書初め＆かるた会 2024
1月の初旬に年始恒例行事、書き初め・かるた会を行いました。それぞれの学年ごとに決まった言葉を練習し、みんな緊張しながら清書していました。書き初めとともにかるた＆百人一首会も行います。低学年はかるた、高学年は百人一首と日本でおなじみのお正月の遊びをみんなで楽しみました。
We hold an annually Japanese calligraphy event for our students in January. This event is called “Kakizome.” (書き初め) It means the first calligraphy written at the beginning of a year. Students are going to write assigned Chinese characters, (漢字) which are the students’ promising, encouraging, and fortunate ones, with a brush (fude筆) and ink. (sumi 墨)
Along with Kakizome, we also hold Japanese traditional card games called Karuta (カルタ) and Hyakunin isshu. (百人一首) The basic idea of karuta games is to be able to quickly determine which card out of an array of cards is read by the reader and then to grab the card before other opponents. The player who has the most cards wins. Hyakunin Isshu is a classical Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese poems (waka 和歌) by one hundred poets. These poems are written on cards. Players compete to find the cards that are read by the reader. The rule is the same as Karuta. Because Hyakunin Isshu’s poems are more difficult to understand, students from 4th grade to 9th grade play it, and students from 1st grade to 3rd grade play Karuta.
運動会 2023
10月に毎年恒例の運動会を行いました。最後まで赤組と白組の接戦が繰り広げられました。保護者、学生ボランティア、先生もみな参加し、競技、応援ともに大いに盛り上がりました。
We held our annual Sports Day in October. A close battle between the red and white teams continued until the end. Parents, student volunteers, and teachers all participated in the event, and both the competition and the cheering were fun and exciting!