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Posted by gka at 17:06 | TrackBack (2662)
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Institute for Nature Study 自然教育園

Taking advantage of the beautiful summer weather, the Adventure in Tokyo participants visited the nature park, Shizen Kyoikuen, near Meguro Station. The group set out to find different species of plants, birds, and insects. The Bird group did find sparrows sunbathing in the lawn and heard several birds chirping in the branches of a tall pine tree. The Insect Group found two species of butterflies and sketched them in their notebooks. The Plant Group found many species of flowers and vegetation throughout the dense and lush park. Other children drew pictures of a waterfall, a stone bridge and ajisai flowers.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 17:04
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Science and Technology Museum

Session 2 Adventures in Tokyo kids visited the Museum of Future Science and Technology 未来科学技術情報館. The museum had many hands-on displays so that children can become familiar with phenomenon such as formation of tornados and generation of electric currents.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 16:58
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Roppongi Hills Restaurant Scavenger Hunt

Towards the end of June, Adventures in Tokyo went to Roppongi Hills. The kids interviewed employees at Asian restaurants in Japanese, and discovered what each restaurant's most popular dish was, how much it cost, and what sort of clientele frequented the restaurant. After Michael demonstrated how to interview waiters, managers, and chefs, Aaron and Kenneth enthusiastically visited restaurants and enjoyed the immensity of Roppongi Hills.

Written by Greg

Posted by gka at 16:56
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Roppongi Hills Mysteries

Braving temperatures well over 30 degrees in July, Adventures in Tokyo located several mysterious places and items in Roppongi Hills. After solving the Japanese riddles on their objective sheet and heeding the warning to stay inside and drink water, Magda and Aaron set about finding a giant spider statue, post office, health clinic, and a Homework's sandwich shop in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower and adjacent Metro Hat building. They then had their picture taken at each location as proof of its discovery.

Written by Greg

Posted by gka at 16:55
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Mori Art Museum

Hanna, Ilana, Alpha, Magda, Morie, and Mika went to the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills. First, we saw a gigantic foot that was hanging from the ceiling. And we saw gigantic pictures that we could only see the bottom part of. And there were gold frames around the pictures.

There were also black and white pictures that were the right size for all of us. There were little diorama that had glass over it. We could see mountains, grassy areas beaches and huts. It was very fun in the Mori Art Museum.

Written by Morie (age 10)

Posted by gka at 16:52
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Mohri Garden

Session One participants of Adventures in Tokyo visited the Mohri pond in Roppongi Hills to observe the karugamo (ducklings) and "space medaka" (the only minnows in the world who were born in outer space during a space flight). Although the "space medaka" were fairly easy to locate in the pond, it took some time before we could spot the karugamo, who blended in with the rocks and trees around the pond. When the children found the ducklings, they carefully and intently drew pictures of their findings in their journals (nikki).
Project output is here.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 16:47
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Jidokan (Children's Hall)

Global Kids Academy went to Tokyo Metropolitan Children Hall.
There were three groups:
Group1: Magda, Ilana, and Risa
Group2: Aaron, Kenneth and Greg
Group3: Morie, Hanna, Michael and Mika
Group 1 went to the handicraft corner. Group 2 went to the scientific craft corner. Group 3 went to the Wood Working room. Ilana made a Sword and a slime and Magda made a dog and a slime. The sword and the dog were made out of fabric. Aaron and Kenneth each made a boat and a slime. The boats were made out of wood. Morie and Michael each made a gun and a slime and Hanna made a Magic hand and a slime. The guns and the magic hand were made out of wood. Morie and Michael went to an old Japanese room and changed into costumes. We pretended to be Ojiisan and Obaasan.
Project output is here.

Written by Morie (age 10)

Posted by gka at 16:43
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Ghibli Museum Field Trip

Today, in order to learn more about Japanese anime, the Adventures in Tokyo group visited the Ghibli Museum near Mitaka station. The museum featured all of Miyazaki Hayao's movies (including My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky) and some of Pixar's production. The museum seemed more like a wonderful playground than a museum with its unique spiral staircases, low entrances and doors, antique looking elevators, and countless displays of Miyazaki and Pixar's animation. The huge bigger-than-life size neko-bus (cat bus) stuffed animal from the movie, My Neighbor Totoro, was a favorite attraction among all the children. The children couldn't get enough of bouncing, diving, climbing, and sliding up and down the huge stuffed animal. The children also climbed up to the roof of the museum to look at the huge replicas of the robots and stones from the movie, Castle in the Sky. Some other attractions of the museum included a theater, where the children watched three short Pixar movies, several picture galleries, a replica of Miyazaki Hayao's studio, and a fascinating machine that spun a row of sedentary miniature sculptures in a circular motion so fast that made the sculptures like they were moving.
Project output is here.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 16:41
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Azabu Juban Challenge

Today, the children were divided up into three separate teams to go exploring the city of Azabu Juban. Each team was assigned separate tasks and was asked to make a presentation of what they had done in front of the group. For example, Aaron and Jimmy (rising first graders) had to figure out how many toy stores exist in Azabu Juban, then to sketch of their favorite toy and finally buy 100 pieces of origami paper. Leona and Ricky had to interview storeowners (in Japanese) to find out the oldest store in Azabu Juban. The group recorded each store's year of establishment (eg. 1951) and then compared the data to figure out which store existed before all the other stores. [The oldest store in Azabu Juban was a barber shop located next to Zenpuku Temple. It opened in 1818.] The last group (Aya, Kaitlyn, Eve, Abby, Michael and Risa) was asked to go to a Chinese/Asian antique shop and interview the storeowner about their products and buy three packages of Mamegen rice crackers. After all three teams reconvened at the Global Kids Academy, the children video recorded their presentations. Afterwards, everybody sampled the Mamegen rice crackers during snack time.
The output is here.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 16:37
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Arisugawa Park

