I haven't done anything particularly exciting this last month; in fact, I was usually so busy that I'd mostly just crash and sleep through the weekend! But fortunately the school term ends on Monday, which means I will have lots of opportunities to go Cherry Blossom Viewing in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more photos then!
A few of the highlights from this month:
Toy Museum
I went to the Toy Museum with other ALTs and community members. We painted clam shells! The Japanese believe that each half of a clam shell only has one match in the entire world (the shells lock in place at the 'hinge'), which makes them very romantic shells. You can play a sort of "matching game" with the shells, where you try to find each of the matching pairs by seeing if the 'hinges' fit perfectly. The winner is the one who winds up with the most matches! It was a very fun game!
These are my shells, before I painted them.
My finished shells! I drew my "tree" in autumn and spring. Painting inside of shells is really tricky, and involved using a very small paint brush.
The matching game in action!
A sampling of a bunch of the different shells everyone painted that day. We have some very creative artists among the ALT's!
The Toy Museum also had Hina Dolls on display, some of them going back centuries (and most of which were behind glass cases, which made them nearly impossible to photograph). The dolls and their accompanying props were very elaborate! The attention to detail was absolutely amazing, they looked just like miniaturized versions of the real things!
There were all sorts of interactive displays of toys with which we all amused ourselves with. (Because even grown-ups like to play with toys!) Many of the toys were traditional Japanese ones, but there were also displays of unique toys from cultures all over the world. It was a very fun little museum!
It also had lots of pretty flowers... Spring is nearly here!
Wheelchair Lesson
The other week had the second year students at Hirohata experiencing a very unique lesson. They learned how to push wheelchairs and to properly lead the blind, using obstacles and classmates as practice. The goal was to not only teach the students practical skills, but to also have them try to understand and sympathize with those who have handicaps. After each activity, students would reflect about their experiences on worksheets. Many of the students were having a lot of fun, as they experienced first-hand how difficult it can be to push a wheelchair over steps, or how scary it is to be blind while going down a staircase. It was a really great experience for them, I think. I was very impressed by the entire idea of this lesson, at any rate. It'd be good to have American schools do something similar, if at all possible. The value of this sort of lesson is really important in developing good citizenship in students!
Cherry Blossom Season... almost!
I thought I'd end with a photo I took while I was biking by Himeji Castle. Some trees have started flowering already, and they're absolutely stunning! You can also see how the scaffolding is starting to come down around the castle, too. At some angles, you can see it peeking through the metal beams!
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