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Published: November 22nd 2007
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Playing the koto
13 stringed Japanese instrument This is the first time I really felt like I was a part of the Cultural Festival preparations. Last year, all I did was watch and I did participate in the teacher's chorus performance and cook tacos with my students, but this year...more work!
About a month before the actual cultural festival, one of the teachers asked me if I wanted to try playing the koto. It's a 13 stringed instrument that is played by plucking the strings with a pick-like nail you wear on your thumb, pointer and middle finger. It's a bit hard to describe, if you google or you tube the koto, I'm sure you can find a video of it. You don't look at actual music notes, it's all according to numbers. You can also adjust the sound by pressing down on the strings and plucking it. There's a technique to plucking though, you don't just strum like you would for a guitar. You have to pluck and then stop at the next string....ok too complicated. I'll move on!
I played the koto with the teacher and the special ed. students. They are awesome and it's so nice because we're all relaxed when we practice.
Me and my co-workers!
rocking out on the koto Amy (my predecessor and good friend) also played the koto when she was at this school so I think that's why it was passed on to me. I like it, even though it was hard at first. So, one day the teacher tells me that we are going to play at the cultural festival. At first I thought I was going to play with the students and then she tells me that it'll be a teacher's ensemble. Eek, I was nervous, but I practiced a lot. Even to the point of staying after school until 8pm some nights. We were cramming near the end because we hadn't all practiced together. We had to be in sync with each other or else it would sound a bit off. I mean when we played it wasn't perfect, but it definitely helped that we had practiced.
Playing in front of the whole school made me nervous, but it was cool! I wore a kimono, which I borrowed from the teacher. I was also near the middle of the stage...hahaha. I didn't look at the audience because I would just get nervous. I want to keep playing, I still do from time to
just me and the koto
if you look closely you can kind of see the picks we use on our fingers. time with the special ed. students, but that is only if I don't have any lessons at the same time as their practice.
Our school also makes this mosaic every year. Each year, the design is different, but imagine one sheet of paper a little less than 11x17 (B4 size to those who know what that means) with about 1,500 pixels on it. That's what we had to do. There were about 720 sheets total. I finished two sheets and I'm aiming for three next year! So we have to glue the small squares of colored paper (pixels) onto the B4 size paper in a specific pattern. The paper has a grid on it and in each small box is the kanji for the color of the paper that you're supposed to put in that spot. Well, at least I learned new kanji! The work was tedious, I even did it at home because at least it was more comfortable to do in my own place rather than my desk at work. Everyone had sore backs and bad eyes at the end but it was so worth it. I even helped with the title of the mosaic, though my
co-worker tried to keep it a secret from me. She asked me to edit this sentence and I just knew it had something to do with the mosaic. The design this year is the globe with a picture of the students in the center and doves above. The theme is peace. And the title is "Our smiles bring the world peace". It was a really good memory for me when it was unveiled because it was just cool that we all worked on that. No one got out of doing the mosaic. Even the principal was working on his sheet in his office.
During the break time after lunch, I attended the tea ceremony club's tea party in the school garden. That was pretty cool cause all the girls dressed up in yukata (summer kimono). The weather was also perfect, not too cold then. We also have a group called the Red Ribbon Circle which is a group that studies and promotes awareness about AIDS. They had a charity bazaar and I bought a few stuffed animals and new cups! They should have sold it for more money, maybe I'll help them out next year to find more stuff
to sell. It was for a good cause and I think this school is really unique for having this group. They are doing a campaign for World Aids Day on Friday and giving out red ribbons I think.
It was a really fun cultural festival. The kids did a great job singing and almost all my favorites won (except for the 2nd grade class I liked and I feel they were robbed! but I digress...). I got to see some unique talents of some students. One group played an Ellegarden (Japanese rock band) song and another group of girls did a dance number that they'd choreographed on their own. They are so talented! Oh, and the brass band played some of the Pirates of the Carribean score and they rocked it! I'm excited to see what we'll come up with next year. Teachers tried to put on a play, but we didn't have enough time. Perhaps next year, we can work on it.
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Susan
non-member comment
sweet
looks and sounds hard. I hope you had fun!