High School Festivals

Kawagoe High School courtyard

The fall term in Japan is School Festival time. Over the summer I randomly ran into one of my former students, Masumi, and she made the mistake of mentioning she was playing the guitar at her high school festival in August. So I jumped on the chance to check out what Japanese high schools are all about. I’d never actually been to one before.

The last weekend in August, I headed to Sakado City (about 40 minutes from Tokigawa) to watch the Sakado High School festival. And because I mentioned my plan to attend the school festival in Sakado, my PTA friend who is also the mother of 1 former (and 2 current) student(s), told me about her son’s high school festival the first weekend in September in a city called Kawagoe (about an hour from Tokigawa). The latter was a very interesting draw for me for reasons I’ll explain later.

Students hanging out the windows watching performances in the courtyard.

They were quite different from what I had imagined. Junior High School school festivals happen every year about the same time, but at least at my JHSs, the school festivals are half about hands-on experiences with Japanese traditional handy-crafts or food, and half about showcasing school/student talent, i.e. giving speeches (in Japanese and English), sharing elements of the annual summer exchange experience some of the students have in New Zealand, student talent shows, and displays of art projects.

Fantasy castle at the entrance of the Kawagoe High School festival.

The High School school festivals are purely festivals – student music performances, karaoke contests, quiz shows, student clubs and homeroom classes sell food and drinks, etc. The Sakado High School festival also featured a cross-dressing competition. The day I went it was the boys dressing up as girls. We were hanging out in my former student’s homeroom class while some of the girls were prepping their class’s participant – he was such a ham and looked WAY too convincing as a girl that I took way too many photos of this particular aspect of the festival! He ended up being one of the finalists.

Some sort of boys orchestra giving a small demo concert.

Karaoke contest performer.

My Baskin Robbins (called "31" by most people in Japan) ice cream came in pellets.....

Masumi's classmate, the cross-dressing contestant.

And another boy was wandering around in a woman's kimono. It seems popular festival costuming for boys to wander around dressed like girls.....they were all over the school.

The final product. Masumi is on the far left. The other 2 girls were the stylists.

At the cross-dressing competition.

Another cross-dressing competitor. I'll call this one "bo-peep," although I think he was dressed as some famous Japanese TV personality.

The other most memorable part of the Sakado High School festival was the very last event, the homeroom-class dance competition. Not all the classes participated, but for those who did, ALL the members of the class worked together to choreograph (and costume) a dance that they all performed together. I was really impressed with the dance themes, the costumes, and the fact that entire classes of 25-40 students were able to work together to choreograph and perform these routines.

To Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

Angels and Demons. I thought this was one of the best costuming schemes.

This happens to be the homeroom class of one of my JHS student's sisters. She's on the far left.

Taunting.

The all-boys homeroom.

The Kawagoe High School school festival was a must-see for me, because the school is famous in Japan……for a group of boys getting together and starting a synchronized swimming club! The story won people over to the extent that a movie was made about it, appropriately called “Water Boys.” I actually saw the movie on a bus coming back from a skiing trip last winter. Corny, but cute. And of course the Water Boys perform during the school festival. Almost all the photos are from their last show of the day, which I caught from the top floor of the school while I was wandering around trying to figure out how to get out. I’d actually already watched and earlier show poolside, but I think they asked people not to take photos, so after one, quick, “no-look” shot, I didn’t want to push the ‘stupid foreigner” façade too far and have them corner me and confiscate my camera at the end of the show. Mainly the club just looked like pure fun. The routine started with at least a few minutes worth of “dancing” on the far side of the pool by at least 30 (probably more) members of the club, before they all dove in. The in-pool routine primarily consisted of the boys jumping up and down in the water (right-side up) with synchronized timing and upper-body (i.e. arm) movements. There was a fair bit of jumping off each others shoulders at various intervals, but no upside-down antics. To be fair, their entire pool is shallow, so doing a traditional synchro routine is probably impossible.

The boys definitely can’t be shy to be a part of this club. Required skills: Be willing to dance around in speedos or thigh-length spandex-type trunks in front of parents, grandparents and ogling high school girls from all over the region. Have to be able not to drown on a daily basis, but bare minimum swimming skills required. Willingness to do backflips off your buddy’s shoulders while he’s holding his breath underwater a must.

While I knew of at least 1 of my former students at both the Sakado and Kawagoe High Schools, I of course ran into quite a few more, either who were students at the schools or came to hang out with/watch their JHS friends. I have to admit it was a lot of fun to shock at least a dozen students with my presence at the festivals. And I inevitably ended up running into current students and their parents too, there watching older siblings or ‘senpai’ (elder/mentor) students, which worked in my favor because the festivals both ended in rain and I got rides home instead of having to walk/train it back. :-)

Me with all the former students I ran into at the Sakado High School festival. Masumi is second from the right.