Learning About The

Culture Of Japan

By Tanjua Damon

In Japan two different types of weather can be taking place in the country at the same time, according to fourth grade Head O’ Meadow student Emily Weber. Even though Newtown was plagued with bad weather last week, the fourth graders still found some time to understand Japanese culture through different activities that concluded their lessons about Japan.

“I think it is interesting how the landscape and climate, at the same time one side of Japan can be having a snowstorm and people on the other side can be on the beach,” Emily said. “I think it’s interesting two different types of weather can happen at the same time in the same country.”

The four fourth grade classes, those of Mrs Aschauer, Mr Royal, Miss Siladi, and Mr Washicko, were put into four groups to participate in activities taught by the teachers. Students experienced origami, Haiku poetry, a Japanese song, as well as special days for children and a Japanese folk tale.

In Mrs Aschauer’s workshop students made origami swans and whales. Origami is a paper art that creates a figure without using any tape or glue, but rather the way the paper is folded holds the object together.

Haiku is poetry that generally addresses topics of nature. Mr Royal explained that the poetry has three lines. The first and last line can only have five syllables, while the second line of the stanza has seven syllables.

Students sang the “Hina Matsuri” song with Miss Siladi. The song is sung to the “London Bridge” tune. It talks about happy days and is sung during the Dolls Day, which is celebrated on March 3 in Japan, and on Children’s Day on May 15. The students also made peach trees with blossoms, which celebrate the coming of spring and colored crapes.

Mr Washicko discussed a Japanese folk tale, the tale of Urashima Taro. The students talked about how language is used differently. For example in Japan people are identified by their last names first.

Mt Fuji drew a lot of attention from the students. It is the largest mountain in the country, and many people attempt to climb it.

“The biggest mountain is Mt Fuji,” said Brandon Ching. “If I could go there, I would like to climb it.”

Students found that Japanese culture is very different from American culture.

“I found out a lot of things I didn’t know,” Rachel Marcucilli said. “When you sit at a table, you have to take off your shoes and put on slippers.”

Spencer Schnell finds the Japanese language interesting, but difficult.

“The reading is just a bunch of lines, squares and circles,” Spencer said. “I have no idea how to pronounce them.”

The United States is one large mass of land, but some of the students found the way Japan is organized intriguing.

“I didn’t know it was made up of only islands,” Jenna Ruddock said. “They built a weather station on top of Mt Fuji. It’s on the edge of where it erupts.”

Stephen Gumbrecht enjoyed learning about the cultural events that take place in Japan, especially the plays.

“I’d like to go to one of the Japanese plays where they get all dressed up,” Stephen said. “It looks pretty cool and it will probably explain a lot of things about Japan to me.”

The fourth graders also learned that there are many superstitions in Japanese culture.

“Cranes are a good luck sign,” Kevin Dufner said. “One thousand paper cranes makes you heal or helps you get better.”

Mary Kate Hubbard thought it might be difficult for her to live in Japan because of what they eat.

“They have fish and rice with every meal,” she said. “I don’t like fish so that would be difficult for me.”

Students participated in all the workshops over a period of four days to finish up their unit on Japan, which is part of the fourth grade curriculum.