On Thursday, October 10, seven Japanese and ten international OUS students participated in this year’s International Student Cultural Exchange Party organized by GLOBOLA. The theme was the GLOBOLA Sports Festival, which was held at Zip Arena. The event enabled OUS’ international students to experience one of Japan’s time-honored school events of the autumn season.

The event kicked off with Radio Calisthenics, which is held at every sports festival in Japan. International students were on board with exercising even though they had never seen or heard of it.

Participants were then separated into teams by color, red, yellow, and blue, and each played an icebreaker game, Concentration. In the regular game, cards are placed face down, and players must find two matching cards by turning over two cards at a time. In this version, the cards had sports-related questions such as “games played at sports festivals in other countries.”
After the icebreaker, the teams participated in four sporting events.

• Relay Race
• Tama-Ire 玉入れ: A game where teams throw as many balls as possible into a basket. In this event’s version, GLOBOLA members held colored boxes over their heads while teams used balled-up newspapers.

Teams took a five-minute break to rest and get a drink.
 

• Shogai Butsu Kyou-Sou 障害物競争 (Obstacle Race): Unlike most obstacle races that have climbing and jumping, GLOBOLA’s sports festival had Kendama (cup and ball game), a 〇✕ (T/F) Game, a mini-scavenger hunt as obstacles, and ping-pong ball balance.
• Taifu no Me 台風の目　(Eye of the Typhoon): A modified relay race where four or more team members run together holding a two-meter bamboo tube and do circles around orange cones.

Because the teams finished the obstacle race quicker than expected, they had a second relay race to fill in the extra time. After the activities, all participants gathered for a commemorative photo.
 
To say that everyone enjoyed themselves would be an understatement. Each team member encouraged and cheered on their teammates during each game and applauded other teams that won. Some participants remained to assist in cleaning up after the event.

The sports festival is the first event GLOBOLA has organized and held off the OUS campus since the pandemic. The next GLOBOLA event will be a trip to Himeji Castle. Details about it will be forthcoming.