sosa high school culture festival

Yesterday I went to Sosa High School's culture festival, which was my first high school culture festival in Japan! I went to the one at Nanzan University (and I think also Nagoya University?) when I studied abroad, but it was cool to see what it's like at a high school level, too.

For those who don't know, a culture festival is a big school event where classes and clubs hold performances/demonstrations and have cafes, booths, haunted houses, etc. It's really a shame we don't have something similar in the US (or at least I don't think we do), because it seems like working on this with your classmates/friends is a ton of fun!

I was impressed right away by the decorations and signs that the students had made, which were clever and well-done. After meeting up with a friend who is an ALT at Sosa HS, our first stop was a class who was selling hot dogs, with decorations that were apparently based of the game Animal Crossing (which I don't know anything about). After that, we went around an exhibit of student artwork (some of which was pretty impressive), into my first haunted house, and then to the gym to see some student performances. First was a band, whose last song was a really clever and amusing song involving Jomon vs. Yayoi pottery and Japanese history (from what I could tell), which was apparently really popular with their peers. Last of all was the soccer team, who came out in sunglasses and did some dancing and acrobatics to the cheers of lots of high school girls (apparently the soccer team is pretty popular too).

I didn't have a chance to go around all the booths, since I got there a little late and it was only until 2pm, but I wish I could have! Maybe next time. Still, it was a good time. :)