The blue team–or block as they’re called–is playing to win. This morning in the costume-less dress rehearsal the students are doing a mock run of all the races. Every 10 minutes a new starting gun goes off, a new Japanese pop song comes on the speakers, and a group of relay-runners jogs around the track. Except for the members of the blue team. They’ve clearly been told, in no uncertain terms, that this is not a slacker’s practice. They’re running as fast as they can. During the race where two boys carry a girl in a small bamboo swing, the blue team leaps ahead and stays that way through all eight legs of the race. The student announcers all but say, “well, the blue team is in the lead again.” When someone really needs to say, woa, blue team, chill out.
I think their interest was piqued this morning when they had to hand over the trophy and plaques from last year’s Sports Day. They’ve had those in their “possession” (and by possession I mean in the school’s trophy case) for the last year. They have a reputation to protect.
The blue and yellow girls come out for a 300-person tug of war. I can hear the yellow team laughing. The blue girls grunt and yank. They’ve got game. They’ve placed a dozen stalwart third-year girls at the end of the line, and they heave and ho on that rope. The blue team wins.
The boys line up for the centipede race. They stand single-file in one direction, lean forward and grasp the hand of the person in front of them. Through that person’s legs. Then they march backwards, with the last person in line laying down. The red team clearly has coordination issues, and the first year boys keep sitting on each other’s faces or stepping on each other’s shoulders. Several times the chain breaks and they must pause, regroup, and start again. It seems a given that the yellow team will win this practice race. They’re centipeding smoothly backwards, but when they get to the end where the last person leaps up and starts the chain in reverse, they fall apart. The blue team, on the far side of the arena, appears magically out of the mist of arms and legs and light rain. They are the slow and steady turtle. They’re speeding to the finish line. They win.
A dozen blue team leaders, with megaphones and whistles, stand in front of the blue block. They’re leading the students in a clapping cheer. On the other two stands the yellow and red teams lounge about, talking. During a particularly exciting race–when a yellow or red member outruns a blue–they hoot and cheer.
Now, the students are doing a folk dance to old 80’s music. They stand in circles, clapping, then link arms and swing each other around. This is an event that gets big points, and so the blue team is standing off to the side, watching their competitors, trying to figure out their flaws.
