Today was marathon day at our high school! It was supposed to be last week, but the weather was very poor and it was canceled. Today, the weather was also very poor, it rained and rained, but this was our last chance for the marathon so everyone went and did their best, despite the weather.
Some students and teachers have asked me: Do they do things like this in America? The answer is no. Or... probably no. I don't know of any schools that do marathons like this, but there are many different kinds of high schools in America. Maybe there are some that run big races.
When we are younger, it is very common to have a sort of "Sports Day" at our schools. (We call it Field Day.) In high school you may have a gym class each day, but some times you don't. For example, I went to an art high school. It was a little different, because our whole high school focused on art (drama, dance, painting, singing, music... etc.). To graduate I had to do a little sports at school, but it was just one class for one semester. That's just three months! My school was a little different though. Many American students have gym class and many different sports teams at their school. It depends on the kind of high school you go to.
I am so impressed at how active Japanese high school students are! Yes, in America we do sports, but it usually isn't for hours every day at school. It also probably wouldn't be on the weekend. Not unless you had a game. The students here are so active! After school, there are so many students practicing different sports and they work so hard. I'm really impressed. I don't think many American students would be willing to put that much time and effort into their school activities. Not unless they were really really good and maybe training to be a professional athlete.
I really respect how hard the students at Gotemba Minami work. Everyone trained for the marathon for many weeks and then almost everyone ran and finished the race. This is really cool.
