Team 3 - Race to fulfill your dreams!

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John’s thoughts:

We just had our Ohana Amazing Race and it was just FUNtastic. The race started with a calm atmosphere because we all had to meet at the Azabu-juban station to load up our PASMO card. We waited for a bit for the other teachers to come while chatting away about our long weekend. We were also sad not to have Maryna around because she was down with flu. There were only the three of us - Hisami, Sayaka and John to complete the race and to be competitive enough to reach the finish line. We received a message from Maryna which inspired to do well in our team.

It was already 9:00 am and the race was about to begin. As we opened our our envelope for our first leg, it was mentioned there that our task was to go to Shibuya and buy cream puff at Cozy corner. Our hearts raised and Sayaka, Hisami and John instantly ran off towards the station to get to the next train going to Shibuya. Our stop was quite calm because there were not so many people there. Our feet were so itchy that we always had to run and wasted no time in finding our destination. With our running feet, we went to Hachiko statue and took a picture there. We thought that the photo that was first taken was not so good so we took another three photos to see which one would be much better. Sayaka immediately sprinted to the other side of the road and beat the red light. Hisami and John just followed her because we felt that it’s really about the race and goals to be complete as fast as we could. With Sayaka’s agility and endurance, it motivated us to push ourselves more physically and mentally and we didn’t even care about the people around us. But of course, we had to be careful not run over someone along the way. We managed to complete the task but we bought the cream puff at Family Mart because Cozy corner was still closed. The rule says that it was okay.

Our second leg was to go to Harajuku. This station is always busy but it didn’t stop us to use our running feet and used our agility as much as we could. It was really amazing how our adrenaline just rush throughout our body and made our bodies to fly anywhere we wanted. Harajuku was a bit crowded but our mental toughness still prevailed. We found the pancake store and took a photo there and then waited for Daiso to open just to get the cutlery. Honestly, we didn’t want to wait that long so Hisami and Sayaka asked the nice lady to get in early so that we could complete the task. Before going to the next leg, we had to complete the task so it is necessary for us to wait.  We waited patiently until we have to go to our next destination.

Third stop is at Asakusa. We had to stop and get “dorayaki” from Kamejyu. When we got there, oh goodness me, the line was so long! We thought that the line would take too much of our time so Sayaka got this fabulous idea to ask a person in front of us to buy one dorayaki. The lady was quite nice and we’re able to get our own dorayaki in less than 15 minutes. 

Fourth stop is at Tokyo tower. Again, we ran like a raging lightning. With Sayaka’s agility, Hisami’s core integrity and John’s moral support created a great combination of perfect teamwork. When we got to Tokyo station and moved as fast as we could to get under Tokyo tower. Here, we had to sing our Ohana school song. With our panting breaths, we still sang the song, although, we are not so proud of the results…so, gomene…but we really tried hard. 

Odaiba is our last stop. The task was to get a photo of the two aquariums beside Flying Tiger. However, Kiki, Gaelle, Liezel and Pernille were there too to complete the task. We rushed towards the finish line and tada…we finished second. 

For us, it was not about winning the race. We just wanted to complete the tasks with full of energy. We feel that this is the same to what we do in our classroom. We have our goals and our planned lesson will not turn out as it is supposed to be but it is still okay as long as our goals will be achieved. At the end of the day, it is for us to feel that we have accomplished something. We have the grit to be amazing with whatever we do.

Hisami’s thoughts:

It was a fun and meaningful team building day for me, working as a team is always important in the classroom but this time, we could build up our own teamwork outside of the school. I think that we’ve already known each other’s strength and personality, so it was quite to work with my team mates. Each of us had our own task, and we put our effort together to reach the goal. We ran and ran without any complaining. We just did it because our goal was only one.

It was a great experience to work hard and to share the feeling of the achievement with my team members.

Thank you for the amazing opportunity!!!

Sayaka’s thoughts:

I really enjoyed doing “Tokyo adventure activity” what I remember most is running running and running! ( I was so tired but I liked it!) To accomplish all the tasks, we talked a lot and I believe it really worked well.

I also enjoyed to know about how other teams were doing during the activity. They all had their own strategies and “they are very difference but our goals are the same!”

Maryna’s thoughts:

Days before the race, we planned what we needed to do and strategized what we have to do during the race. Here, we’ll be able to see and reduce the time. We have delegated the task for each one to reduce the time and to become more efficient in what we needed to do.

Ohana International School