Hello everyone,

We started our day in the gym today, as we cheered on our clubs that are going to the national championships this summer. For sports, volleyball, basketball, and soft-tennis teams will make their way to Hokkaido at the beginning of August. They will face stiff compeition from across the country. For our culture clubs, members of the photography club and announcing club will head to Kagoshima. There they will compete with others, but also enjoy the efforts made by other students. I hope all our students can make memories that last a lifetime.

When we have competitions like this, we can use some different words. A tournament with only Wakayama teams is a “Prefectural Tournament”. The next stage might be the Kinki area, and we could say “Regional Tournament”, or just “Regionals”. Finally, a tournament with teams from all over Japan is the “National Tournament”, or “Nationals”. So, you want to say “I’m going to nationals next week for volleyball.” It sounds cool, right?

Good luck everyone!