A Beginners's Guide to the Bunkasai

      Today I will give you a  brief introduction of a Japanese school tradition, the Bunkasai.
A Bunkasai might be called a school festival in English, but I think there's more to it than just celebrating and having fun.
      First of all, a Bunkasai is a place where students display their work, using their classrooms and places inside the school. The classes do a class project together, such as plays and walk-through attractions. At SFC, it is kind of like a tradition and rule that the first graders do decorations inside the buildings, sixth graders do a play, and that all the other grades do walk-through attractions. This enables us to learn and acquire teamwork skills, which is one of the reasons why I like this event.
      Second of all, even though this doesn't go for SFC, most Bunkasai have places to eat food. By food, I mean dishes such as yakisoba, takoyaki, ice cream, and things that a person can eat without difficulty. Of course, there are a lot drinks served too. Above, I have already said that most classrooms do a class project, but some of these classrooms open up cafe's and serve food that the students actually cook themselves. Opening up a cafe is not allowed in SFC so I get very jealous when I visit other school's Bunkasai and see them.
      Finally, usually in Bunkasai, students in musical clubs such as the wind orchestra club, hold concerts for visitors. In SFC we hold these concerts every year, indoors inside the gym. I am in the wind orchestra club and our club performs there every year along with other clubs such as the string orchestra club, drama club, and bands that come from the rock band club. In other school's Bunkasais that I have gone to in the past performed outside the school, and some students even did manzai (Japanese comedy) on stage which I thought was a brave thing to do.
      I think Bunkasai is a great tradition for students and think it should  be passed don to the future. It is a very entertaining event for both students and visitors with class projects, plenty of food, and concerts that everyone can enjoy. I hope this tradition of Bunkasai would spread to other countries so that it can allow students to understand the true meaning of teamwork and feel a true sense of achievement. There is more to a Bunkasai than I can explain in words, but now I have described what a Bunkasai is like very briefly.