{"id":1450,"date":"2015-10-05T18:00:41","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T01:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2015-09-24T15:29:24","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T22:29:24","slug":"delicate-customs-undo-kai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/delicate-customs-undo-kai\/","title":{"rendered":"Delicate Customs:  Undo-Kai!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Undo-kai time is here!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/undoukai01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1452\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/undoukai01.jpg\" alt=\"undoukai01\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Every year in Japan, schools hold sports festivals showcasing their students\u2019 physical talents in competitive and cooperative sports. Families and members of the community all assemble at their local or school stadium and watch children at each grade level compete in track and field, dance, <em>o-en-dan<\/em>, <em>kumi-taiso, ki-ba-sen<\/em>, <em>tama-ire<\/em> and ball games.<\/p>\n<p><em>Undo-kai <\/em>festivals are daylong events, and often coincide with the National Sports Day holiday on October 10, which commemorates the opening of the 1964 Olympic Games in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/undoukai03.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1454\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/undoukai03.jpg\" alt=\"undoukai03\" width=\"213\" height=\"315\" \/><\/a>Tokyo. The day begins in the morning, with a procession of children marching to music in their gym uniforms \u2013 red teams (<em>aka gumi<\/em>) separated from white teams (<em>shiro gumi<\/em>) by the color of their hats. Families spread out blankets on the nearby grass, and lay out their cushions and picnic lunches, ready for the morning\u2019s performances. Children on each team warm-up and stretch, the <em>o-en-dan<\/em> cheering squads perform dances to music and <em>taiko<\/em> drums, and the track and field and ball games begin!<\/p>\n<p>Each team has been practicing for this event, from the youngest first grader to older sixth grade students. Each member of the team contributes to the team\u2019s points, which will be tallied at the end of the day to declare a winner. The morning\u2019s competition breaks for one of the highlights for families\u2026a picnic or <em>bento<\/em> lunch.<\/p>\n<p>Students share the <em>bento<\/em> lunch with their families, taking a long break in the shade to rest and prepare for the afternoon\u2019s competition. <em>Bento<\/em> lunches are as much a part of the <em>Undo-kai<\/em> tradition as the games themselves. Parents and grandparents have been up since early morning preparing <em>onigiri<\/em>, fresh vegetables, fruit, desserts, chicken, fish, shrimp, omelets, sausages, salads, pickles and sandwiches. The shapes and colors and textures of the food, all delicately seasoned, is a sight to see! Freshly-brewed tea is loaded into insulated bottles and the entire feast is packed in beautiful, stackable <em>bento<\/em> boxes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bento01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1451\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/bento01.jpg\" alt=\"bento01\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After eating until everyone is satisfied, the children return to the games, and the afternoon\u2019s competitions of <em>kumi-taiso <\/em>(group gymnastics)<em>, ki-ba-sen<\/em> (shoulder war), dancing and music continue as more points are collected for each team. Finally, the games end, and the scores for each team are announced. The school principal and representatives from each team lead the closing ceremonies. Win, lose or tie, each team has demonstrated a quintessentially Japanese trait\u2026 cooperation, even while competing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Undo-kai time is here! Every year in Japan, schools hold sports festivals showcasing their students\u2019 physical talents in competitive and cooperative sports. Families and members of the community all assemble at their local or school stadium and watch children at each grade level compete in track and field, dance, o-en-dan, kumi-taiso, ki-ba-sen, tama-ire and ball [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[33,16,6,34,35,31,32],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-zojirushi-america","tag-bento","tag-japan","tag-lunch","tag-onigiri","tag-school","tag-sport","tag-undokai"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Delicate Customs: Undo-Kai! - Zojirushi Food &amp; Culture Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/delicate-customs-undo-kai\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Delicate Customs: Undo-Kai!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Undo-kai time is here! Every year in Japan, schools hold sports festivals showcasing their students\u2019 physical talents in competitive and cooperative sports. Families and members of the community all assemble at their local or school stadium and watch children at each grade level compete in track and field, dance, o-en-dan, kumi-taiso, ki-ba-sen, tama-ire and ball [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/delicate-customs-undo-kai\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zojirushi Food &amp; Culture Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zojirushiusa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-06T01:00:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/undoukai01.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Zojirushi America Corporation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@zojirushiusa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@zojirushiusa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Zojirushi America Corporation\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/delicate-customs-undo-kai\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/delicate-customs-undo-kai\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Zojirushi America Corporation\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/dab91f185d78e3c0414a7174a6598b10\"},\"headline\":\"Delicate Customs: Undo-Kai!\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-06T01:00:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/delicate-customs-undo-kai\/\"},\"wordCount\":402,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/delicate-customs-undo-kai\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/undoukai01.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"bento\",\"Japan\",\"lunch\",\"onigiri\",\"school\",\"sport\",\"undokai\"],\"articleSection\":[\"From Zojirushi America\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/delicate-customs-undo-kai\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/delicate-customs-undo-kai\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/delicate-customs-undo-kai\/\",\"name\":\"Delicate Customs: Undo-Kai! 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