At the park, the children divided themselves into two teams according to what activities they were interested in pursuing. The two choices of activities were Dog Interviewing or Map Making. The Dog Interviewing team was instructed to interview people who were walking with their dogs in the park. The Map Making team was assigned to construct a hand-drawn map of Arisugawa Park in their sketchbooks. The children enthusiastically pursued their respective activities. The Dog Interview team found three dog owners and collected data about each dog in their notebooks. The Map Making team walked around the park, observing the layout of the park and recording their findings. After the teams reconvened at GKA, the children recorded their observations and data. The Dog Interviewing team created a newsletter, "Doggie Days". The Map Making Team created a final draft of the map of Arisugawa Park on construction paper along with some background information about the history of the park.
Arisugawa Park Map is here.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 16:25
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Interviewing Iku, the Producer of BubuChacha

July 14, 2004
The Adventures in Tokyo children had a special guest, Mr. Iku, the producer of the Japanese animation series, BubuChacha. He brought many pictures and notes that he and his co-workers used in order to create the BubuChacha series. He explained how he and his co-workers brainstormed ideas for the characters, stories, sound effects and layout for the 52 half-an-hour episodes of the series. He showed the children some sample drawings of the characters from BubuChacha and described some of the "development process" of animation, which involves continuous revising of the original work. The GKA children were surprised and in awe when they found out that all of BubuChacha's drawings were hand-drawn, rather than designed and created by computer.

Written by Greg

Posted by gka at 16:23
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Yamano College and Tea House

We watched a show of people singing, dancing, and dressing up. One person was dressed like a bride. She had on lots of dresses and kimonos and yukatas. She would take off her layers until she was wearing a white kimono. Whenever she changed her dress, she changed her hair, too. Then two other brides danced with her.
Then we tried on some yukatas. We wore them for the rest of the time we were there. Mommy, Crystal, and Mika's yukatas were stiffer than the other ones. Then we had some curry rice for lunch. We had to be careful not to get any on our yukatas, like Kent did.
We went to a tea ceremony in a tea house. We were doing part of a tea ceremony. There were little sweet flowers with bean paste in them. Then we had some green tea. After we drank it, we wiped off the path of green tea from where we drank with our fingers and we wiped our fingers on a cloth. A man named John took some pictures of us in the tea house and right outside it. Then we went and took off our yukatas.

We played in the gym, because some of us needed to get exercise before riding in a car for two hours. We played basketball, and we ran around a lot. Riho, Kitty, Alex, Kent, and I played a game where we tried to get one of the basketballs from each other.
After playing in the gym we were thirsty, so we got some tea from the drink machines. Then we went into a museum. There were pictures of Jane Yamano's family. There was also a man and a woman wearing different kimonos. They had lots of layers on.
Then we got back in to the cars we came in. Daniel and Crystal changed cars, because Crystal wanted more quiet, and Kent and Alex were yelling and making lots of noise. We drove back to Global Kids Academy. It was a pretty interesting day.

Written by Marina Roberts (age 10)

Posted by gka at 15:59
Category:Summer Journals

Summer 2003 English and Japanese Immersion

Throughout the summer, we had English and Japanese Immersion classes where children from different linguistic background interacted while having fun. From making origami to role playing in a Harry Potter setting, the children had fun speaking English and Japanese.

Posted by gka at 15:51
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Aquarium and Park

Even in Tokyo, we can appreciate nature by visiting aquariums and parks. Eriko and Aaron went to the aquarium in Tokyo Tower and found sea and river creatures from all the continents. Melina and Kaitlyn went to Arisugawa Park and interviewed pet owners about their pets in Japanese. We also visited Dog Ten, a pet grooming shop, and learned about training and grooming of pets.

Posted by gka at 15:40
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Music and Art

We were very fortunate to be invited by Yu Hayami, a bilingual professional singer, to participate in the recording of her album Let's Sing Together. Lindsay, Michael, Melina, Kaitlyn, Sarah and Aya had a great time singing songs like BINGO, Head and Shoulder, Hokey Pokey and Old MacDonald. The CD was released on March 24, 2004 and is now available in music stores in Japan. Another time, our friend Buddy Marini arranged for us to visit Avex Academy where some of the hottest young singers are trained before joining their senpai like Ayumi Hamasaki. It was fun to visit the recording and dance studios as well as rooms where budding composers were creating music on the computer. Throughout the summer, the children engaged in many art and crafts projects. We also enjoyed looking at street art in Roppongi Hills. Jun and Ilana are seen enjoying these projects.

Posted by gka at 15:37
Category:Summer Journals

Working People in Tokyo

We focused on the working people who make up the busy city of Tokyo. We visited the Azabu Fire Station where the firemen spent a whole hour with us answering questions that the children had prepared. We also visited shops in Azabu Juban like the Naniwaya Taiyaki shop and Mamegen bean senbei shop. Aya, Sarah, Kaitlyn and Melina asked all the questions in Japanese and recorded their findings in a video documentary.

Posted by gka at 15:35
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Tokyo Old and New

The children got to compare and contrast the old city of Edo and modern Tokyo. At the top of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, the children watched a film that showed the aerial view of modern Tokyo. In the next room, they found out what our neighborhood looked like in the Edo period - the entire floor was a map from Edo.
The children also visited historic Zenpukuji and learned the history behind the founding of this old temple and how Townsend Harris came to establish the first American Legation in Japan in 1859. Aya and Sarah wrote over 10 pages in Japanese about this visit. Later, Aya, Sarah, Kaitlyn and Melina produced a video documentary called ASKM news.