1/09/2025 - 30/09/2025 September in Japan

I feel like life has been non stop since the end of summer vacation and that’s why I’m coming at you with a September round up in the middle of November…. I’m impressed that I managed to keep up with the weekly/fortnightly blog posts for so long, but it seems regular scheduling all came crashing down pretty quickly! 

September was probably my busiest month yet with going straight back to school on the first of September! I knew September was my last full month at my current school so I threw myself straight back into school life, trying to make the most of spending time with the students and staff. It was an exciting month at my school, sports day was scheduled for the 25th so I knew that it would be a fun time later in the month, however I underestimated how much preparation goes into a Japanese junior high school sports day (運動会).

Starting about 14 days before the actual event, the students started preparing for the various sports events. So, for the next week and a half, pretty much every lesson was cancelled and regular school scheduling was overrun by sports practices. I had been forewarned about how seriously Japanese schools take sports day but I wasn’t really prepared for not only how intense the practicing was, but how honestly absurd some of the events were. For context, in Japanese junior high school sports days, the grades are mixed up and the students are divided into three or four teams, with each student wearing a headband that correlates to the colour of the assigned team. I was placed in the white team! 

The first day of 運動会 training I watched, I spent in the sweltering hot gym watching all the girls in the school practice tug of war. I know you may be thinking that it is slightly odd that the students had to spend a day practicing tug of war as its really a simply sport, but I can guarantee that this experience was a lot stranger than you’re imagining. For four hours, I stood in the gym while J-pop music played on the speaker, and watched girls get into their coloured teams, practice running into spot, crouching down, and picking up an IMAGINARY rope! Then, they repeated that over and over and over again. It was one of those moments where I couldn’t help but think ‘how the hell did I find myself in this situation’. 

For the next ten days, I followed the white team around to their practices, taking in the crazy sights, and then spent the 25th watching all of their practices culminate in a very impressive and exciting sports festival! The actual day started off with a school wide warm up, a raising of the flag, and some typical running races. At this point, the day was pretty similar to an UK sports day except for one major difference. Despite it being during the working hours, the school field was completely full off family members watching. While a few families were sat with picnics, 95% of parents were stood pressed up against the barrier with massive tripods and cameras recording everything! I have honestly never seen as much recording technology in one place as I had then. The Japanese people take 運動会 very very seriously!  

After the athletics events, the events take a bit of a strange turn. Some of the events had children running pack and forth passing empty boxes to each other while others had students throwing bean bags into a tall net while stopping intermittently to dance to a KPOP song! One of my favourite events is called 騎馬戦 (きばせん), where students form groups of four with one student standing on top of the other three. The groups then fight to push as many students off of their friends, stealing their headband in the process. The result is lots of boys crashing to the ground after their opponent shoves them off the shoulders of their friends.

The events at 運動会 are so different to a UK sports day that it meant the day was another exposure to some crazy social differences. That being said, the events were hilarious and the sportsmanship between each team was amazing.

The day finishes off with a Cheer Competition, where each team performs a choreographed cheering routine complete with drums, props, and organised songs all lead by a group of 3rd graders (year 9/10). The white teams performance was amazing, featuring flag running, choreographed dancing on tables, and the 3rd grade leaders simulating a samurai fight between the other teams. It was genuinely like nothing I had ever witnessed before and it’s something I know I will never, ever forget. The day finished off with the award ceremony where white team won everything and I was asked to do a short speech to my team. Lets just say the kids went crazy when I started off my speech in Japanese. 

At the beginning of the month, Chloe’s parents came to stay and so we took a short trip away to Hakone! Hakone is a small town around a lake that is near Mt Fuji, known for its breathtaking views of the mountain and beautiful scenery around Lake Ashinoko. The trip started off well, but shortly got slightly derailed as a typhoon made landfall pretty much directly above us. The rain and wind was some of the heaviest I’ve ever seen but even so, Hakone seemed more beautiful than ever. The rain brought out the rich green of the dense forests and after having some food, we made our way to the hotel to wait out the rest of the weather. This proved to be the best plan as the hotel had a private onsen overlooking Mount Fuji! 

Onsens are an important part of Japanese culture: they are (traditionally) natural hot springs that are used to bathe in. Because they are associated with cleanliness, there are many rules and traditions that need to be followed when going to an onsen. The most important one being that you have to be completely naked! Initially this was quite a terrifying concept and many westerners shy away from going to onsens, but after hearing how relaxing they are meant to be, I was pretty excited to finally try one! And thank God I did, because it proved to be one of the most memorable experiences I have had here. As I made my way to the outside area, the weather lifted and right in front of me was a perfect view of Mount Fuji.

