Setsubun and the Pacific Ocean
We are so happy to have four Moms, one Dad and one baby brother visit us today as part of our International Month celebration. Ja, Mo, So and Ry were kind to tell us their names. They are To(Ja’s mother), Yoko (Mo’s mother), Sachi (So’s mother) and Yu(Ry’s mother), Yas (So’s father) and Ke (So’s baby brother). They are all from Japan and A mentioned that they were in our class to talk about setsubun, a Japanese tradition that is celebrated on February 3rd or 4th (dates may vary).
To read us a story about setsubun using kamishibai (theatre-like storytelling). When she asked if anybody joined the setsubun event in Azabu Juban, some of our friends had their hands up. So shared that he actually saw somebody wearing a mask during this event. Setsubun is such an interesting Japanese tradition, so much that we have many questions about it.
Mo: Why everybody has to dress up?
Toi: If oni (ogre) comes, bad things might come so we do things that oni doesn’t like. Anything smelly.
Mo: Mame!
Toi: And sardine’s head, holy leaf points at oni’s eyes. What does oni hate the most is mame.
Ke: My house is Azabu Juban.
Ka:I go to setsubun event and throw mame.
To: We say, “Oni was soto. Fuku wa uchi”. When you eat the same number of mame (beans) as your age, you will get blessing. Let’s ask K. How many mame should you eat?
Ka:Too many!!
To: You can mix mame with tea. The next day from setsubun is Risshun. So in Japanese calendar it is spring.
After the setsubun story time, the mothers taught us a funny dance about the oni’s pants! And then the most interesting part was when the real oni came out! We gently threw small paper balls at him while saying, “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!”. It was such a relief to see him left our room. Phew! Some of us thought it was So’s Daddy, but since the “oni” was wearing a mask, we could not really tell who it was:)
ACTIVITY: Making of eho-maki or uncut sushi roll especially eaten on setsubun
Before we took turns in making eho-maki, T told us, “ To make your wishes come true, on the night of setsubun. Eho means good direction. This year’s good direction is West, South West. You have to face the lucky direction and make a wish and eat it without speaking.”. Hmm, we really want our wishes to come true that when it was the time to eat eho-maki, we were all so quiet! We even faced towards the lucky directi
Thank you so much for giving us an opportunity to learn about setsubun in a very creative and fun way! We liked eating eho-maki for snacks! We greatly appreciate your time and effort!
CIRCLE TIME: Pacific Ocean, Its Animals and the Garbage Patch
We all remember that the biggest ocean in the world is the Pacific Ocean. Vieda showed us some pictures of some of the animals that can be found there. The animals look so fascinating! We tried to guess! Can you tell what animals these are? Some of us thought it was a jellyfish, a seal, an elephant or a hippo! But guess what it is? It’s an elephant seal! Another animal that we saw looked like a jellyfish, a sting ray or an ika (squid)! We were so surprised to know that it was actually a sea slug! We also talked about sea turtles and some penguins who live in the Pacific Ocean.
Our jaws dropped and some of us really showed very sad faces on seeing the other pictures. They were pictures of the Pacific Ocean with lots of garbage floating, which is called, “The Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch and pictures of sea turtles with plastic in their mouths.
Vieda: How come the garbage end up here?
Ral: All the people throw the garbage in the Pacific.
Br: The sea ships are under the water but the trash on top.
Wi: But if there so much trash on top, the slug cannot breathe.
Ra It will come up.
Si: (sea slugs) They will die.
Vieda shared with us that garbage can either be thrown away into the ocean either intentionally or not. People who study about animals found out that animals are dying because some of them mistake plastic for food. These plastic get stuck into their system. Poor animals! Garbage are found in some of the animals’ stomachs that died in the Pacific ocean. How can we then help in saving our ocean? We gained some bright ideas from our friends today.
A: We try not to put it (plastic garbage) in the ocean.
Br: I thought sea turtles were hard on the shell, not like that (pointing at the picture of a sea turtle trapped in a plastic string).
Ry: You can help by you put water and salt (to wash away the plastic garbage)
Be: We could cut off the plastic to save the turtles.
Br: But we cannot!
Vieda: One way to help is not to use plastic bags.
Si: One more is the police will tell “Don’t use the plastic!”.
Mo: We can connect the ocean to the computer to check if there is garbage or not.
An: If there is robot in the ocean, if they see the plastic, they can get the police then put somebody in prison.
Br: Robots can get electrified by water.
J: If we want to find the plastic, we need to have rope and we gonna catch the garbage.
Ke: If you have a clean thing, and you live near the Pacific Ocean, you can go to the Pacific Ocean, you can clean the garbage.
Ka: We can take our drinking bottle (so we don’t have to use plastic bottles and straws).
Vieda: Another way to help is not to release many balloons in the air.
Braxton: If there is a submarine, the big balloon can pull the sunken ship up.
Vieda: Have you ever thought what happens to the balloons?
William: It will stick to the sun.
Vieda: They end up as garbage in the ocean.
An: You go on a ship and there is a balloon, and the balloon pushes up in the sky and the balloon will go zigzag in the sky.
It was great to know that as children, we can do something to help save our ocean. We remember our snack/lunch chant where we say, “No more plastic. Save our ocean”., as well as our No Plastic Day here in Ohana. We saw some sad pictures about the garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean and its animals that are affected. We do not wish that this garbage patch would grow bigger than what it is now. We all want to help save our ocean!