees under a net, and doing cartwheels across a mat.

The festival usually begins around 8:30 am with a parade featuring all the different teams that will be participating: it could be divided by neighborhood, class, geographic area, or school. There is sometimes a local marching band providing music. Once the parade has gone around the field and lined up in the middle, the band will play the Japanese National Anthem and the Japanese flag will be raised. Local officials will make speeches welcoming everyone. Often everyone will spread out across the grounds for group stretching (this stretching routine was developed by the government and is done daily by many Japanese people; the stretching routine music is broadcast daily on the radio and TV). Then it’s time to start the events.

Every event has prizes for the winners, usually something useful for around the house such as boxes of tissues, laundry detergent, dish soap, hand soap, saran wrap, and so on. Around 12:00 noon, the events will take a pause for lunch and sometimes traditional dancing. Lunch is usually a small Japanese Lunchbox called Bentō, including rice, fish, stewed vegetables, sushi, onigiri (rice balls) and other small Japanese treats.

As with the Olympics, the final event of the day is the 4 x 100m relay or 100m sprint. Following this, the points totals are tallied and the ending ceremony involves congratulatory speeches by local officials and the handing out of prizes to the top teams.

References in popular culture

* In Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto, the titular character, Naruto Uzumaki's birthday was chosen to be October 10th because it was previously Health and sports day, and the character is extremely hyper and over-energetic.