Sports Day(Undokai) at Kinomi Hoikuen(nursery)

Every year there will be special holiday to celebrate Sports Day in Japan and for this year, it was on 11th October 2010. Thus, Baby SN's nursery has organized the Undokai(sports day) on Sunday 10th October. At first, mommy & daddy have made a plan to go sightseeing around Miyazaki & Kagoshima but we had to cancel the plan and join the Undokai event held at Kinomi Hoikuen.

What is undokai? It is sort of a "sports day", with an addition of dancing and music involved. It's basically contain physical activities performed in little track suits for the benefit of the large crowd of parents and families. The event started at 9 a.m but being Japanese, all of them turned up as early as god-know-when to the event; and being non-Japanese we arrive to the nursery at 8.55 a.m hohohoho.

=- mommy & daddy takes turn to steer baby SN's ride -=

The kids are the main participants, but their parents and many people from the neighborhood come to watch and enjoy a community experience. Its amazing to see how excited their parents are to watch this event, they even turn up really early at the nursery to set their seating mat at the best point to watch the event.

=- mommy kena beratur sekali dengan baby SN -=

Judging by the camera frenzy at that point, I'd say that the parents were very supportive to their kids and I'm sure these kids will be very thankful for having such a great parents and family *nenek & atuk pun datang sekali tengok cucu2 diorang*.

Undokai at Kinomi Hikuen started with a marching band performance by the 6th years old children, performing a nice opening song. Believe it or not, I actually shed a little tears when I looked at how great the director of the marching band controlled the band. Emo terlebih mak budak nih..but seriously, I feel so proud to see how great she performed on that day and I bet her parents must be more than proud of her. If you ask me to replace her position, I'm sure I'll spoil the whole performance in a split second hahaha. *dah jadi mak nih, bangga kat anak2 orang lain pun boleh sampai nangis..pelik betul kan? hik3x*

After that, every students marched into the field according to their class. As Baby SN is under the baby class, mommy get to join him and his friends as well as their mothers in the parade. The Headmaster give some opening speech before all the game begin.

=- hubby cakap muka guru besar macam watak dalam cite kartun jepun kui3x -=


=- flag raising ceremony, topi kena bukak tanda hormat -=

The games for that day were then split by class and involving parents' participation in some tasks especially for the baby class like baby SN's class i.e MOMO (peach) class. The games set up for mommy & babies are massage treatment + swing and dance + jump and lift up high + tickle and laugh. Its really fun for both mommy & baby and I enjoy it so much that I sometimes play the game with baby SN back at home hehe.

=- massage treatment to the baby -=


=- left pic: dance & swing ; right pic: lift up high -=


=- left pic: tickle & laugh; right pic: marching out -=

As we had another plan after the Undokai, we didn't wait until all of the games are over. As soon as we received our prize, we had to leave the nursery and headed to visit the Aso-mountain in Kumamoto *will blog about it in the next entry*.

=- baby SN & I with our prizes -=

All in all, eventhough it was just a simple event but I found it is very cute and fun to watch, and I guess it's intended to promote physical fitness starting at a young age, along with family togetherness and teamwork.In addition to that; I really think that the pink hat is very cute when those babies wear it walaupun topi tu macam topi komunis zaman Jepun menjajah Tanah Melayu dulu2 ngeeeeeeee.

=- games set up for older kids -=

For non-Japanese like me, these events are a great opportunities to see and experience a side of Japan in another point of view. At really small age, most schools emphasize fun and not competition. Thus, the kids loves going to school and parents are being very supportive in any event held by their kid's school.

Pssssstt : tiba2 teringat masa kat Tadika Raja Dewa KB dulu pon (1988), I masih ingat betapa meriah dan seronoknya bila arwah ma & abah datang untuk graduation day tadika di mana I buat persembahan nyanyi lagu Duckling Duck. Harap2 Baby SN pun seronok la bila tengok gambar2 ni bila dia dah besar nanti.