Ben Heffernan, a grade 8 Social Studies and Japanese language teacher at St. Vincent de Paul, recently reached out to CJCA to explore the possibility of a field trip for his students. Ben has connected with CJCA in the past and having spent time in Japan, has built some great relationships with the Japanese community. He wanted his students, to have a unique experience exploring several different aspects of Japanese culture.
80 Grade 8 students from St. Vincent de Paul School arrived by bus at 10:00 and after a brief welcome, they were directed to one of the four activities manned by the many volunteers. There were 4 classes of 26 – 30 students and 4 separate areas of activities – Kendama and Origami in the basement studio, Shuji in the main hall, Okonomiyaki preparation and cooking in the kitchen, and Japanese history and education in the library.
In the kitchen, space was limited, but it didn’t deter the student’s enthusiasm for Okonomiyaki. Tomo, the ‘Chef Extraordinaire’ and his fellow volunteers had prepared all the ingredients prior, so that students only had to assemble and cook their own versions of this popular dish, in groups of 2, to share and enjoy.
Mami Humphreys, a master Shuji artist/instructor supplied all the necessary tools; brushes, paper, and ink to allow students to try their hand at Shuji, Japanese calligraphy. She guided them thru the finer points of brush strokes, and the order of strokes to form the character for ‘Sakura’. With the help of the other volunteers, some also learned to write their own names using Japanese characters (not an easy task based on the diversity of the students).
Maureen Coleman was posted in the library where she led discussions about Japan, and a little history of Japanese in Canada. Surprising the number of students who can speak Japanese.
In the basement, Joanne divided students into teams to test their skills at Kendama. Each student was allowed one minute to practice and then one minute to complete several tricks, which were given point values. The students with the highest scores were then awarded prizes of Japanese snacks and Japanese stickers. Hiiro, one of the volunteers, was very adept at showing the students how to master the tricks (even though he professed to not having any skill in the game?)
The students circulated thru all 4 activity areas, and after a brief lunch break, they departed at 1:00pm. It was a full day of activities and they seemed to have enjoyed their time away from their traditional classroom.
Although CJCA has not hosted these Japan study events since COVID, it was a great refresher for some of us more seasoned CJCA volunteers and a lot of fun for the others who gave their time and energy to each of the activities. Many other Japanese communities across the country have their own versions of these Japanese culture days. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have their own facility have these events as part of the annual programming. A great way to keep the Japanese culture and heritage alive and thriving.
Thank you to the volunteers:
Mami Humphreys
Kaoru Sato, Sachiko Yamamoto – Kotobuki Kai
Dang Tran, Hiiro Murakami, Pierre Oquendo, Dylan Hoffart, Eri, Hidemi, Ayana – Japanglish
Tomo Honda, Sayuri Toma, Maureen Coleman, Joanne Planidin – CJCA