Today the students had exams so they went home after lunch. Shortly before 4:00, I noticed that a lot of the teachers were leaving. This is really odd since most teachers (as well as most employed Japanese) stay at work till well past dinnertime. Then all of a sudden I hear one of my English teachers say that she ought to invite me to something. Turns out, the teachers were having recreation time with the teachers of the elementary schools. So I got invited to go to the elementary school next door, where we would play dodgebee.
Dodgeball? you ask (I asked the same thing). Nope. Dodgebee. Dodgeball played with a somewhat large, foam frisbee. But I ought to back up for a second. I've been playing dodgeball with my elementary schoolers. Japanese dodgeball is different from American Dodgeball. Here dodgeball is played with only one ball. If you catch the ball, nothing happens. And if you get hit by the ball, you merely go behind the other team's side and get to play from there. Overall, I find it to be less exciting and competitive than American dodgeball, but it is nice that nobody gets bored by sitting out after getting tagged.
Anyway, back to our afternoon of dodgebee. The frisbee, being foam, didn't fly particularly fast and being foam, was really easy to catch. Also, this being Japan, everything has to have a bit of formality to it. So of course there was an opening speech, as well as a closing speech. After the opening speech, we all did a series of stretches in a very organized fashion.
Forty minutes were allotted for the teachers to "enjoy the recreation time." And then it was back to work. Except for me. I went home.
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1 comment:
I've been reading your blog with interest. I love Dodgebee. I often think I'm the only person in the US that knows what the sport is.
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