Yuki Gassen: a Snowball Tournament of Awesome Proportions

Today I went with Local Nate and his girlfriend Amy to a Yuki Gassen, a Snowball Fighting Tournament. It was held in Iya, a mountain town in the neighboring prefecture of Tokushima where Nate lived for three years during his tenure as an ALT. It wasn't just a bunch of people throwing snowballs around, either; this is a complicated game with rules, positions, judges, coaches, flags, and the most perfectly round snowballs you've ever seen.

I haven't entirely grasped the rules despite Nate's valiant explanations, but here are a few basic points. Each game consists of three rounds, three minutes each, with 90 snowballs allowed per round. Each team of 7-8 people gets 15 minutes to make the 270 snowballs needed for the next game, which they do with the aid of these special snowball crate things. If a team is unable to make all the snowballs, its members have to play with a deficit, but today's teams had no such problem.



The objective of the game is to take down the other team's members by hitting them with a snowball (it's got to be a direct hit, though!) or, in a pinch, storming them and taking their flag. There are several big wooden crates to hide behind, and a particularly big crate with the snowball stash behind it at each end of the field. There are two positions: "backs," players who play defense and lob snowballs from afar but primarily restock the "fronts," who run up and take positions behind the crates and do the main work of trying to hit the other team's players, but who can't run back to the snowball stash. If a team is down to just a few people or has run out of snowballs, it can try to storm the other side and take their flag. Fun, eh?





It was really fun to watch, though cold and rainy. Nate only left Iya a year and a half ago, so he knew many of the players and parents. There's an adult and a junior division, so many of the players in both were Nate's former students! There were of course fond parents and friends cheering them on, and announcements and a concession stand. Not only is this a real sport, this tournament is for all of Shikoku, and for the adult division, it's the qualifying round for the nationals! The winning team gets a free trip up to Hokkaido to compete for the nationals, and one of Iya's teams won the final round today. The junior division, which is for elementary school students only, was also won by an Iya team, and some of the kids were so happy they were crying!


We were all very well bundled against the cold, but one of the other perks of the location of the field was a hot spring right next door, so we took some time midday to relax in the hot spring and eat a leisurely, warm lunch. I also enjoyed being up in the misty mountains (and yes, they did remind me of the Misty Mountains!) but I'm glad Nate drove, because tiny mountain roads in Japan are even more frightening than other tiny roads in Japan.

Here are two videos I took if you're really interested:

World Citizens Festival in Matsuyama

I participated in a really cool event in Matsuyama the weekend before last. I was just referring to it as the International Festival, but it was actually called the World Citizens Festival, or 地球人祭り, chikyuujin matsuri. The festival is put on every year by MIC, the Matsuyama International Center. For a small city, not well-known outside Japan and not too famous even in Japan, Matsuyama has a surprising amount of diversity, and about 22 countries were represented at this festival. Aside from the countries you might expect, there were many surprises: Mali, Argentina, Nepal, Thailand, Germany...and of course, South Africa!

I ended up helping out with the South Africa group partially because America didn't really need any extra help (there are quite a few of us, even here) but mostly because I went to the first planning meeting in early December with my friend Safiyya, who is from South Africa. Each country's group consisted of a person/people from that country and Japanese volunteers, and though South Africa wasn't exactly overflowing with either at first, I really think we got the best group in the end. Between Safiyya's enthusiasm and stash of stuff and our wonderful volunteers, Naoko, Yumiko, Yamada-san and Sachiko, we had an awesome booth!


Since I don't live in Matsuyama, I only came to the initial meeting and the last two preceding the actual event, so I wasn't super helpful, but everyone else spent a lot of time finding stuff online, making posters and stickers and props, and coming up with great ideas. In the end, we had 3 boards: general information, culture, and soccer (the World Cup is in South Africa this year, as most non-Americans know well!). We also had rooibos tea and dried fruit & nuts for travelers to sample, a soccer ball game for kids and adults alike, a laptop playing videos like gumboot dancing and the national anthem, and various objects and books for people to look at. I think I can safely say we had the most going on of any booth!







We were extremely busy for the first two or three hours, and then we had some time to look around at the rest of the festival. Canada had samples of pancakes with maple syrup, America had face painting and Twister, China had tea, England had scones, New Zealand had a soccer game, too. North and South Korea were seated together with the line "One Corea" over both flags. Many countries had short quizzes for people to take or a board with a few phrases in their language for people to learn. Every country had a stamp provided by MIC, and festival-goers had passports which they brought around for stamping. MIC estimated the number of attendees at 1,200, which I believe is twice or three times what they had last year. Woohoo!








They also had several food stands and an area to try on costumes from various countries. Possibly my favorite picture is of these two adorable girls at the closing ceremony.


Afterwards, a bunch of us went out to celebrate a job well done!

Happy New Year!

明けましておめでとう！Akemashite omedetou!

That's how you say Happy New Year in Japanese. As you might have suspected already. Apparently "ake ome" is sufficient if you're a cool junior high or high school student, but I have not yet been privileged to receive this rad form of address.

I'm back in the wondrous world of Shikoku after a nice holiday back home. I'm sorry I've been so negligent with posting in the last month or so, and that all my entries are long missives rather than short updates. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to post more frequently and feel less reserved about adding in an odd or random tidbit among the better planned entries, just for fun. Since my other resolutions are a good deal more challenging, I'd better get going on this one!

As you may know, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger in the Asian zodiac. In many countries the changeover doesn't occur until after the Lunar New Year, but in Japan it happens right on 1/1. Consequently, I have learned, you see tiger-themed stuff all over the place starting in November, and most New Year's cards (年賀状) ,have tiger designs on them. New Year's cards are a huge deal in Japan, similar to our Christmas cards in idea, but more formalized. They are postcards and they are delivered right on New Year's Day, as long as you get them to the post office in time. Like Christmas cards, they're sent out to friends, family and business associates, and some are more creative and detailed than others. I received a few myself, and they're so cute that I hung them up in my kitchen. The ones attached are just a few I found online. Enjoy!