10.27.2005

I'm not a fan of stereotypes but. . .

It's hard for me to dispute the notion that
"Japanese kids are the cutest kids on earth".
Then again, I might be biased.


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Last Saturday, I joined a group of ALT's and assorted English speaking Japanese people at the Saitama Children's Home. Together we threw a makeshift/ low budget Halloween party for the kids.


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This little boy is not only beautiful, but he's also incredibly friendly. The minute I walked through the door, he grabbed my hand and started introducing me to his friends.


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My friend Jocelyn and I were in charge of bowling. I don't know much about bowling, but the kids seemed to love it.
(Trust me, this boy was having way more fun than this picture would lead you to believe. This, is his "photo face".)


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The kids had such amazing personalities. In retrospect, I'm impressed with how easily I got to know so many of them, in spite of the language barrier and the fact that we only spent three hours with them. I honestly can't remember if we spoke mostly in English or Japanese, but I remember their facial expressions, and the sound of their laughs.


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This girl ooozed love.
I over heard her confessing to another ALT that she's a "half-u". The ALT was confused and didn't understand what she was saying. I was really tempted to jump in and explain things, but in the end I decided against it.
I am a half-u myself. ("half-u"= half Japanese and half anything else.) In the States, this labels me as "exotic" if not interesting, but for a Japanese person in Japan, more often than not, it's something to be ashamed of.


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This little girl is a model in the making, let me tell you.
She had just as much fun coming up with new poses for the camera, as I did taking the pictures.


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This last one was my favorite. You can't really tell, but she was even spinning the umbrella for the ultra-cute effect.
(I almost stole her. For real, I seriously considered it. She probably would have fit in my purse, but a cutie like that. . . they'd miss her in no time.)


2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Okay, is it me or does everyone look the same?! Are the first picture and the last two the same girl? Also, why is everyone made up with cat faces? I love the description of the bowling boy and his "photo face," - my parents do the same thing!

Say, can I attach a picture to a blog comment? If so, let me know how to do it. We just had the annual Halloween picture taken of our kids (w/baby Quinn!) and I'd love to forward it to you. If that's not possible, send me an e-mail with an address I can use.

Is candy a part of Halloween there?

Linda

6:13 AM  
Blogger melissa said...

hi auntie linda!

yes, the first photo is the same girl as the last two (i told you she loves getting her picture taken). we had a face painting table, and once one of the kids got a cat face, they ALL wanted cat faces. one boy wanted to look like a skeleton, that was pretty cool, and scary. . .

they don't actually celebrate halloween in japan. i suppose they don't need to, since pretty much any day is halloween in parts of tokyo. but we did give the kids lots of candy. and they were very jozu at saying "trick or treat".

i don't know about attaching photos to comments, but i DO know i would love to see that photo!! you can always send photos to my excessiveinformation@yahoo.com address (that is strictly for the use of my aunt linda, so all you creepy internet junk mail types, i am the GIVER of excessive information, i do not want to be the recipient of it)

8:41 PM  

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