Treading the boards

Last weekend K's kindergarten held their happyoukai, or school concert/play. It was split into 2 parts, held on Satuday and Sunday mornings, since the school hall isn't big enough to comfortably hold all the parents at once. Half the classes performed on Saturday and half on Sunday, with all students also performing a musical number with their whole school year on both days.

You know the story of The Wolf and The 7 Kids? The one where the wolf disguises his voice and hands, tricking the little goats into opening the door thinking that it's their mother? The kids are all eaten up except for the littlest one who hides in the grandfather clock, alerts his mother and helps her to rescue his brothers and sisters. This is the story which K's class put on except that, in true Japanese kindergarten fashion, it was turned into 'The Wolf and the Family of 20 Goats' so that all the children could play a goat (the teacher played the wolf). The children sang and danced, and performed their lines in chorus, as groups of 3.

The opening song

Running away from the wolf

Taking a bow

I often hear horror stories about kindergarten mothers being expected to sew elaborate costumes for school events, so I was quite relieved when I heard that costume prep consisted of bringing a pair of white tights. That was entirely within my capabilities. The children wore goat ears attached to polysterene bowl hats, and their usual kindergarten clothes plus little coloured waistcoats.

The musical finale for K's year group consisted of a song and a Pianica performance. Do you know what that is? It's a little piano keyboard attached to a tube that you blow through while playing the keys. I suppose it's name comes from it being a cross between a piano and a harmonica. They have only been learning to play it since October so the performance was pretty simple, but well done. In fact, during the whole show, the only mistakes I spotted were those by nervous teachers...

Pianica playing