Day 7 - Japan

Konichiwa! Hello and welcome to Japan, the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ and the Samurai Warriors! As the children entered Japan they were fascinated by the Samurai hats and soon all of them were making those hats out of paper.

They also made cherry blossoms to carry with them to the traditional Tea Ceremony, where they had a feel of this custom of kneeling at the table and having noodles with chopsticks! And not to forget the ‘green tea’. Praveen had come over to Japan, to teach the children to hold their chopsticks. It was quite tricky for many of us and we wondered how do the Japanese eat with them daily! But it was challenging. We had some of the very little ones who did not give up till they got a hang of it!

Soon after the Ceremony, the children witnessed a few paper Sumo wrestlers gathered at the table ready to wrestle! The Paper Sumo Wrestling game was exciting as the children choose their paper Sumos and in pairs compete with another. The paper wrestlers in pairs are made to stand on a board and each child taps on it with his/her fingers until the either of the wrestlers falls or gets out of the wrestling ring. The children were literally glued to the ring and were anxiously counting their points! These paper Sumos were made in lines with the Japanese art technique of ‘Origami’.

Our Art teacher Sajeev,who could not travel with us around the world due to a mishap on his two-wheeler, sent us a marvellous gift of Origami Jewellery box and perfect Tetrahedrons! We wish him a speedy recovery.

Japan is not over yet. Passepartout Paramjit presented a breathtaking Samurai Tai Chi martial art performance at the backdrop of the beautiful sun set, which left the children dumb-founded! They even tried out a few moves themselves with their little sticks.

Now was the story time. Vijay came in as the story-teller and narrated a japanese folktale 'Vishu, the Woodsman and the Old Priest'. It was engrossing plenary to the day as the children who were sitting far in a circle were just an inch distance from him by the time Vijay finished with his story!