Our Japanese Heritage

We've read aloud, written, counted, crafted, cooked, eaten and laughed our way through Japan. This has been one of the most fun Galloping the Globe units we've done so far (do I say that every time?), not just because of the quality of children's literature we read but also because we were able to spend time learning about our ethnic heritage.

We kicked off New Year's Day with our traditional breakfast of Ozoni (rice cake soup).


A bowl of Ozoni--rice cake, chicken, clam, fishcake, shrimp,
snow peas, mizuna, shiitake and carrot flowers in broth.

After breakfast we drove to downtown L.A. to visit a Japanese festival. The kids watched demonstrations of mochi pounding, kabuki, kendo and more. Elizabeth's eyes were wide open as she spotted many women and girls fully dressed in formal kimonos. All three kids enjoyed visiting the various craft tables and were thrilled to bring home origami frogs, mini kites and cool handmade paper. We ended the day reading A Hawaii Japanese New Year with Yuki-chan, a sweet book sent by Grandma and Grandpa.

Although we read many, many wonderful books (I lost count after twenty), there are many titles still left on our "to read" list. Here are our favorites thus far:

Yoko and Yoko's Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells.
I Live in Tokyo by Mari Takabayashi.
The Way We Do It in Japan by Geneva Cobb Iijima.
Yoshiko and the Foreigner by Mimi Otey Little.
Tree of Cranes, Tea with Milk & Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say.
Little Oh by Laura Krauss Melmed.
A Pair of Red Clogs and the out-of-print gem, Taro and the Tofu, by Masako Matsuno.

We did a lot of cooking (and eating!) as well as other hands on activities such as origami (paper folding).


Elizabeth and Jonathan's origami cranes.

Grandma and Grandpa sent the kids authentic Japanese yen to study. They were astonished to see a 100,000 yen bill (worth about a hundred dollars, but doesn't it sound like so much more?) and the coins with a hole in the middle ("hey, doughnut money!" said Jonathan).

For language studies, I taught the kids how to count in Japanese along with a few familiar phrases. Daniel took to saying "oishi!" (delicious!) at every meal.


Daniel tries using chopsticks to eat yakisoba.


Elizabeth practiced writing hiragana. This card
says Arigato or "thank you."

We also covered other interesting topics: Mount Fuji, annual festivals, sushi, cherry blossoms, flower arranging, sumo wrestlers, haiku poetry, calligraphy, yen, samurai and the bullet train. Some stories illustrated Japanese superstitions, which provided opportunities to discuss superstitions vs. Biblical truth and reality.

Although we're moving on to study other Asian countries, learning about the culture of Japan and our ethnic heritage will hopefully be a lifelong adventure for our family!

"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." Deuteronomy 6:6-7