Wednesday 21st May 2008
The school's annual Japanese Day is here again.
Parents are invited to join in the big assembly at the start of the day, where we will see performances and our lovely kids.
As it is so hot now, I discouraged Rhiannon from wearing kimono again. She was perfectly happy about this as she remembered from last year how restrictive this outfit was. So this year, she is dressed as a Harajuku girl. As this is how the older Harajuku girls try to look anyway, I didn't think it was at all inappropriate and Rhiannon looked gorgeous, relaxed, cool and happy.
We all file into the hall before the children came down from their classrooms. As it's a hall that belongs to the adjoining Japanese school we have to remove our shoes before entering. Several hundred shoes were abandoned at the entrance! We had no seats so had to stand around the edge of the hall.
We were amazed at the fabulous outfits the children and teachers wore. Many colourful kimonos as usual – it's easy for the girls. But for parents of boys a lot more imagination has to come into play. There were martial arts outfits, a few ninjas and lots of happi coats. Rhiannon's teacher raised a cheer as he bounced in dressed as a Japanese school girl!
The children demonstrated their Japanese language skills in a year by year sing-song. And then we were treated to a performance by a musician from (if I recall correctly) Okinawa. He went on a bit too long, to be honest, but the children were very well behaved and patient.
My camera wasn't up to taking decent photos inside the hall so I won't inflict them on you.
Then the kids returned to their classes for a day of Japanese activities including ikebana and calligraphy.
The parents scrambled to find their shoes in the enormous pile and headed off for coffee. As usual.
