The 94th voyage Sports Day

 

The long-awaited event, Sports Day kicked off today! This is the biggest event throughout the voyage boasting the largest number of participants with diverse generations, nationalities and languages.

 

 

Passengers split into 4 teams – blue, white, red and yellow – and dress in the team color for solidarity. Four different team flags are flowing in the clear blue sky to cheer on participants.

The volunteer event organizers among the passengers have been working so hard to make the event enjoyable for all the generations and nationalities – participants including kids enjoy many different games such as paper-rock-scissors, beanbag toss, and all-generation relay.

 

 

Participants cheer as each team gets a score depending on the result of the games. Some celebrate their high score with smiles, while others plan for the next games to beat other teams with higher scores.

 

 

The first half of the day ends before lunch time, and they enjoy cutlet curry (symbolizing good luck) for lunch.

 

 

The first event in the afternoon is a cheering battle, and all the teams show off their own cheering performance. Each team has a unique edge with music, Japanese drums, and other performances.

The afternoon is also full of many more fun games such as a ‘centipede’ race (participants run with their legs linked together) and obstacle race. During a ball-passing game, because of the bonus points given to each team according to the number of the participants, the deck is filled with participants.

 

 

The last game is a tug-of-war, and big cheers of “Pull! Pull!” echo over the deck.

The Sports Day comes to the end, and the winner is announced.

The winner is… the team BLUE!

 

 

The captain of the blue team makes a comment and says “the Sports Day could not have happened without all the teams together, so I thank you all for being a part of this special event!”. The entire deck is filled with big applause, tears, smiles, and expressions of gratitude.

 

 

No other events gather as many passengers as the Sports Day during the voyage.

Having spent so much time and energy on the Sports Day makes us realize that immersing ourselves into something is such fun no matter how old we get!