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1st Graders Singing
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When Mr. Sakurai began work as Vice Principal at Aikawa Elementary School
in April 2002, he soon learned that the school has two special Friendship
Dolls from America. His wife Kyoko has served for many years as Director of
Shintoku Kindergarten, which also proudly displays its American Friendship
Dolls. Aikawa and Shintoku are the only two schools in Kofu City, Yamanashi
Prefecture, that still have dolls sent by American children in 1927. Shintoku
Kindergarten was my first visit to a Japanese school with a Friendship Doll (web page on November 2001
visit). In the summer of 2002 Mrs. Sakurai sent me
an e-mail that her husband now worked at an elementary school with a
Friendship Doll. Last fall I translated Aikawa's Blue-eyed Doll web page
created by students. This spring Mr. Sakurai invited me to visit Aikawa
Elementary School to speak on the Friendship Dolls so the students could
learn about the dolls' history prior to the school's Blue-eyed Doll Assembly
in June.
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Faye
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The 460 students at Aikawa Elementary started the
day with a 20-miinute assembly in the gymnasium. The students enthusiastically
greeted about 15 student teachers starting a three-week assignment at Aikawa.
The school's Education Director then pointed to the two American Blue-eyed
Dolls on the stage, and he briefly explained their significance. After the
assembly, I spoke in the gymnasium during the next three class periods to
separate groups of 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders.
During each session I told the history of the Friendship Dolls and then
explained typical customs for the most popular American holidays. Afterward,
the students asked many questions, including several from 3rd graders
interested in boy Friendship Dolls and why there were not more of them. Several
children also wanted to know more about Faye, the doll given about 20 years ago
by the mayor of Des Moines, Iowa, with which Kofu City has a sister city
relationship. Questions like why Faye has a white dress and why she has a
flower on her dress were challenging, but the children seemed satisfied with my
explanations made up on the spot.
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Talking With Students
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The 1st and 5th graders sang "Please give me
wings" (Tsubasa o kudasai) during the sessions. My wife and I
enjoyed playing a game called "Friends Together" (Nakama Atsume)
with the 5th graders. Three students on stage gave instructions, and people
sat down after forming groups according to certain instructions such as:
- same shirt color
- same birthday month
- specific number of people (as indicated by number of whistles by one of
the students)
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Asking Question to Student
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In the principal's office after the presentations,
I was delighted when three 5th-grade students came to give me about 80
handwritten thank-you letters (see web page with five translated
letters). They
also presented me a "book" with several pages of the students'
beautiful calligraphy and origami in various shapes.
That evening about two minutes before the start of the local TV station's
news segment about the visit to Aikawa Elementary, my 9th-floor hotel room
started shaking and continued for about a minute. I soon learned that there was
a major earthquake felt over about half of Japan with its epicenter in Miyagi
Prefecture, where I had been just three days before. The magnitude of the
earthquake was only 2 in Kofu City, but it was 7 at its epicenter.
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Dinner
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Later that evening, my wife and I went with the
Principal, Vice Principal, Education Director, and one of the 6th-grade
teachers to a restaurant with many local specialties. We all had a bowl of
hoto, a typical dish in Yamanashi Prefecture served with udon noodles and
various plants from the mountains. Always searching for strange
foods, I was
glad to taste horse intestines for the first time and raw horsemeat for the
second time.
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