Nishishou Matsuri and God's Eyes

Last Friday was Nishiokoppe Elementary School’s student festival. In Japanese, the word for elementary school is, “shougakko”. Nishiokoppe Shougakko’s nickname is “Nishishou”.

A common feature of festivals (“matsuri”) in Japan are the game booths, which are usually arranged throughout the festival area. The games are typically just for fun and involve tasks such as catching goldfish using a rice paper net. Other games are more like what you might see in America; fishing games, shooting things with a pellet gun, etc. As a fun activity, the elementary schools here (or maybe it’s just in our area) will have an annual “matsuri” organized by the students for the benefit of themselves and their parents.

On Friday, students at the elementary school didn’t have classes. Instead, the spent they morning setting up their game booths and preparing. At 10:15, a handful of parents arrived and the opening ceremony was held. This basically consisted of the 5/6th graders welcoming the guests and each of the other grades stood up to explain their game to the others.
Opening ceremony

Everyone, students and adults alike, were given tickets handmade by the students. These were to be used for each game.

The 5/6th graders had a paper airplane throwing contest/game. Set up in the gym, each person was allowed to choose between making their own and using a pre-made airplane. Then, standing at the designated line, each person threw their plane, with the landing point being marked by a piece of paper with their name on it. A tally was kept of each distance, and at the end of the matsuri, certificates were given to the five that went the furthest. All the participants of this game were given a small bag with two cookies, which the 5/6th graders had made.
Paper airplanes

The 2nd graders were quite clever in making this maze. Here, you can see three of them posing for the camera (as soon as Japanese children see a camera, they pose). One of them is inside the maze tunnel. This maze was a series of tunnels constructed with cardboard and arranged in the science room. Participants were required to crawl on hands and knees until reaching the end. Upon completion, each participant was told to reach into a box and draw out his or her “fortune”. The best explanation I got for what mine said had something to do with me completing a difficult task, such as climbing a mountain, and then I would yell at the end. I still don’t get it, but I had fun nonetheless.
Maze game

For the first grade game, there was a simulation of the goldfish catching game I mentioned earlier. The kids had made small nets out of rings and fixed rice paper to them. The task was then to scoop out as many plastic bottle caps as possible before the rice paper completely dissolved. I only got one. Each participant was given an origami shape when the finished.

The 3/4th grade had a variety of games to play and they were set up in the big multi-purpose room used for lunch and English classes. One table had something like Shrinky Dinks (draw on plastic then melt it and it shrinks down in size). Other games were a fishing game, a game where you used a flat fan to try and drop a balloon into various boxes worth various points, and a game called “You Back.” After watching, “You Back” for a few minutes, I realized that it was essentially a drinking game. It involves trying to keep track of whose turn it is to talk based on whether the person before you said, “you”, “back”, or “jump”. I think I’ll hurt my fingers typing if I try to explain it any more than that.

The games went on for about 2 hours and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It amazed me just how quickly the kids cleaned up the multi-purpose room to prepare it for lunch. They had removed their stuff and replaced the table in about ten minutes. Within about forty minutes of the ending of the matsuri, we were all seated at our tables and eating lunch.

That afternoon, I taught my 5/6th grade English class. What with it being the holiday season and all, I have planned several craft activies. After all, what’s Christmas without crafts? So, the older kids and I made God’s Eyes. Now, I’ve tried really hard to find Popsicle sticks, the ever-present, America’s-most-common-craft-material, but to no avail. So, we used the most logical replacement: disposable chopsticks. I mean, really, how could I not? I can get 30 sets of disposable chopsticks for a mere 100 yen (less than a dollar). Here are a couple of photos of the kids working on them. Several of them really got into it and had a great time. Mr. Kamaya was curious about them, also. He had seen me working on an example while sitting at my desk. He commented that they might be nice to put in the Komu, so I had the 5/6th graders make a few extra. Now, there are some hanging in the multi-purpose room, and at the Komu (the wooden playground we always go to). Pretty cool!
L to R: Sayuri, Minako, and Kaori
L to R: Kaori, Natsumi, Shiori
L to R: Musashi and Tatsushi
One wall
above the sinks