Breakfast

Here is breakfast our final day at U-Community Hotel in Osaka. What do you notice looks different than typical American hotels?

Day 2 : Orientation

Welcome to Japan. We had orientation. I had my first eel. Here is the view of Osaka from my room.

In Osaka

Our day started at Burlington International Airport at 5 a.m. Saturday. Now, it's almost 9 Sunday night in Osaka were we are staying at the U-Community Hotel.

I have a photo of my bed in my camera roll. We'll see if it loads.

Oyasumi nasai -- good night.

More movies

"Departures" -- a touching film of a young man who learns to prepare the deceased for burial. 4 Stars.

"Adrift in Tokyo" -- this movie made me laugh and cry. Some really funny lines. I loved the interactions among the characters. These films are really helping me break down cultural stereotypes. I am eager to  hear what my twenty-something sons think of this flick. 

Just watched "Fish Story," about a Japanese Punk Band, Gekerin -- ahead of its time, this band could certainly hold its own with my favorite punk band, The Clash. It's unclear to me whether Gekerin truly did exist or is fictitious. The movie introduces us to a cast of characters -- some of whom are superheroes fighting evil to preserve justice -- from the 1950s to 2012, when a comet that is headed to destroy Earth. I love the connections among all the characters and how the idiom "Fish Story" winds its way through all the stories as well! 4 Stars.

Here's the song

Here's the song with silence

A video clip from the movie of the band playing its song.

Lyrics

The story of my solitude
If my solitude were a fish
It'd be so enormous, so militant
A whale would get out of there

I know it would
I'm sure it would

The story of my solitude
If my solitude were a fish
It'd be so enormous, so militant
A whale would get out of there

Don't assume that I'm dead
Don't assume that I'm dead

Music stacked up like wooden blocks
Is the only salvation

The story of my failure
If my failure were a fish
It'd be so tragically comic
I'd have no place in the sea to be

Don't you know you're a liar!
Don't you know you're a deceiver!

Music stacked up like wooden blocks
Is the champion of justice!

Oh, oh, oh.
Oh, oh, oh.
Oh, oh, oh.

If my justice really were a fish
It'd be so greedy and arrogant
I'd pump the magma
Out of the ocean bed!


The story of my solitude
If my solitude were a fish
It'd be so enormous, so militant
A whale would get out of there.

Don't assume that I'm dead
…
…
...

Oh, oh, oh.
Oh, oh, oh.
Oh, oh, oh.

If my justice really were a fish
It'd be so greedy and arrogant
I'd pump the magma
Out of the ocean bed!

Don't assume that I'm dead
Don't assume that I'm dead

Don't you know you're a liar!
Don't you know you're a deceiver!

Music stacked up like wooden blocks
Music stacked up like wooden blocks
Is the only salvation

Da da dada dan
Da da dada dan
Da da dada daaan.

Taken from the move subtitles by Dean Shimauchi

More to watch:

* "Nobody Knows"

* "The Crescent Moon"

* "I Wish"

* "Hana and Alice"

* "Rainbow Song"

* "Quill" -- dog story

* "Hospitalite"

* "The Summer Came"

* "Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers" 

* "It's me; It's me."

* "Bright Future"

* "The Insects Unlisted in the Encyclopedia"

* Miki Satoshi Collection

* "Sawako Decides"

* "Way out East"

Writing tool

This is a wonderful tool from Read Write Think for students who are struggling with their Kamishibai. Students can build character maps -- with different attributes of their characters -- as well as conflict maps, resolution maps and setting maps.

Here is the link for this thinking/writing tool: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/story-30008.html

Resources

This blog is a collection of my resources for the Grade 7-8 Kamishibai unit. In addition, I am collecting resources for a unit that with Dr. Teresa Robinson, a Grade 3/4 teacher at Folsom, and a fairy tale unit with the Grades 1/2 or independently. The following books are in my personal library or in my school library at Folsom Educational and Community Center.

