Education, Baseball, Sumo (in that order)

Well, I apologize for not posting yesterday but it was Marine Day (a National Holiday) and I was unable to get to the internet.

Tomorrow I am visiting my first Elementary school in Nagano Prefecture. I will be visiting Satowa Kinoshita's family and her school for the day, seeing 3rd and 5th grade classrooms. I will be visiting schools Tomorrow, Friday and Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. Does anyone have any questions they would like answered about Japanese schools? I will try to get them answered and do a BIG posting tomorrow on the schools.

Now for the baseball game. Japanese baseball games are way more fun than American baseball. For starters, the best seats are the cheap seats because that is where all the fans sit. Walking up to the baseball stadium there were many vendors selling food to take into the game. Now, there were no nachos, pizza, or chicken fingers (there was hot dogs, but no bun!) but things like sushi, edamame, noodles, yakitori (grilled pork and beef) and takiyaki (grilled octopus balls!!!!). Very different. After grabbing some noodles and takiyaki we headed in and found our gate. We found out that in Japan, you sit divided, one team's fans on one side, the other team's fans on the other side. Fun! We sat with the Giants. The fans were so much fun. First off, they have a cheer for every single player at bat. Everyone claps together noise makers and sings the cheer. There were about 10 cheer leaders (but not the ones that you think of in the states...these were men literally leading the cheers) and about 4 trumpet players and drum players. They sing the cheer for the entire at bat. You can imagine what happened when there was a home run...craziness! At the 8th inning, everyone blows up these huge ballons (about 3 feet long) and lets them go...I don't know why the 8th inning but I do know it was cool! I have pictures that I will post, but I am unable to do so now...sorry!

Now, on to sumo. Since Monday was a National Holiday it was suggested that we see Sumo. If ever you are in Japan I really recommend it...it is so much fun! Again, people sell you bento boxes with sushi, rice, eel, and other unidentifiable things...I stuck to leek dumplings! They have about 150 sumo competing in the day. There are many different levels, with the 2 top levels competing at the end. Before the top level comes out, they do a big ceremony with the Yokozuna showing his respect for the gods at the end of the ceremony. There is only one Yokozuna right now, and his name is Asashoryu (I have included his picture on this blog). He was 8-0 going into the day's tournament and is now 9-0! The tournament is 15 days long...there are 6 tournaments a year.

Today I leave Tokyo to head to Nagano to visit my school. It is raining really hard so not much will be done today unfortunately. Hope everyone is well!