From classic to quirky: prompts that will liven up a borrow-it relay

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.
Keyboard playerSAKI
I’ve been playing the Electone since I was six, mainly performing Disney music, anime songs, and music from dramas and films. I post performance videos on YouTube and social media, and I also give concerts. Building on my Electone experience, I took up synthesizer and piano during my student years and performed at school-sponsored events. As a writer, I’ve covered not only music-related topics but a wide range of genres, so I hope to draw on my experience to deliver articles that make readers think, “I want to try that!” or “I want to listen to that!”

The borrowing race is one of the classic events at a sports day.

In this event, participants search around the sports day venue for an item or person that matches the prompt, and the first person to reach the finish line together with what they found wins.

In this article, we introduce perfect prompts for the borrowing race, organized by category!

We’ve gathered a wide variety of prompts—from standard ones that are easy for small children to find and lower-difficulty prompts, to quirky and amusing ones.

There are also prompts for things you don’t usually see, as well as sweet, heart-throbbing prompts with a romantic twist!

Use the prompts we introduce as inspiration to make your borrowing race fun and entertaining!

Difficult (1–10)

a person who is fluent in English

Isn’t it difficult to look for someone who’s good at English among Japanese people, many of whom are known to struggle with the language worldwide? On the other hand, precisely because many are not proficient, those who are fluent tend to stand out, so if there’s someone around you, it may be easy to bring them along.

However, since the absolute number is small, make sure to secure someone early in case others choose the same theme.

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Hoshino Takashi

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A person who looks like a celebrity

The theme of finding someone who resembles a celebrity is quite challenging, but it sounds like a fun one to search for.

If there’s someone in your class or elsewhere who is often told they look like someone, you could bring them along.

As for the judges, it might be good to be a bit lenient with the evaluation.

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SAKI

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People who are fans of 〇〇

The task of finding fans of the specified subject might be difficult unless you’re usually aware of your friends’ interests.

If no obviously passionate fan comes to mind, you’ll need to infer from your friends’ other hobbies and ask them one by one.

On the other hand, by talking to them, you might discover a new side of your friends, so if nothing comes to mind, do try putting your thinking cap on.

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Hoshino Takashi

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someone who looks good at cooking

This is a challenge where you reach the goal by bringing along someone who seems like they’d cook delicious food.

The trick is to use your imagination—look for someone who looks good in an apron or whom you can picture cooking.

Once you make it to the goal, having a conversation like “Are you good at cooking?” would likely make things lively.

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mutō

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band member

Even if you say “band members,” some are easy to spot at a glance while others are hard to tell just by their appearance.

It’s nice when someone obviously looks the part, but if no one stands out, you might have to search more broadly.

It’s definitely worth checking whether there are people in the light music club or anyone doing band activities outside of school.

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SAKI

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a muscular person

Even among people who train regularly, how much muscle they’ve built varies from person to person.

This challenge is to find people at the venue who are clearly muscular—really buff—and bring them along.

Since clothing can sometimes make muscles hard to see, if it’s difficult to judge by appearance, it might be a good idea to call out to people who feel confident about their muscles.

People also differ on where they draw the line for “buff,” so let’s make the final judgment at the finish point.

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kappamaki

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Someone who looks good at dancing

This is a slightly vague prompt: “someone who seems good at dancing,” so participants can approach it based on their own subjective impressions.

Since it’s just “seems good,” it’s okay if they can’t actually dance! As long as they sort of move to the rhythm and do a little dance when they reach the goal, it counts as a clear.

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SAKI

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