Sign Language Christmas Event

Today the sign language group took a trip to a day care center in Aoyama. Our audience was a very attentive bunch of about 30 pensioners.

We began with all the members of the group singing and signing some Christmas songs along side some old favourites such as "Zou san" and "Inu no Omawari san". Mrs A performed three more complicated enka songs by herself and we read a story called "The Rainbow Zebra". A big hit was singing "Furusato" and everyone joined in with the signing and singing.

Mince pies!

Mince pies are a traditional British Christmas sweet.  The name means ミンチパイ, but there is no meat inside the pies.  Instead there is fruit and spices and brandy.

Every Christmas we eat them and children often leave a Mince Pie for Santa (or Father Christmas as he is known in England) on New Year's Eve before they go to bed.

This year Nicola cooked and sold over 200 Mince Pies at Zenrinkan, so everyone was able to try a taste of a British Christmas.

English Speech Contest

Today we had the pleasure of watching the Iwate Elementary School English Speech Contest.  There were as many as 40 participants, 6 of whom where from Zenrinkan.  

There were three sections.  The first was for kindergarden and elementary 1st to 3rd grade students and was a short memorization about the changing colours in autumn.  The second section was a longer memorization piece for the older students.  They recited a story many of you may know, "Freddie the Leaf".  Then the third section was free composition.

During the break, the students performed a dance routine to entertain the audience.

Out of the six Zenrinkan students, 3 were awarded prizes, but everyone tried their best and gave wonderful speeches.  Well done to all those who took part!

Christmas Party

Today we had the annual Zenrinkan Christmas party.  About 40 guests gathered in the large hall and were treated to an evening of good food and entertainment.

The evening kicked off with an introduction to the British custom of Christmas crackers and everyone got a chance to pull one and put on their hat and enjoy an English joke (although some explanation was needed sometimes!).

Next the guests enjoyed a snack while being serenaded by the niko group.  As always, Hiroko provided a wonderful meal, this time of an assortment of cakes.  Her famous stollen was of course delicious.  The sign language group taught everyone how to sign "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Silent Night" in sign language.  We were happy to see everyone pick it up straight away!

As the meal came to an end, the "let's sing" group treated us to some Christmas carols and the Tuesday Reading Class had everyone take part in a few games.  First we had to close our eyes and sit down when we thought 30 seconds had passed.  Then we had to try to create a one meter length by tearing paper into a long strip.  The most accurate person got a prize!!  It was amazing to see some people were able to get one meter exactly.

The English staff did a reading with mime performance of "The Night Before Christmas".  Alicia's amazing PowerPoint presentation skills and Santa performance were by far and away the hit of the evening!

Finally Alicia led everyone in a sing along of three traditional Christmas carols. On the tables were various castanettes and noise makers and a pianist joined in too to finish the evening off in musical style.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!!!

Halloween Classes

It is almost Halloween, so this week has seem some very spookey classes! The children have been learning about ghosts and goblins and other gruesom Halloween words.

As a Halloween creepy craft, the children prepared Marshmallow Frankensteins. They dipped marshmallows in green food colouring, then used melted chocolate to make the hair and mouth, and stuck candy eyes on using the chocolate. It was then finished off with some pretzel bolts.

English Cooking

Over the last few months we have continued the English cooking classes.

In August we made Eve's pudding. The dish is like a sponge cake with apples baked into it. The name comes from Eve in the Bible who couldn't resist the lovely sweet apples. This time we made it with the traditional apple, but we can prepare it with many different types of fruit. Of course we prepared a custard sauce to go on top.

In September we made chicken crumble. This is a savoury version of the sweet dish that is famous across England and America. The base is a chicken and vegetable stew and then it is topped with breadcrumbs, oats and cheese and baked in the oven.

In October we tried our hands at two dishes. We made the sweet crumble that August's cooking is based on. It is traditionally made with apples or peaches, but we also tried a pear one this time and everyone could have a bite of three flavours. While it was baking in the oven, we made a sponge pudding. This normally takes several hours to steam, so this time we cheated and made a microwave version that cooks in 4 minutes! Again, as well as the traditional raisin and cherry versions, we also prepared a chocolate one. We then made a vanilla sauce to top it off.

The Lammers are in Japan!

This year has seen many former staff come back to visit Zenrinkan, including the Lammers family.

It is 60 years this year since they first set foot in Japan, so they came back to Japan to celebrate. The Lammers came to Japan as missionaries and worked at the old Zenrinkan for many years as language teachers.

It is wonderful to see so many familiar faces coming through the Zenrinkan doors.

Summer Party

Today we had the annual summer party. As always, there was a bazaar and flea market, as well as various snacks for sale made by the Zenrinkan staff.

This year's International Lunch was as high a standard as always and all the guests had their fill of food from England, America, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Korea, China, Colombia, Mexico and more besides.

Sadly, everyone was too busy eating and serving to take any pictures, so the whole day went by without a single snap!

