School Show ("Happyo-Kai")
In Japan, it's common for schools to put on an annual "Happyo-kai" or school show, to show off what the kids did the past year. It's the crowning event of the school year for our kids, when they get to show what they did to their parents for the past year, and hear the happy applause of everyone.
Quicktime 4 is required to view the movie at the end of this page.
All Japanese events start out with greetings or "aisatsu" by the leader. This is the en-cho or the president of our kids' preschool.
There were twenty different numbers, and each class got to be in 3-4 of them. Here, Rina sings in a chorus...
...while my son Kazuki leads the xylaphone section.
The blend of dances was great. Here, the girls of Mikan-gumi (er, Tangerine class) sing a song about getting married and going off to live with their husband's family, and saying goodbye to their fathers.
One of my favorite segments was a dramatic portrayal of the story of the Byakko-tai, a group of samurai who, during the violent civil war known as the Meiji Restoration, committed mass seppuku in Aizu, in northern Japan, rather than surrender to the armies of the armies who supported the Emperor and the creation of a constitutional state in place of the old Feudal Japan.
Here's a Quicktime movie showing segments of the great show. The first are the little kids, in their dance number, followed by the English students of "Jeff-sensei." They learn English every Thursdays (my kids learn English everyday, however). In the act showing Rina dancing to the Heidi song (which is very popular in Japan), and in the following segment showing Kazuki and his class performing a story of Son Gokuh (the original Chinese tale, not Dragonball), you can really see how they promote "sugar and spice" in girls here, and rough, tough strength in the boys. Finally, you can see the wadaiko performance of yours truly. It was great fun learning to drum on the taiko drums, but I was nervous as heck getting up in front of everyone and doing our number. Enjoy the movie! (It's about 2.7 megs in size). After our drum number, the kids in Budo-gumi (Grape class) went, and they were just great.
The teachers of the school also performed a great number.
Well, that's our report on this year's School Show!
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