School Festival・文化祭
～すべての教室・出しものを見てまわりました！～

　　　I do have experience with a Japanese school festival. Two years ago (2013), I studied abroad in Chuo University for one year, and they had theirs around this same time. Since their school year begins in April, this is really a half year event to showcase what all the students have done in their classrooms and clubs till this point to showcase it in this big well known festival. However, it is a different experience from participating in one as a fellow student to helping mandate one as a teacher.

　　　I made it a mission of mine to be able to visit all the classrooms and view everything everyone had worked on. By doing so, I feel it helped me to know more about all the students as well as get to know the staff better observing how they interact with students with events like this. It seemed like the students had a lot of free range of what they were allowed to do.

　　　To start off, I shadowed the head of the English Department, Mrs. Okubo, to see how they checked in people and greeted new prospective families into TJG. There, I received a pamphlet laying out a map of the school and what would be done at different parts. This included performances being held on the Tennis Courts, the 8th floor dance hall, and the B2 gymnasium. Classrooms were set with different booths, depending what they had agreed on.

　　　I started off by clearing the big main building (B) on my first day, since the festival was for two days. It started with me touring 4th floor as I was patrolling with other teachers. This floor displayed interesting works of projects. One classroom had animals camouflaging into their backgrounds to see if guests can identify where the animals. On that same floor was a makeshift of a famous amusement park and they called it Tonjo Disneyland. They had mini games and prizes according to how well you performed.

　　　The next floor up, 5th floor, had a different theme. These students did group projects that were agreed with by their professors. One that stood out to me in particular was the Junior high school 3rd years, both classes, displaying important sites to see of Kyoto and Nara because they are going in November. They were able to research what they would be interested in seeing and it gives them time to plan out what they want to do together.

　　　The next floor up was a personal favorite. And that is because it had to do with food. Yes, the 6th floor was about classrooms which had food items for sale. The girls got me tempted by saying they had pizza! These rooms had American items, Hawaiian pancakes, desserts, and Takoyaki being sold (unfortunately for me, I didn’t get to try the Takoyaki because by the time I came back it was sold out!) But the rest was very delicious!

　　　The 7th floor is where the video viewing room is, so a clubs movie was able to be shown there. Another big classroom on that floor was for the bazaar they had, when donated items were being sold for very reasonable prices. The proceeds went towards ???. The 8th floor had a side room where live bands were playing, in which I got to view a song performed. The rest of the floor is dedicated to an open dance hall, where a stage was pulled out to see the performances. Here, I watched a Koto being played by many students, a presentation and play done by the English Conversation Club (ECC). The high school girls presented a campaign they support called “Because I am a Girl.”, empowering girls around the world of equality. The junior high girls performed the drama Cinderella. I thought the girls did very well and they seemed to enjoy it very much. I was able to help in the last two weeks before the school festival answer questions they had about their lines as it was all in English!

　　　The last big items were the Tennis Courts and Gymnasium. The tennis courts is were food was sold like yakisoba, hash browns, sausages, and more. Tents and tables where places out there to sit and be able to enjoy the food (as there were not many places allowing food around the school) and to also watch the brass band perform while you eat! I was able to take an airial shot of them as I was in the buildings during one of their performances.

　　　For the grand finale, it took place in the gymnasium. There, many other clubs performed what they had practiced on, such as choir and playing the recorder. The dance clubs also performed on stage. What I was able to do was actually participate in this instead of just watch! In two days, I learned the dance the teachers had been practicing, and performed in front of the students. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad the students enjoyed it very much. I had a lot of fun at this school festival. Tokyo Joshi Gakuen knows how to host a really festive one!

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