Being the same day as the Hachimangu festival, we were a little worried there would be a lack of guests, but in the end it turned out to be a record turn out and a wonderfully successful day.

いきいき牧場

Today the sign language circle visited a place called "Ikiiki Bokujou" on the outskirts of Morioka. It is a community for people with various mental and physical problems. About 50 people live there and they do simple work such as growing vegetables, sewing, newspaper folding and packing and so on. They also grow a herb garden and enjoy many events and activities throughout the year.

They are roughly divided into three groups; people with very light problems who are capable of organising themselves and lead fairly normal working lives on the farm or in the library, then there is the group who can work, but need a fair amount of supervision, then finally the group who have very severe problems.

The idea of the project is that it allows them to lead as close as possible to normal lives so they keep their brains and bodies active and use them to their full potential. They all live on site and work together to make a friendly and happy community.

We had a chance to talk to some of the people who were doing sewing. Everyone seemed so content in their work and they took as much time as they wanted to do whatever they were interested in doing. One lady was making a really beautiful cross-stitch cushion. It was certainly better than I could ever do!

If you ever have the chance, they are amazing people to meet.

Ikiiki blog (Japanese only)

July Cooking

This month we had a special request to learn how to make Quiche. So today we made a "Broccoli and Sausage Flan". Flan is the English name for the French quiche. This takes a really long time to cook in the oven though, so while we were waiting we made an old English favourite, "Sausage rolls".
Due to last night's earthquake, numbers were down a little, so we ended up with quite a lot to take home as well, so everyone enjoyed eating together and got to take something back for their families.

Summer Party

This year we had about 50 people come to the Zenrinkan summer party. The guests enjoyed some delicious food prepared by Hiroko, then had a chance to try lots of different activities organised by the teachers.
Alicia F had a Casino Night where the students could learn some words about poker and try playing (with fake money of course!).
Michiko helped people prepare a simple Aroma Therapy product using natural herbs and oils.
Gladys taught people a very energetic Latin dance which was almost like aerobics. Some very sweaty people came out of her corner!
Miura-sensei helped people write their tanabata wish using calligraphy brushes and ink. There was also a chance to write a Chinese character on a stone to take home.
Alicia S showed people all about American high school life in a photo presentation and discussion. Everyone was surprised how different it was to Japanese high schools.
In the hallway, Nicola taught an English traditional dance called Morris Dancing. As it involves hitting sticks together with your partner it was popular with the kids!
Rudy helped people make a bracelet that is popular in his state.
After everyone had tried their hand at the different activities, there were two quizzes - Chinese and English. In the Chinese quiz everyone guessed the meaning of Chinese words related to the Olympics using the sound and characters. Then the English quiz had two teams compete in front of everyone. Maybe the most entertaining part was the "picture relay" when four out of five members were shown a word and given 10 seconds per person to complete a picture of the word and then show it to the last member of their group who guessed what the picture should be.

Then the evening was finished off in the usual style with a song from the Saturday "Let's sing" group.

Mini concert

The sun was shining and a cool breeze was blowing. A perfect day was made even better by being serenaded by the nikko (Chinese harp) group while we drank a cup of tea outside in front of Zenrinkan. Yes, it was the first ever outdoor concert for Chin-sensei's students. We heard about ten songs over the course of half an hour, each more beautiful than the last.

May Cooking

This month in cooking we made Chicken and Leek Pot. The outside is a ring of cheesy pastry of French origin that is called Gougere. It is like a pie, but has no top and no bottom. The inside is a kind of stew with meat and vegetables. Today we made it with chicken and leeks, but a tomato sauce with beef and onions is also very delicious.

Cherry Blossom Party

Sadly this year the day of the Cherry Blossom party turned out to be wet and windy, but undeterred we collected together all of the delicious food people had brought and had an indoor hanami.

We might not have got to see any flowers, but we did get some delicious treats such as sushi, fried chicken, cherry blossom tea, and more besides.

April Cooking

This month in English cooking, we made two dishes. We made a savoury dish called Fish Cake and a sweet mini-pie called Eccles Cake.

The Eccles cake was first made in 1769 by a lady called Mrs Raffald, but then it was simply know as a "sweet patty". A servant girl in the house took the recipe when she moved to a town called Eccles and opened a shop selling them. By the beginning of the 19th Century they were being exported to America and the West Indies. Now they are famous throughout the world. Recently they were debated in Parliament to decide if cakes made outside the town of Eccles could be called Eccles cakes. We shall have to wait longer for an answer! These cakes are popular for picnics and snacks and are sometimes called "Dead Fly Pies" because of the raisins.

Ogama Kid's Festival

This year for the first time we had a Kid's Festival for the off-campus class at Ogama.

There were 10 performances in total, ranging from the pre-school children to the middle school class. The performances included some songs, jokes and a story. The children also got to meet their new teacher Alicia.

We also enjoyed singing a song with the audience in English and everyone played a game together. We also got to see Shiyu recite his speech from the Iwate Children's Speech contest and he could still remember it even though it was 5 months after the event!

