Snowball Fight!

Hello, my name is Kumagai, I have recently joined KIS; I hope I'll get a chance to meet everyone soon.

My first KIS event was the Snow Sports Day on February 21. In the day sleading up to the event, I received e-mail saying that the JICA participants, currently in Kosaka from the Philippines, were really looking forward to the Snow Sports Day. Of course, it really must be something to see the delight of someone seeing snow for the first time. However, after a month has passed, they will probably come to hate the cold, and they willbe glad to leave the snow behind...

Although we had quite a bit of snow this year, for the week before the SnowSports Day, it really did seem like spring. I was actually wondering if we were really going to be able to make any snowballs, but you can never under estimate this snow country; we were blessed with plenty of snow and beautiful weather for the Snow Sports Day.

While we were busy putting the final touches on the court, the JICA participants arrived. As I had hoped, they were full of enthusiasm. Several KIS members participated; along with the fifteen JICA participants, staff from MMAJ, JICA, and MINETEC also came out to enjoy the fun. While things got started outside, many KIS members were busy in the Sepamukitchen making butajiru for lunch. Things finally got underway, and we divided into four teams of eight, each team taking a colour: Red, Blue,Yellow, and Green. I'll describe the events in the same order as the program.

1) Balloon Popping Race
Participants race to a pole that is 25 metres away, inflate the balloon; pop it, then race to the starting line. The entire team starts at the sametime, so the first team to have all of their members back to the startingline wins. It sounds much easier than it is; contestants tripped and tumbled in the deep snow, and found themselves too out of breath to inflatethe balloons. It was a tough event, and everyone really enjoyed it.

2) Sleigh Relay Race
One person rides the sleigh, and another pulls the sleigh around the pole and back. If you thought the balloon race was hard, this one was a killer! Even with a light team member on the sleigh, racing through the snow was backbreaking. Each team had to send the sleight out six times, and everyone had to go at least once.

3) Snowball Fight
This was definitely the main event of the day. To this classic winterpastime, we added a few rules. Each team member was allowed 10 snowballs, and you defeated your opponent by hitting all of their players, or takingtheir flag. We didn't use any shields on the court, so the matches generally ended quite quickly. We had a few objections to the referee's decisions (most of them were my fault), but everybody had a good time. I found that I couldn't aim so well with gloves on, but that just added to the fun.

4) Snow Treasure Hunt
After all that hard work, where did everybody get so much energy from? Loads of candy, juice and prizes were hidden in the snow around the court; once the whistle had sounded, everybody took off to grab the loot.

5) Lunch
I would like to offer another note of thanks to everyone who worked on lunch while we were outside playing. Thanks to your hard work, we all enjoyed a delicious lunch. The JICA participants loved it, I should have asked if they preferred the onigiri or the butajiru.

Shortly after lunch, the JICA participants left for Yuzawa; they reallyhad a long day. Overall, I felt that the event was a success. We should definitely do it again next year. Maybe we should try Snow Rugby? :)Whatever we do, it's sure to be a success. Again, to everyone that worked to make this event a success, thank you so much for your help.