Today was a great day! We had all our regular periods today (in PE we had to pick between swimming, track, and tumbling and I picked tumbling.) Then, after lunch, we had Shoudo — sadly, the last class before summer vacation. I practiced many Kanji and then Sensei gave us all Uchiwa, or Japanese fans, to write or draw whatever we want on it. Many people drew pictures/people or wrote ancient phrases. I wrote my favorite kanji. It was a great class, I am quite sad that it is the last.

Anyway, after school I went to Track Practice, which was somewhat tiring but very very fun. Now, first of all, the sports teams here are completely student-run and honestly treated more like clubs that school-sports. I mean they play for the school and have school sports attire but there is no coach or such. The students also come up with their own exercise routines. That is good, because it requires them to be excessively persevering and often ends up making the practices harder than a coach would, thereby training better. However, I feel at the same time they may lack done of the expertise snout injuries and training and such that coaches have. But they do all look out for each other — after the main run, when we were going to do sprints, the question they asked was not “Will you do it,” or “Do you want to do it”, but “Can you do it,”/”Would you be able to do it,” which I feel is a very different and much more caring and pertinent question to ask.

Anyway, after doing a warm-up and stretching (some stretches I had never seen before like a knee-twister stretch) we went to the beginning of the roundabout we run it. One lap of the roundabout was 3 kilos, and the student-created plan was that guys would run 3 laps and girls would run 2 (we also don’t have different workouts based on gender in America.). Anyway the first lap (we were running on street sidewalks and such, a huge loop around shops and such. I felt it was pretty bad since we ended up breathing much car exhaust and smoke — the fact that streets and cars and, overall, busy life is everywhere is, I would say, one of the downsides of city life.). Anyway, the first lap I was able to keep up with the guys except I started falling behind at the end. Back at the beginning, I stopped to drink some water — they actually drank while running but first of all, that is very hard and probably very bad for you, and second of all there was no way, given how out-of-shape I am/was, I could have run 9 kilos without stopping. Anyway, after that since I didn’t know the route I waited for the next girl to come and ran with her, which was at a slightly slower, much more doable pace. (And we we’re able to talk while running — I mean I had been talking with the guys while running also but as I fell brhind I couldn’t.). Anyway, then, after 6 kilos we went to a nice path along a river and ran 300 meter sprints — everyone did different amounts; I did 4 but the fastest guys did either 5 or 6. BTW, in Track and Field here, like in the Taikusai (Undoukai) and regular PE where the kumi has a huge bucket of water, the Track team has a huge thing of water and bottles that everyone waterfalls out of. Anyway, at the end of the sprints we went back — it was 7 and the sun was about to set (and apparently we HAVE TO be out of school by 7:30 so I exhaustedky walked home.). I immediately jumped into the shower (my shirt was so soaked with sweat it felt like it had cone out of the wash — that should give you an idea just how hot and humid it is here.) We then had a fabulous dinner and I did Kumon homework with my host nieces.

Oh and I forgot to mention this yesterday but the rain has restarted yesterday it was drizzling as I walked to school started pouring afterwards, today again drizzling as I walked to school, died down later but still very cloudy.

BTW, I am 99% sure it is safe to walk here at night. Not that I would do it but based on what people say it is safe and common to walk here at night…

Oh and gender separation is not only in Track but also in the Kumi — in terms of numbering, first it is all the guys alphabetically by last name (according to the Japanese alphabet) and then all the girls alphabetically. (While I am actually the last number, 42, I line up at the end of the guys.). So yeah, I though that was interesting.

BTW, I realized that the Japanese school year starts in April and ends in March — Summer Break is not the end of the year but rather the middle, very much like our Thanksgiving or Winter vacations! I did not realize that! Spring Break is the end for them, but even so they have HW, and move up as a whole kumi (or the international, ninth kumi at least.)

Yeah, goodnight!