The tournament to end all tournaments

I've explained already that the vast majority of high school students join a club. There are clubs for everything: baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, track and field, photography, English, music, chorus, kendo, kyuudo, and chado. The clubs meet at least six days a week, almost always for more than two hours at a time. There's something noticeably absent, though. Most of these clubs are competitive sports, yet they very rarely go anywhere for competitions.

This may have something to do with Tsushima's isolation; I haven't asked friends in bigger cities if they have more frequent matches. Teams do travel for a tournament every once in a while--maybe once or twice per semester--and I see the baseball team scrimmage every day. Nobody has anything remotely resembling a season of games, though.

Last week, though, there was a huge match. It's called 高総体, kosotai, and it's the equivalent of a state-level tournament: literally every sports team from every high school in Nagasaki prefecture went to Nagasaki to compete. It's a very big deal, and the introduction ceremony was broadcast on TV here, with each school's teams marching past the audience assembled in the arena. Before they left, both of my high schools had a send-off ceremony: everyone gathered in the gym, with the participating teams in their sports duds. The principal gave a speech, gave some kind of certificate to the student body president, and the band played the school song while everyone sang along.

The teams went to Nagasaki via ferry, so there was another huge sendoff at the port. I woke up an hour early and headed, bleary-eyed, for the ferry terminal, expecting to see just a few similarly drowsy teachers standing in the drizzle to wave at the departing kids. I should have known better: the entire school showed up, give or take a few students. I failed to realize my small high school would be on the same boat, so I was kind of shocked to see several Toyotama teachers present for the send-off too.

Despite the rain, the band was present to perform the school song, and everyone cheered as our teams boarded the ferry. Several students and teachers led dedicatory cheers much like the ones the teachers gave each other at the goodbye party in April.

I tried to get some pictures through the mist, but I dropped my camera. Having neglected to use the small loop of fabric likely attached to the camera to prevent just such an occurrence, it hit the ground hard, right on the part with the lens that telescopes out. Now, when I try to turn it on, it tries in vain to retract the lens. Getting it repaired here would require going to Fukuoka or Nagasaki--a $250 investment--and unless it could be fixed on the spot, it'd require either shipping ($50-$60) or returning to Fukuoka to pick it up (another $250). Since there's a very real possibility I'd have to spend all that money just to find out it'd be cheaper to buy a new camera, I've decided to wait until I go home in August to get it looked at.