Well it’s October in Japan which means Japanese Cultural Festival Season

In Mutsu there are no less then 21 different festivals spread out between the cities’ Elementary schools and Junior High Schools. In all total, there is probably  over 50 festivals held through out the whole peninsula if you count pre-schools, technical schools, high schools, and other town’s schools. That’s a lot of festivals with a lot of kids practicing hard right now for their classes’ songs, plays, and other related performances and presentations.

For those who don’t know what a Japanese Culture Festival is… Culture Festivals are called “bunkasai” (文化祭) in Japanese and are an annual event held by most schools here in Mutsu and in Japan. Our festivals usually take place after the regular Town Festivals in August & September. Festivals usually happen in Pre-Schools all the way up to universities and are usually focused on showcasing the school students’ everyday achievements, rehearsed plays, traditional or modern dances, Songs, band concerts, and/or any other sort of school performance– all of this at an all-one-day event. People (mostly parents, relitives, and teachers of the school’s students) who want to enter the school themselves or who are interested in the school may come to see the performance or just what the student’s schoolwork or school atmosphere is like.

Culture Festivals can be presented in many ways with different names for each.

For Culture Festivals related to schools there’s:

Seikatsu-Happyou-Kai (Daily Life Exhibition) (Pre-K, Kendergarten)- Usually small kids showing off pictures or singing simple songs.

Gakugei-kai (Literary Arts Exhibition)- Mostly school plays and showing off various arts and crafts  &

Gakushū-Happyou-kai (Learning Exhibition)- Usually a performance type event showing off something the students learned in class or some historical/traditional event in the town.  Typically peppered with plays and songs – (Elementary School)

Bunka-Sai- A mix of concerts, choir, plays, and rooms showing off arts and crafts that the students have made in their first school semester (Jr. High, High School).

Daigaku-sai (College)- Usually a big cultural presentation with food, club events, dances, and other exhibits typically aimed at getting students to join a certain club or join a certain cause.

In America I’m 90% sure we have something similar. If I were to describe it I would say it’s a talent show, music recital, open house, and school play all wrapped up in a one day festival. Each grade and each class of that grade comes up with something to do and then about 3-4 weeks before the event, they practice every day.

As an ALT I enjoy watching my kids perform and sometimes even get involved helping the kids prepare. It’s a good time to get in touch with kid’s parents and to see a part of student’s lives outside English class.

~J out

(*I hope soon to update this too with pictures of coming festivals)

(Some of the information in this post was taken from this wikipedia Article on Japanese Culture Festivals)

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