Sugisawa School's New Year Festival

So, to re-iterate, I go to three different schools a week to teach English. One is Togawa Elementary School, one is Sannohe Middle School, and the last is Sugisawa Elementary and Middle School. Sugisawa is, hands down, my smallest school. The combined student body (elementary and middle school) is only 36 students, 10 of which I teach in the middle school portion. Because of its very limited student body, and its location (it's the largest building in a very small farming community), all the children know each other and play together, and the school itself functions as a community center when there is a village event going on. This was the case in mid-January, when Sugisawa village held its annual New Year's celebration on the school campus. Since I teach there, Aaron and I were invited to come and participate in the festival with the rest of the villagers and my students.




The day started with the student body doing a few performances to welcome their guests to the school. My middle school kids did a couple dances (the boys did Thriller! It was awesome!), but I didn't record them since 12-14 year olds are shy no matter where you go. :) I did, however, record a little bit of the elementary kid's performance. You can watch it above, and you will probably recognize the melody if you listen closely...... Yes, you're right. That IS in fact "If you're happy and you know it" in Japanese. :)


After the performances, it was time for games. All the kids set up about 6-7 different areas, each with a game in it for the guests to play in groups. These ranged from traditional Japanese New Year games like "Paper Sumos" and spinning tops to games of bowling and stacking cans into a tower. That last game was my favorite for two reasons: One, my group won with a stack of 23 cans, and two, the instructions. The picture above shows the whole thing in all it's glory, but below is a close-up of the most awesome part. I don't know which kids drew this one, but they are my heroes. I especially like the person on the bottom running away from the Indiana Jones style Can of Death.


After the games were over, it was time to make mochi! For those of you not in the know, mochi is a type of pasty candy that Japanese people make by pounding the crap out of a hollowed out tree stump filled with freshly made white rice. Eventually the rice becomes one solid, sticky substance, which is then removed from the stump and put on a large slab of wood to be floured, rolled out, and cut into pieces. Those pieces are then ready to be dipped into various dipping sauces, and eaten at your leisure. It's pretty tasty, but incredibly hard to eat since so many rice grains get pounded into each slice, and it's really thick. I had four small pieces, and thought my stomach was going to explode. In any case, everyone takes turns pounding the mochi, and Aaron and I both had a shot at it. It was really fun to make, and the skill some of the people had at both pounding it, and the old ladies who stuck their hands into the mochi to keep it wet in between the falls of the hammer without fear were just plain impressive. Below is a video of such a fearless old lady, and one of the more skilled hammer-wielders. All in all, it was a very fun day, and well worth the couple hours I spent lying in bed afterwards wondering if mochi was going to burst out of my stomach Aliens style.