Relaxing in the hot water and taking in the beautiful scenery was the most perfect way to spend the day. I will never forget it. And, honestly, once you get over the initially oddity of going in naked, the embarrassment completely disappears. 

The next day was spent sightseeing around Hakone and Lake Ashinoko. We took a cable car down the mountain and enjoyed a boat ride across the lake. Then we were able to get a picture by the famous Peace Torii gates that stand in the water and afterwards we got another cable car up Owakudani that is made up of active volcanic valleys that expel steam. This area was massively impressive but a little bit stinky… The area is famous for its black eggs that are boiled in sulphuric water! It was a whistle stop tour of Hakone but it is a beautiful place. 

After Hakone, we headed back to Tokyo for the rest of the weekend, where we visited TeamLab Planets, an interactive, tactile museum, Shinjuku, and other places in Tokyo! In Shinjuku, we got dinner down a little alley called ‘Ovoid Memory Lane’ that’s full of small izakayas serving yakitori! The restaurants are so small that most of the seating is pushed out onto the street and as you walk down you’re surrounded by the delicious smell of yakitori and traditional Japanese food. To finish off the trip in Tokyo, we watched a show projected onto the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building! The show was made up of animated images and scenes from different moments of Japanese history - from the Edo period to anime.

It was such a fun way to explore a different side of Tokyo and do something new. 

To finish off the great trip away with Chloe’s parents, we spent the next day at Tokyo Disneyland. Tokyo Disneyland is a really great park, with lots of unique experiences that set it apart from the other parks. The rides are all super fun and with DisneySea being the more popular park, the wait times were pretty short! The best thing about Disneyland was the parade at the end of the day! The detail put into the parade floats was amazing, but the most memorable bit was seeing how the Japanese people all sat down on the street to allow people stood behind to get an unobstructed view! I don’t think you’d get that in Disneyland Paris or America…

Then, at the end of the month, Chloe and I had our University friends, Ella and Ellie, come and stay for two weeks! It was so nice to see them and have them stay for such a long time. During the week, we were both working but we took some time out at the weekend to take a trip to Tokyo and show them the best bits! It was a jam-packed weekend that saw us going to Jimbocho, Shibuya, Harajuku, Ginza, and Shinjuku.

The best day was the Sunday when we spent the day in Asakusa, a more traditional area of Tokyo that is famous for Senso-ji Temple! After exploring the temple complex and the traditional market that lines the road leading up to the main hall, we walked the short distance to Tokyo Skytree and spent some time looking out over Tokyo. Tokyo is an absolutely massive city but I honestly don’t think I understood how massive until I saw it from above. The city sprawls out underneath you, with buildings placed so close together you can hardly see the pathways between. Before this moment, I wasn’t massively eager to go up the SkyTree but now it is one of my most recommended things to do if you visit the city. 

Afterwards, we wandered around Ueno Park and enjoyed taking in a quieter side of Tokyo. It was so nice having Ellie and Ella visit us here in Japan. It was crazy to think that if someone had told us two years ago that we would all be meeting up in Japan, I think we all would have laughed in their face. We enjoyed showing them a slice of our life here in Japan and it was great having visitors from home.

Aside from the visitors, September was an exciting month. The town next to Mobara, Ichinomiya, held its annual festival which was cool! The main street is closed off and groups of people run and dance while carrying the local shrine up to the temple. As they are running around, the people shout and sing and onlookers clap while shouting words of encouragement. It was a vibrant, exciting, and loud experience! I also went to another local town’s festival (Isumi). This festival was similar to Ichinomiya, however there were about 7 groups of people carrying different shrines instead of just one! Japan is known for its vast amount of festivals, and I feel so lucky to be able to have witnessed some while living here, with so many being smaller, local festivals that really showcase the nuanced festival culture. 

Unfortunately, I also had to say goodbye to a friend Jesus who decided his time in Japan was up! It was very sad saying goodbye but we made sure to do some last minute exploring before he left to make the most of his time here. We found a local Jazz bar nearby called Shoeless Joe’s that is run by a lovely old lady who loved chatting to us and we have immediately added that to our list of places to frequent. 

At school, the students started practicing for their chorus concert, an event that is massively popular in Japan, with every Junior high school across the country taking part. The school event consists of each class performing a song to compete against the others in their year and, for the third graders, this event signifies that they are getting close to the end of their time at junior high school. Similar to the sports day, the students spent their days doing singing practice and I had a great time walking around the school listening to all of the students practicing their parts.

S0, 2,000 words later and I have managed to somewhat summarise my September in Japan! I’ve probably missed out loads of details but I think this is the important stuff! I’ll be back with you soon with a summary of November….. hold tight…..