Kamishibai

De Las Casas, Dianne. Kamishibai Story Theater : The Art of Picture Telling. Westport, CT: Teachers Ideas Press, 2006.

Tips on creating kamishibai as well as a number of fairy tales from Japan and the world.

McGowan, Tara M. The Kamishibai Classroom : Engaging Multiple Literacies Through the Art of "Paper Theater." Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2010.

Detailed tips on creating kamishibai from multiple perspectives. Excellent resource.

Nash, Eric. Manga Kamishibai : The Art of Japanese Paper Theater. New York: Abrams Comicarts, 2009.

A fabulous book on the history of kamishibai in Japan, which contains samples of kamishibai throughout its history.

Say, Allen. Kamishibai Man. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2005.

Fairy tales

Haviland, Virginia. Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Japan. New York: Beech Tree, 1967.

Hearn, Lafcadio. Japanese Fairy Tales. Mount Vernon, NY : Peter Pauper Press, 1958.

Hearne, Betsy. Beauties & Beasts. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1993.

MacDonald, Margaret Read. Tom Thumb. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1993.

Philip, Neil. The Illustrated Book of Fairy Tales. New York : DK Publishing, 1997.

Sakade, Florence. Japanese Children's Favorite Stories. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1981.

Shannon, George. A Knock at the Door. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1992.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Secondary Sources

YouTube video by Inori on Sadaka



Sadako Story on YouTube. Subtitles told in French.
YouTube video by the BBC on Hiroshima


BBC YouTube video on Truman ultimatum.

BBC YouTube video on testing the bomb at Los Alamos, N.M.

BBC YouTube video on Nagasaki


BBC YouTube video on aftermath from Hiroshima

1946 USAF film on Hiroshima


National Geographic film about Hiroshima (45 minutes)

Links

http://www.kamishibai.org/index.htm -- British Kamishibai site

http://www.cvsd.org/progress/documents/PDF_files/kamishibai.pdf -- helpful tips on writing, illustrating and performing Kamishibai. Some resource links are dead.

http://www.storybike.com/ -- Brattleboro project

http://kamishibai.com/spotlight/ -- Tara McGowen's site

http://www.essentiallearningproducts.com/kamishibai-stories-dianne-clouet -- Dianne Clouet

http://www.pittsfordschools.org/MCE.cfm?subpage=29287

These are just a few. There are so many wonderful online resources for Kamishibai.

Japanese fairytales

Here are some Japanese fairytales for your Toontastic Kamishibai

(My students will be producing short -- 6 slides -- kamishibai using the iPad app, Toontastic. They will choose a fairy tale to produce in teams of 3, with each student illustrating two slide and writing narrative and dialogue for the slide. Then they will produce their final version on Toontastic, drawing the scenes and narrating the story from their scripts.)

Japanese fairytales: http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/jft2/

http://zeluna.net/japanese-fairy-tales.html

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/japan.html

http://life.ou.edu/stories/

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4018/4018-h/4018-h.htm

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29337/29337-h/29337-h.htm

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41437/41437-h/41437-h.htm

The Old Man Who Made Cherry Trees Bloom

One version of story

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/the-old-man-who-made-cherry-trees-bloom-hana-sakashi-jiji-from-the-album-tawamure-e-playful-pictures-539615

Bamboo Princess

Kamishibai told in Japanese by two French students -- English subtitles.

Play by Japanese students told in English.

Japanese fairy tale illustrated and told in English.

Litle One Inch Boy

"Issunboshi," or "Little One Inch Boy"

Peach Boy

Told in Japanese with English subtitles.

Book read by an American student.



"The Peach Boy" told in English from Teacher Tube.

Allen Say

Allen Say speaks at the 2011 National Book Festival.

