WORKING TOGETHER AGAIN: JAPANESE COMMUNITY

By: Japanese Parents Community Leadership Team

Words cannot express how wonderful it is to see students and parents so active again in school. COVID-19 has taken a great deal from all of us, however it has also taught us many things. How much we missed each other, how much we wanted to connect and converse with each other and be active with each other for the students and the ISB community.

For the 1st semester we have been busy welcoming new families to our community, connecting with families that have joined us during the pandemic and bridging the gap. Such as, organizing a coffee gathering downtown, hosting our General Meeting at school, supporting the HS & MS student and Japanese community event: En Nichi, participating in ES Intercultural Week and presenting a Japanese food booth for students at the cafeteria.

Connecting With Our Community

These past couple of years we have organized coffee gathering to start the year and this year also it was held downtown Tuesday, September 6th. This coffee gathering is always a great opportunity to welcome our new parents and welcome back returning parents. It gives the parents a chance to connect with the same grade level parents and learn more about ISB and adapt to their new environment.

Our General Meeting was held Monday, September 26th at school. This meeting is always a good opportunity for new parents to familiarize themselves with the campus, meet with the ISB Leadership Team in person and learn more about how JPC is partnering with PTA, Booster Club and school events.

EN NICHI: HS , MS AND JAPANESE COMMUNITY EVENT

En Nichi is our community event that started December 2020, unfortunately last year it was online, but this year we were able to support this event in person with the students. The HS and MS students were all excited to participate and have put a great deal of effort and time in organizing their booths and activities. The translation for En Nichi is “auspicious day”. A day that people gather at shrines to socialize, enjoy the food booths, watch live performances, and participate in festive dances. Family and friends gather and have a joyous day at En Nichi.

Sharing Our Culture And Heritage

This year’s Intercultural Week, JPC ES parents took part in showcasing Japanese culture to Grade 4 and Grade 5 for 4 days, each session lasting for 30 minutes. We presented Bonodori (Bon Festival Dance), Fukuwarai (translation: fortune and smile game, a game that is played during New Year), Teruteru Bohzu (translation: Sunny, sunny monk boy, a paper doll to which Japanese children pray for fine weather) and Origami, sharing our New Year traditions and handicrafts that children make and play in Japan.

It was not an easy task to prepare for Intercultural Week with such a short time frame, but one thing for sure, we all had one common goal, we wanted to see the students’ smiling faces. This motivation helped us to try and overcome the language barrier, communicate and collaborate with other participating countries and create a culturally meaningful 30 minutes for the students. Having more than one country in a room has not only taught the students to compare and contrast a new culture, but taught us parents, too. We cannot deny it was a great deal of work, however we learned as much as the students did by participating in Intercultural Week this year.

Intercultural Week has been known as an ES event, but this year for the first time our HS and MS parents were given the opportunity to participate in Intercultural Week. Even though we only had a little more than a week to prepare the food booth after En Nichi, our community parents were more than happy to work tirelessly to make the Japanese food

EN NICHI PROGRAM , FOOD BOOTHS

Stage Performance

PEP Band Live Performance

HS Students Dance Performance

“Soh Ran Bushi”

PSYCHIC FEVER from EXILE TRIBE’s Live Performance

FOOD STALLS

Yakitori (Skewered chicken)

Onigiri (Japanese rice ball)

Yakisoba (Stir fried noodles with meat and vegetable)

Dorayaki (Japanese confection)

Japanese Chicken Katsu Curry

Green tea/Green tea latte

Japanese soft drinks

Warabi Mochi (Japanese confection)

Free Ice candy

Activity Booth

Trying on a Yukata

Hashi Race

Fukuwarai (Fortune & Smile game)

Ring Toss

JAPANESE MARKETPLACE

Japanese ceramics and tableware

Second hand Obi, Kimono, Haori and Yukata booth a great success. You cannot go wrong with Japanese style fried chicken (kara age), Yuzu soda, green tea latte and frozen konjaku jelly.

With just a little bit to go until the end of this academic year, the JPC was able to actively host and participate in numerous events. Our main goal was to see the students enjoy Japanese culture whilst teaching more about it. As much as we hope the students were able to gain more knowledge, the parents also had the opportunity to do so as well.

The JPC Leadership Team looks forward to the forthcoming year in representing our Japanese culture.