Stage Fright?

The latest Youchien event was the Happyoukai, an annual recital, where each class performs a play and something musical. Given the painful spectacle of the Undokai in the fall, we dreaded this pretty heavily. Sam's role was as a bear in a play about making a sponge cake out of a giant egg that has fallen into the forest. He was supposed to say "Suponji keeki ni noseyou" (let's put it on the sponge cake) and then put the green whipped cream on the cake. He talked about this quite a bit at home and played at cake making and on. He would sometimes say his line in a loud voice, and also ad lib a bit, changing it to "nosete kudasai" (please put it on the cake) or "keeki ni noseba" (why don't you put it on the cake - in a rather detached way). Or with some nonsense endings. He also said other people's lines. But he never said the line in any practice at school and told me that he could do it at home but not at youchien. Sure enough, he didn't say it during the performance, though he did actually stand on the stage (minus the bear ears) and carefully put his green cream on the cake.




He didn't really want to come back on stage and for the final eating of the cake and he was a little unclear about how to exit the stage causing some nervous moments for his parents as he peered over the front of the stage as if about to jump. But there was no crying or thrashing at least. For the songs he just sat looking bored and picking his nose while all the other kids sang or shook an instrument. It looks like he just doesn't know the songs, but in fact his silence is quite deliberate and stubborn. He said in Japanese "Sam doesn't do that" and "Urusai" (noisy and irritating).

Well, I guess my son is not meant to be a child star. But he did enjoy when they made a TV show on our street a few days later.

Like at undokai, I was truly amazed by the performances of the 5 year olds (equivalent age of US kindergarten). In their skits they said complex series of lines as they went back in time to see the era of Shinran (played by a little girl) to better understand his accomplishments. The final number performance was an amazing taiko drum performance in which all of the kids at that age participated. I could have imagined it maybe as the recital of a special drum class, but that the entire age group could take turns doing a pretty complex set of drumming rhythms and movements was impressive. I recall that at the same age, I had the starring role in our Christmas play as Mary. This just meant I sat holding a plastic baby doll, usually fighting over it with the boy playing Joseph. This was definitely more impressive!

Undokai

Well the combination of trauma and extreme cuteness kept me silent on this one for one week but here goes.

From primary schools on up schools in Japan almost universally have an undokai - I'll translate that loosely as a fitness extravaganza in the fall. This is where you have your three-legged races and so on, but this is so much more ambitious. Yochien undokai are pretty amazing. These teachers somehow manage to teach groups of 15-20 3-6 year olds to perform dances, make pyramids, race, walk on stilts, and stay with their group for about six hours! For the 3-4 year olds it is less ambitious, but at Sam's school they did a dance, running down the field, a simple obstacle course (go under a tarp, ride a ride on toy, put on a swimming donut, and run to the teacher), parent-child relay, throwing some balls, and then all the various lining up and sitting with their class all day. All the kids attempted all of this and were generally good sports on an 80 degree day.

Well, except Sam. He spent most of the day running off on his own or throwing a tantrum while people attempted to get him involved. He had been quite enjoying the practice leading up to this and showed us various gymnastic moves he was learning - pretty impressive. But some combination of the bright sun (it was unusually hot for October), mobs of people, and just plain stubbornness kept him from enjoying it much that day. I was impressed with how patient the teachers were. I was thinking he was pretty much a lost cause for the day, but a teacher's assistant who has been working with him a lot and his regular teacher when she could get a moment free just kept working to involve him and get him interested. This worked enough to get him into the obstacle course which he had enjoyed in rehearsal.



And he was willing to do the parent child relay with me. We had fun with that.



Daddy was roped into tug-of-war. They seemed to think they would win by having the tall foreigner. But one of the other team seemed to have the really young fathers (in red) who were pretty daunting and did in all the 30+ fathers on the other team.




Anyway, we felt really bad for the teachers who did everything they could to get him to enjoy the experience. Most of the kids really do seem to be having a great time doing all this stuff, and I expect if we were here a year from now he'd be joining in full steam ahead. While we were a bit upset by Sam being so difficult, all the other parents and teachers were very encouraging and supportive of him. The management of these group activities always seems to have built in a strong kids will be kids attitude - kids will do their own thing but they also really like structure and to show off sometimes. I thought the undokai gave most of the kids a chance to learn something new through the complex but coherent dances and tasks in a supportive environment and show it off to themselves and parents.

Walking Home

On most days we do the commute to Sam's yochien by bus. We take a bus from our corner, ride it for about 10 minutes, and walk about five minutes on the other end. Of course with a wandering three year old on a busy street, especially in bright sun or pouring rain, the walking part can be interminable, but it is not bad in part because the buses run on schedule and are frequent. Most of his classmates live a bit closer and commute riding on their mothers' bicycles (in seats) - most children wear helmets, no parents wear helmets. About 10% seem to use cars. In my shoes, most of the mothers would use bikes, but those who grew up in this city have been biking for their whole lives on these narrow and busy streets and so are not quite as nervous about it as we have been. Several carry two children on the bike, with a seat installed front and back. I haven't installed even one seat yet though I did buy two children's helmet and brought my own from home.

