Japan Day

My sister Karin wanted me to put on a Japan Day for all the kids in the family to learn more about Japanese Culture. We started out by going to Kung Fu Panda (which is chinese) but since Japan got so much of their culture from China everything seemed to go along perfectly with what I had planned. I loved the movie, so creative. Definitely earned its spot in my animated movie collection. (above picture of me in my kimono I got in Kyoto in front of the painting in my piano room, I love that painting, Reece picked it out, he's got great taste) After the movie we went out for an early dinner at my favorite Japanese Restaurant Yapona in American Fork. Great Raman! (perfect because raman is what the Panda in the movie makes with his duck dad).

We then came back to my place and viewed a slide show of our pictures of Japan while I tried to teach some facts. We started out with how the Islands of Japan, archipelago, or island arc, was created by underwater volcanoes that were a result of an ocean-ocean convergent boundary between  two tectonic plates (gotta throw in some geology for mom, thanks to Physical Science 100 I sounded like a pro) Fuji San was our example of how volcanoes are still present today. We also watched clips from "Big Bird in Japan" (a childhood favorite of mine) that taught us how to say some words in Japanese. Domo Arigoto....... Mr. Roboto.

Then we moved to a comparison of eastern and western architectural design.

Castles....

Bridges....

Then we moved out into my garden where we talked about Zen garden design and the motifs in nature that the Japanese artists use in their woodblock prints to portray the seasons...

Scenes from Kung fu Panda were very helpful......

Spring: The Cherry Blossom, or Sakura.

Summer:Bamboo (I had a bamboo pole for them to see and hold, but I should have known that it would become a bow staff in a make believe ninja fight)

Fall: The Japanese Maple Leaf.

Then we all took turns raking out and designing our own little sand garden in little sand boxes with rakes and rocks I had pulled out of my garden during my planting spree.

We continued by painting all our names in Kanji with water color paint brushes, while watching clips from Hero and Crouching Tiger hidden Dragon to learn about Ninjas and Samurai. (had to through in some warrior element for all the boys)

We finished by eating mochi (a moist pounded rice cake filled with sweet bean paste) and rice pudding on my deck while learning how to do origami. I was finally able to figure out and make my first paper crane. 

why dont you try one?