Turtle Folding

We were happy to see Noa without her cast around her left leg today! She still needs to build her muscle again after not being able to use it. She will be working on a two-week rehabilitation so that she can walk, hop, run, skip and dance like she used to. The last two months have not been easy for her and she will still need to work hard to get back on her feet but she is lucky to have friends who are all so helpful in class. We had another full and busy day before the weekend. Chiharu-san, Eito’s mom was here to help us finish the Shichigosan bag. Some of us already made white handprints for the crane yesterday and for those who have finished the handprints, Chiharu-san showed us how to fold a turtle with a green piece of origami paper. We folded the square into half to make a triangle, then we made smaller triangles which made a small square, then we used scissors and folded a bit more and finally completed it by adding two eyes for the turtle. Some of our friends were curious why we were making a crane and turtle. We have a Japanese saying, “Tsuru wa sennen, kame wa mannen” which means ‘cranes live for a thousand years and turtles for ten thousand years.’ This is because in Japanese culture, we cherish longevity. In fact, in the past when people did not have enough food to live or warm blankets to keep us warm, it was thought as a miracle that a child will live up to seven. Until this day, we have celebrated each time a child becomes three years old, five years old and seven years old. Together with the crane and the turtle, we stuck a kanji which reads ‘Kotobuki’ and it means ‘to bless’; we bless that our children live for many years through the celebration of Shichigosan. When all our bags are made, we can put a special candy in it. Yum Yum.

While we took turns to work on the big table with Chiharu-san, Ava and Olivia were making use of our new ‘literarcy table’ – they first drew a picture and then matched the letters and wrote them below the picture. Ethan, Eito and Adam were also busy being a builder – they built a big castle together. Well done!

After we got back from the park, Ayaka taught us a new song called “Ogata bus ni Nottemasu.” It sounded like the Japanese version of “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round.” As we sang the song, we lined up our chairs with Ayaka as the driver and the children as passengers. “Ogata bus ni nottemasu. Dandan michi ga warui node, gottsunko – Don! Oshikuramanju - gyu gyu gyu! (We’re on a big bus. The road is bumpy. We bump into each other - Bang! We squeeze our bottoms- Squash!)” We had a lot of fun passing the tickets to the other passengers, looking outside and bumping in to each other. After we enjoyed pushing and shoving with a fun song, we did a bit of thinking about what it might mean to live for a long time. It is not easy to think about such big numbers as a thousand or ten thousand years but it helped by thinking about our friends and teachers age - Olivia is four years old, Nile is five, Ethan is six, Nanako is twenty-eight, Ayaka is thirty-one and Goh is sixty-five. Still there is no one as old as a crane or turtle. When Nanako asked a question - How old do people live to? - Olivia answered a thousand years; Jennifer a hundred and thirty-eight thousand years; and Kosei a hundred years. At the table, we each drew a picture of ourselves in ____ years time…Ava will be working in a shop selling gummy bears in 1000 years from now; Tokutaro will be playing with his friends in 100 years; Kosei will be a Taxi driver in a 111111223100789978…years; Adam will be working in the bank in 100,000,000 years; Olivia and Jeremy drew a picture of themselves as a four-year old; Ryan will be playing in 120 years; Jennifer will be able to play soccer and will be working at an office in 1,000,881,843 years; Ethan will be working as a police officer in 100 years; Nile will be a doctor in 100 years, Jessica and Noa will be a princess in 100 years; Eito will be a taxi driver in 100 years and Arata will be driving Thomas the Tank Engine in 100 years. It is not easy to imagine what you might be doing in such a long time from now but it was fun thinking about all the things we could be doing if we lived for a long, long, long time.