Kodomo no hi

On the 5th of May Japanese children celebrate こども　の　ひ　(Children's Day). Traditionally this used to be a day for boys. These days all children celebrate on this day.
Here are some fun children songs. Can you sing along??

Fukuwarai

Fukuwarai is a game similar to "Pin the tail on the donkey". It is often played by children in Japan during 'oshougatsu' (New Year). One player is blind folded while other players instruct directions for them to place face parts on an outline of a face.
The face parts are:
eye: め　me
eyebrow: まゆ　mayu
nose: はな　hana
mouth: くち　kuchi
Directions:
up: うえ　ue
down: した　shita
left: ひだり　hidari
right: みぎ　migi
Here are some pictures of students playing Fukuwarai.

Japanese traditional sports

Sydney University hosted some university students from Nihon Taiiku Daigaku in Japan. They demonstrated a range of Japanese traditional sports, music and dance such as sumo, kendo, kyudo (archery), karate, shorinji kenpo and aikido.
My favourite performances were taiko drumming, kendo and karate.

Kendo

Sumo

A place to share our learning

This blog has been set up for students and teachers to share their learning about Japan and its language.
One good place to visit is Kids Web Japan. You can play virtual games and learn about Japan in a fun way.