Suwa Hoikuen Undokai

October 3 - Suwa Hoikuen Undokai
Although September seems like the most common month for sports days, the second Monday in October is actually the national Sports Day holiday. Accordingly, Yana's preschool had their sports day on the first Saturday of October. It was only about 3 hours, so not nearly as long or intense as the elementary and junior high school sports days I've attended so far.
Like all good Japanese events, the day began with opening speeches by important people. Then all the kids (there are 3 grade levels) spread out and did a dance-based warm up routine.
The first event was called yoi don, and was basically a relay. First was the 3 year olds, and then Yana's group (4 year olds). After the five year olds was this rhythm thing...basically it was just what the kids do every day for their organized exercise.  For example, they run around pretending to be fish, gallop like they're riding a horse, and do hopscotch. Each grade level did theirs a bit differently. So for Yana, it was kind of like a class battle, with her class (cosmos) and the other middle grade class (dandelion) marching up to each other in different ways.
Then the 3 year olds did a dance thing and we had a break for snacks.
Each grade has 1 event they do with parents, so the 5 year olds did that after break. Next the 3 year olds had a race. After that was Yana again. The kids wore their tengu geta and did a little skit with one of the teachers dressed as a tengu.
Then the 3 year olds had a fun little triathlon relay and the 5 year olds had another event. After that, the 4 year olds did a routine with a big parachute.
The 3 year olds did their parent and child event, and then the 4 year olds ran a relay. Yana was in the lead, until she stopped to see where the kid behind her was. But in the end, her class won!
After the 5 year olds did their relay, the 4 year olds did a pole race with the parents. Yana tripped while running, and made a spectacle of herself by dangling from the pole as the other 3 ran, so that was great.
The day ended with the 5 year olds doing their soran dance, which they also performed at the dance festival in August.
At the end, all the kids got "gamabari medals", which was super cute, and Yana was so thrilled about it.