By foot it is only about 20 minutes for an adult, so sometimes we use our double stroller and walk both ways, usually with at least one child catching a nap. Last Friday I did this and took some photos along the way. They give a sense of some of the things one sees on a random walk in Kyoto.

Here's Sam walking up the path to school...



OK, his nursery school is not that imposing. This is really the center of the Honganji (Nishi Honganji) complex, the part where most of the tourists go. We made a bit of a pilgrimage on the way home. Sam wanted to go up inside and that would be fine, but there seemed to be rather somber praying going on in the hall, so I lured him back out and took a photo by the huge door. (He's just gotten a big haircut and so is a bit puzzled by being able to find his own ear.)



Heading out you can see the other side of Horikawa Street, most buildings on which are also connected to Honganji. Here are more modern buildings for the institution, including this large hall. The banners are about liberation from discrimination



Crossing into a smaller side street, we passed a place that manufactures o-mikoshi, or portable shrines used in Shinto festivals. This is not a museum - you can see boxes in back for shipping them off. I helped carry one of these in the mid-1990s at the Sanja Matsuri in Tokyo. It was only the smaller neighborhood shrine, but I ended up with some pretty impressive bruises and sore muscles.



I never noticed it before, but Maia seems to have her own building on Nishinotoin Street. And it has nice pink lettering.



I turned into a smaller side street because I had read that there was a good eel shop. I thought maybe I would buy some prepared eel - this would make a quick dinner together with pickles and rice. But there was a huge crowd in front of the eel place, and they were filming something there. In this photo a car is blocking it, but the shop and the one next to it seemed to be dressed up to look extra quaint. I'll have to go back for eel some other time.



Nearby there is the Kandaijin Shrine. I never see much tourist traffic here - it is one of the many, many, many rather significant shrines that does not stand out in a city with so many such places. The plaque says that Sugawara no Michizane, a great Heian Period scholar, was first bathed in water from here, and so this spot was devoted to him and is turned to by aspiring students.



Here's a typical moderate older house plot in the area.



A restaurant with an interesting name and very old Toyota (I think) in front.



A great idea for a cafe - get a pet shampoo and have crepes and organic coffee. Or just sit with your dog while you have a coffee. They also advertise "Dog Aromatherapy" "Dog Reflexology" and "French Goods." What dog owner could ask for more?





Turning off the busy street, here's a sign for our alley



and a peaceful look at one leg of our Z-shaped street.



I wish I could do this every day, but usually I'm dashing back and forth from the other side of Kyoto on some crowded bus...

Week one Yochien - wakatta yo!

Sam's first week at yochien went pretty well all in all. But I doubt it will be forgotten soon.

This week three of the days were half days, so it was a pretty good way to ease in. Most of the stuff I had labeled was fine, though several new Mama homework projects developed for me by the end of the week as I am now on the "Game Corner" committee for a November 1 event.

Most things went pretty well. He seemed to basically understand what was going on, whether he followed directions or not. Each day he spoke a little more Japanese Every morning he said that he wanted to go to yochien and cheerfully put on his uniform, mostly by himself and was willing to pass up his favorite green Crocs for the white sneakers. Sam has an imaginary cat friend named Jiji. The name is based on the cat in the movie Majo no takkyubin (Kiki's Delivery Service), but he prefers his invisible one to any stuffed animal version of the one in the film. Jiji is the arbiter of all things for Sam and apparently he likes yochien too. He rides to school on Sam's hat. He reports that he "talked Japanese to the other boy" at school, and he is speaking more and more Japanese at home every day. He says "dame da" (no! no!) to his toy fish in the bath and used his first Kansai region tinged expression "wakaran" (I don't understand). And his favorite is an expression very appropriate for a 3-5 year old, or really for anyone with parents, "wakatta yo!" "I understood you!" (implied, "I get it, so leave me alone already!").

He said "wakatta yo!"a lot this week as I tried to correct any of his behaviors that seemed to be a problem at school - please don't forget use the toilet, please don't run around on the alter, don't spit, don't throw toys, and so on. Meaning that he did all these things. But his teacher and classmates were all very tolerant and said at least he seemed to be having a good time.

Usually the students wear their uniforms just for commuting and then change into a different exercise uniform for the day. Sam got the part about taking off the commuting uniform but resisted putting on any other clothes. He's supposed to be wearing white underpants, but he happened to be wearing red ones that he picked out in the morning. So just picture him tearing around the school in his underpants, like the nightmare people have about being at school in pajamas. I guess it was just not enough for him to stand out as the only non-Japanese child in the school! Some Japanese preschools practice something called "hadaka kyoiku" (lit. "naked education"), so I get he was after that? Everyone thought it was pretty funny, but also asked that I try bringing him to school in his play clothes for awhile...