March cooking class

Today's cooking class included making two dishes. First we made a great British classic, Toad in the Hole. Although this is quick to make, the cooking time is quite long, so while we were waiting for the oven, we made Hot Cross Buns.

Toad in the Hole is a strange name. It means 穴にいる蛙, but honestly, it doesn't contain any frogs. There are many humours about why it is called this, but nobody really knows. The most popular idea is that it simply looks like little frogs in a hole when it is cooked, because the sausages poke their way through the batter. There is also an idea that it is connected to the game of the same name, which involves putting small brass disks through a hole in a box. Another theory is it comes from medieval times when the poor really did eat frogs.


The second recipe is a bread product which is eaten at Easter. The cooking class happened to be on Good Friday, so it seemed a good time thing to make. The bun has a cross on the top made from flour and water which is said to represent the crucifixion. It is also a mark that 16th Century bakers used to mark their buns because they were only allowed to legally bake them on holy days.

Murder Mystery Party

On Wednesday March 19th Zenrinkan hosted the third annual Murder Mystery Party night, A Taste of Poison. 20 people attended the event which lasted for two hours. The setting took place in the land of England in the 13th century. The court of King Richard Colchester was hosting a event at his castle when someone made an attempt on the life of his wife Queen Mary Colchester by poisoning the royal wine. Luckily for the King and Queen, they were spared by the royal taste tester who drank the wine first. The loyal tester died but started our mystery for the night as the guests talked and asked questions to find out who among them was the murderer.


During the night, a delicious dinner was served that included an appetizer, vegetable soup, pork ribs, and pastry and cake dessert. In the end, many guesses were made but unfortunetly no one correctly identified the real murderer. However, everyone had fun and we are all looking forward to the next Murder Mystery Party.

This week's cooking

In today's cooking class we made a selection of dishes. The main recipe was "Bakewell Tart". This is an English cake dating from 1839. It is also known as Bakewell Pudding. It has a pastry base covered with a layer of fruit, then a nut-based cake mixture topped with whole nuts. We made it with strawberries and almonds, which is the most traditional style, but it is also sometimes made with peanuts and blackcurrants, apples or peaches.

To go with the pudding we made custard. This is very difficult to make and both groups did very well, although one type became a little lumpy, but this is quite common. Custard uses only the yolk of the egg, so with the whites we made impromptu macaroons. A students brought an English cooking apple, which are rare to see in Japan, so we cooked that into apple sauce for everyone to try. Cooking apples are very bitter and don't taste nice raw, but when cooked make a lovely sauce to go with meat, or with a little more sugar, a tasty dessert.

Kids' Festival

Today was the annual kids' festival at Zenrinkan. At 1.30, everyone gathered to be entertained by the students of 15 children's classes.

The program opened with the youngest students rendition of the "hello song" and the members of the Wednesday kid's class doing a very cute recital of "the wheels on the bus".

The older students mostly entertained us with some skits and we even had three poems and a selection of jokes.

"The Hare and the Tortoise" and a presentation about how to save the environment gave us pause for thought.

Not only were the performances wonderful, but the art work was also incredible, much of it made by the class teachers. お疲れ様でした！

Cooking

Today we made two different dishes in cooking class; cheese & onion pasty, and shortbread.

Pasties have been popular in England since 1200. They were first eaten in Cornwall by men who worked in the mines. They were a semi-circular shape and quite big. Inside there was a meat, a vegetable and a jam section each separated by a pastry wall. On the outside the miners' wives wrote their husbands' initials in pastry so they could find their own pie. The special shape meant that there was a thick crust that the miners could hold and then throw away when they had eaten it. This was useful so they didn't have to wash their hands and they could give some food to the gods in the mine. The original pasties were made from short crust pastry, but today we made them with puff-pastry.


The second recipe was a sweet biscuit called shortbread. These were first eaten in Scotland in 1500. The word "short" is old English meaning crumbly or easily broken.

British Cooking Part 2

Today we cooked Egg Custard in the third Zenrinkan British Cookery Class. My house in England is in East Anglia, a region that is famous for this dessert, so I often ate them growing up.


Custard tarts were first served in Britain in Medieval times when they were known as doucets. Henry IV is said to have eaten them at a meal when he became king in 1399. Now we make them with milk, but long ago they used almond milk when they weren't allowed to eat rich dairy products on religious fast days.


This dessert was exported to many places in the world. It is the basis of the French Creme Brulee and a similar product has been eaten in Portugal since 1800. If you visit China now you will find Egg Tarts (Dan Ta) at many dinner tables. These were brought from Britain in the mid 17th Century, probably via Guangdong.

English cooking

Today was the first of five lessons about British cooking. Today we made a popular English dish called Cobbler. The casserole base is made from sauce, beef and three kinds of vegetables, then scones are placed on top and cooked in the oven.

After we finished making it, we enjoyed eating it just as much!