It’s summer festival (matsuri) time at the kids kindergarten again. The sun was blazing this year, and it seemed like no amount of shaved ice consumed was going to make it better. There’s food and games, sweets and toys, handmade goods and gently used items for sale. Lots of fun for everyone, especially the kids. Our kids were looking forward to it all week long.

The event is community fund raising event. And usually the funds go towards the school. But this year, in light of recent events, most of the funds raised are being donated to those effected by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11th.

Every year, the Americans who attend the school, are asked to hold a bake sale at the American booth. It’s a big hit every year. Always selling out half way through the event. And why not? It’s baked goods that are WAY sweeter and bad for you than what you’ll find in Japan! JK hahaha

This year I chose to make chocolate chip pumpkin mini loaves. They ended up being priced at 300 yen each. Not bad. I’m glad they didn’t price them lower because I sweated all day in a hot kitchen on a hot day to bake them! That’s real sweat in that bread. hahaha I channeled my inner-Japanese and tried to package them all cute too. Whatever I can do to make them sell better! I used a piece of parchment paper, craft punches, and decorative scissors to make a simple liner. And slipped the loaf into a plastic bag, folded the bag down, and twist tied it to make the bag look like a bow. The whole “making the bag look like a bow” thing came by accident, because the large bags were given to everyone baking; to make everything look cohesive. But it turned out dang cute, if you ask me!

*note: if you’re gonna hole punch parchment paper, make sure it’s not an old and dull punch because it will just eat up the paper instead. :) Trust me.

The school’s festival coincided with the Tanabata festival. So here we’re trying to see if we can find the kid’s wishes hanging in the bamboo tree. At the end, the bamboo is burned and the kids wishes are sent to heaven. Cute huh? They didn’t burn it right there. The school will burn them when everyone is gone because, from what I understand, bamboo has a tendency to explode while burning. Cool.

Booths selling rice balls, red bean buns shaped like Anpanman, curry rice, yakisoba, kakigori (shaved ice), cotton candy, and bottles of ice cold ramune. Only thing missing is dance performances and live taiko and music!

The kids found some shade to enjoy their very quickly melting kakigori. Ellee looks so grown up sitting in her little kid chair and feeding herself!

Lots of games set up in each of the classrooms. 50 yen for each play. And the kids get a small toy or candy whether they make it or not. Everybody wins!

I love how cute they make the games out of recycled materials!

He’s all over this bowling game. Lots of practice at the bowling ally on base! Those are milk cartons that they’ve taped to the floor to create lanes. I’ve seen some pretty cool stuff made from Japanese milk cartons. Everything from toys to step stools to reusing them as a disposable cutting boards. Who knew!

Despite the heat, we really look forward to these school events. The kids enjoy the fun atmosphere and activities and sweets. And I love having a glimpse into how people live and work, at school and in their families.

One thing I’ve noticed is that Japanese kindergarten teachers are some of the most hardworking teachers I’ve ever met. They work crazy long hours at school. I’ve gotten calls from the school or from teacher’s cell phone at 6-7 pm just to remind me or ask me things, or even to check up on how our kids are doing if they hurt themselves at school earlier in the day. And it was just a  minor injury. I didn’t know what to expect when we first enrolled our son (I thought it was going to be very strict!), but I’m so glad we did.