Culture Shock at a School Festival

I witnessed the weirdest thing lately. Me and my friends visited the Kanagawa University Festival. At first there was nothing very special even for me, a foreigner. Students were playing music, singing, or selling snacks and some hand-made accessories, just like in any other school festival. However, things got different when we started watching the contest of Miss and Mister Kanagawa University. It was a contest where the audience picks someone as the representative face of their school.

 

The organization of the contest was like this: Each contestant starts by introducing themselves, and then they act in a proposal scene, and finally, they show their talent such as singing and dancing. What made me shudder with shock was step number two, "Acting in a proposal scene". In this step, each contestant is given a special situation, and they have to say the appropriate proposal words according to that.

 

[Narrator: (quiet music played in the background) Hotaru has been in love with Takuya ever since middle school, but unfortunately she couldn't tell him that because she was too shy. Seven years later, she runs into him in the park. Now, she wants to tell him about her feelings, and says... (the music stops)

 

The contestant:           ...            ]

The contestants acted seriously as if they were actually proposing to their lovers. It was really weird, students acting out a proposal and the audience evaluating it. However, I have to admit that I did enjoy it and laughed a lot. I picked boy no.4 and girl no.2 after some careful thoughts. Unfortunately, I couldn't submit the voting paper because I didn`t know where to put it. I heard that the girl that I picked became Miss Kanagawa University. I missed the boys' result, but I think the one I picked won. There was the most laughter of the audience in his turn.  

  

I respect this uniqueness of Japanese culture. This kind of "making a proposal scene" thing would only exist in Japan in the whole world. Come to think of it, there is a strange contest in my school in Korea too, although it's different from the one in Japan. It is called Mr. 外大 and it picks the most muscular male student of all. The contestants show their body in front of everyone only wearing really short pants. I heard they exercise really hard and go on a diet for a couple of months in an effort to win. I've never seen the contest myself, but my friend who watched it said the person who won even burst into tears and thanked his girlfriend. I guess there are some weird contests around the world.