Kids' English Festival

Today was the kids' festival! We had 40 children perform songs, games and plays, and over 100 parents and grandparents watching! The proceedings were opened by Nicola's Wednesday class and then they were joined by two of her Saturday classes to sing "Five Little Monkeys".

Next was Susan's class demonstrating their ABCs and then Careen and Hiroko's class presented Bill Martin's "Brown Bear".

Next Ryan's class did a skit based on the story of the Candadian who exchanged his way from a red paper clip to a house.

Then Nicola's Elementary 2 class told the Story of Momotaro using Kamishibai story boards.

Kazuko's class treated us to a quiz and many audience members answered questions about famous stories.

Careen played a Chinese Whispers game (伝言ゲーム) with her Elemetary 4 class.

Next were two plays, the first called "Lion and the Little Mice" by Ryan's class and "A Bullying Bear" by Yasuko's class of Elemetary 5th years.

After a little break while everyone could eat their snacks made by Hiroko, we all played a giant game of "What's the time, Mr. Wolf?".

Mini Music Night

Some people might remember when Karen worked here, she often organized Music Night at the Zenrinkan. Unfortunately, when she finished working here, so did Music Night! Many people missed having Music Night, so, last night, we had a mini Music Night!

One of the important things about Music Night is that it is NOT a concert! It is a time for people to get together and enjoy music of all kinds. Some people bring musical instruments, some people sing, some people try instruments for the first time, some people just listen, and everyone enjoys being surrounded by all kinds of sounds. No one is a professional, and any level, beginner to expert, is welcome to perform.

Last night, we had 13 people come to the mini Music Night, performers and listeners.

We heard a few songs from students in Zenrinkan's Niko (二胡) classes.

We heard a man play the Quena, which is a wind instrument from South America. He played the standard quena, and also many other sizes (which all have different names, but I don't remember them)

Also, students in the Saturday Let's Sing class sang a couple of songs for us, Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are", and "I Say a Little Prayer" by Burt Bacharach.

Ryan played the didgeridoo, which is an instrument from Australia. It was originally made and used by aborigines.

We also had a kind of drum circle (actually, a percussion circle). People played many kinds of percussion instruments while we took turns playing the didgeridoo. Then, we had a guitar performance including original songs.

All in all, it was a fun evening for everyone. We also had delicious snacks that Hiroko made for us. Thank you everyone for coming!

Christmas party

Today was the Christmas party at Zenrinkan.

Once all the guests had arrived we had a Christmas service. Afterwards, the guests ate Christmas food from England and America and tried mulled wine. It was the first time for many people to try traditional English Christmas cake, which is made from a fruit cake base, very different to the Japanese Christmas cake. While they ate and drank, they heard performances from the children's classes and the niko-harp class.

The tables each competed in a Christmas multiple-choice quiz. Questions included "In which country was Christmas made illegal?", "Which was the first US state to make Christmas a public holiday?" and "What is the Christmas club?".
After the quiz, we had more singing and some dancing from the Hawaiian dance group.The staff all performed in a Christmas skit and we finished with the Christmas carol singing class.

Sign Language Group

Today was the last meeting for us before the winter vacation. As it was our last get-together for a while, we had a Christmas party. Everyone brought something to eat and we ate delicious food as we talked. All the food was so good, but particularly the rolled-sushi and apple flan were amazing!

After we had all eaten to our hearts' content, we sang some Christmas carols. We sang Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Silent Night. We all tried to do the signing, too. Rudolph was quite easy, but Silent Night was a bit tricky as everyone knew a different version.

Belle Vientos concert

On Friday, November 17th, we welcomed Belle Vientos to the Zenrinkan for a concert. They are a "folklore" group, which means they they play traditional (folk) music. They play mostly traditional music from Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina. Their name, Belle Vientos, means "beautiful wind" in Spanish (belle = beautiful, vientos = wind).

For this concert, 2 members of Belle Vientos, Armando and Miki, came from Akita to Morioka. Armando played many kinds of guitars, and Miki played the zampoña and other kinds of panpipes, as well as the drum.

The music was great! It was a lot of fun to listen to them play, sing, and even dance a bit. They brought lots of interesting instruments with them, such as a guitar-like instrument made from the shell of an armadillo and some panpipes that are about 150cm long!

We hope everyone enjoyed the concert! For anyone who missed the concert, there are some samples of their music available on their web site.

Halloween Party

Every year the Halloween party at Zenrinkan is a huge event. This year was no exception with over 150 children coming to enjoy our spooky evening.
Maybe the highlight of the night was the Haunted House. Decked out with dead bodies, decapitated heads, a full size coffin and mannequins that came to life before their very eyes. There were a lot of tears, but everyone said it was the best thing about the evening.
In other parts of the building were a treat or treat game, face painting, pumpkin carving, making black cat hats, dancing, and a relay game involving balancing eyeballs on spoons. And after a hard night of fun, it was off to the witches' kitchen for a sit down and some snake pizza.

Chinese tea ceremony

This morning was the monthly Chinese tea ceremony. It is held by Ms. Maeda from Shaoshan Chinese tea shop in Zaimokucho. She comes and the guests eat cakes and biscuits from all over the world and try a new tea each time. In the background is relaxing Chinese music and we can have a chat while we enjoy drinking and eating.

One of the regular guests had recently been to Taiwan, so today she brought sugared plums for us to try. We also had roasted figs, ground sesame paste, and marinated monkey nuts from Hokkaido. The tea we tried was Kesencha （気仙茶）, which is grown locally in Ofunato and has just finished drying after the harvest, so was really fresh and smelt so good. It is blended from three types of tea: Yabukita green tea, standard green tea and lightly fermented green tea. Nobuko-san had helped with the harvest, so today she was presented with one of the first packs to be sealed as a token of gratitude for her help.