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July 22, 2002

St. Maria students get dressed up in traditional male garb-along with the headband or hachimaki- to participate in a Bon Matsuri (festival) harvest dance. Each community celebrates Bon in either July or August. These students were able to have this experience in Higashi Kanamachi. There are so many people wearing Yukata (summer cotton kimono). Host families lend colorful yukata to the girls. The towns people all join in to dance the Bon Dance because it is a lot of fun! "We practiced for 3 hours yesterday, can you tell?" Here the St. Maria Goretti teachers and one student jump up onto the stage to demonstrate that St. Maria can have just as much fun as their hosts! The St. Maria teachers and a couple of students quickly pose with their hosts. "Come visit us in the US! The homestay has passed by so quickly and none of us are ready to be separated. Keep in touch and don't forget about us, okay?" Arlington High School enjoys a "last day of school" party with their host sisters and other new friends. One of the Japanese host students demonstrate how to spin a Japanese top...oh well, the top is not supposed to be on it's side! It's not as easy as it might look. Arlington students practice a typical game of young girls in the States. Their Japanese sisters picked this up pretty quickly. Here, the Arlington girls teach their Japanese hosts how to play this hand clapping game. It's fast paced so it gets quite tricky! But the Japanese students catch on very quickly! Soon twelve girls are competing to see which group of four can stay in rhythm the longest!

Ashley learns how to play a traditional Japanese game. Have you ever played this in the States? At Fukuoka Jo Gakuin, it's been customary for the students to gather on the lawn to "Smash the Watermelon." Although it sounds very easy, with a blindfold on and then... twirled around five times, it makes it a little more difficult to traverse the three or four yards to the area with the watermelon and... as you can see from this Japanese student, it is not that easy to hit the mark. So what are these students wielding? This is a wooden sword, a practice kendo sword. This is what students use when they learn the martial art of Kendo. Some students have purchased replicas of swords used by the samurai warriors of over a century ago. Della hits the mark right down the center! Great aim! An apprentice jedi knight perhaps?