Today was the yearly soccer match. Yearly. That’s insane for how much those kids practice. We played Chuo again - the town rival - and lost. Suikou’s soccer record is even worse than its baseball one with Chuo. Out of the last 38 games (and years), Suikou has won less than 10 games! From the past final scores, it looks like more of a containment game for Suikou - trying to keep the goals against to a minimum.
We we pretty stong until the very end, when Chuo scored 3 goals in the last 8 minutes.
The beginning and end of the game were filled with ceremonies, speeches, and flag bearing, just like the baseball game last month. It’s really true that ’sports’ was a new word for the Japanese (it came over as katakana スポーツ). At the time, they had no concept of something being purely for fun - they took everything like a battle for life and death. This seriousness has carried thru the decades and morphed into ceremony and pomp.
As an aside, at the beginning of the sports day there were speeches as well. The principal got up and repeated a few times that “The most important thing today, the most important thing about sports day is … to follow the rules.” classic
I’ve also congealed a more solid idea of Suikou’s image. It really is the blue-collar school. Chuo is the yuppie preppy place - they’re smarter, they’re better at sports, they have more money, they’ll have better lives. It’s the fodder of many high school films.
I’m glad that I teach real people. People that smile.