Allen Say interviewed by "Reading Rockets."

http://dianacruchley.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/kamishibai-man.pdf

Golden Bat: Original Superhero

http://www.comicsbulletin.com/columns/186/the-first-superhero--the-golden-bat/

From Golden Bat

to Golden Bat

Kamishibai and Peace

http://kyotojournal.org/creative-kyoto/kyoto-kamishibai-master/

Kamishibai products

http://www.storycardtheater.com/products.html

Look at these: (Possible WWII stories): http://www.doshinsha.co.jp/kamishibai/translations/result.php?e_lang=L03

http://www.doshinsha.co.jp/kamishibai/translations/form.php?lang=J#E9784494078653
Definitely order from here.

http://jsis.washington.edu/earc/downloads/classroom_materials_descriptions.pdf

http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/resources/content/2/9/4/9/documents/children%20literature.pdf

Chocolate and Soldiers
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1174545.files/Chocolate_and_Soldiers.pdf

Last Kamishibai Man in Tokyo

http://www.storycardtheater.com/nagata.html

Article about "last Kamishibai man" in Tokyo: http://pingmag.jp/2006/11/06/kids-love-you-story-telling-man/

Manga on Wheels with Snacks: http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol22/?pg=25&pm=2&u1=friend#pg25

Presentation tips

Presentation tips

http://www.storycardtheater.com/use.html

http://looksgoodworkswell.blogspot.com/2006/11/foo-lessons-kamishibai.html

http://www.storycardtheater.com/PDFs/Kamishibai-Tips-Handout-2010.pdf

Wartime Kamishibai

A paper on wartime kamishibai

Info on the above YouTube documentary
A review on "Die for Japan"
A review on Manga Kamishibai
A review on
More

Manga Museum

In Kyoto, is the Manga Museum. This would be a cool place to visit. Look at this collection of Manga!

Wow! I am interested in historical WWII Kamishibai. 

Apparently, 450 pro-war Kamishibai were produced/presented during the World War II era.

Other interesting facts:

* Kamishibai stories were written for boys (shonen), adventure or a period piece, and for girls (shojo) -- melodramas, featuring young girls as protagonists and focused on more down to earth scenarios, like a girl being teased in class. 

I want to find these favorites from the 1930s: Golden Bat and Tiger Boy -- two boy favorites; Snow White -- a favorite of the girls.

* Kenya Matsunaga cofounded the Japan Educational Kamishibai Association in the mid-1930s to "combat the scurrilous reputation of street-corner kamishibai."

* Tokyo survey in the 1930s found of 1,943 8-year-old schoolboys, 515 watched kamishibai stories more than twice a day. Kamishibai were banned in many schools and neighborhoods! According to the Manga Kamishibai book, "Officials claimed that kamishibai caused traffic problems because of the crowd of kids, that it was unhygienic because candy was passed along by dirty hands, and that the riotous compositions and colors were 'too stimulating' to young minds."

Primary sources for the 7/8

The students on the 7/8 team will be studying Hiroshima. I'm collecting some primary sources for them.

https://sites.google.com/a/ismanila.org/wwii/home/the-war-s-end/hiroshima-nagasaki

http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/beyond-the-textbook/25484

http://www.inicom.com/hibakusha/
Voices from people who survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I chose a voice from this site for my kamishibai.

http://atomicbombmuseum.org/6_testimonies.shtml
More voices.

http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/peace/english/survivors/index.html
Voices from Nagasaki

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/mpmenu.asp
This site has authoritative information on the atomic bomb blasts

Last Hiroshima Bomber: "I'll Do It"


Nagasaki
http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/index.html

Photos from Hiroshima and Nagasaki
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/pages/ww2/ -- WARNING! Some are very disturbing.

Potsdam Conference documents and more (Japan)

Potsdam Conference: U.S. National Archives

Primary Sources from the Manhattan Project -- Gilder Lehrman.org

Secretary of War Henry Stimson to President Truman (Teach History)

Press release from President Truman (Truman Library) Aug. 6, 1945

Leaflet dropped over Japan (Teach History)

Bombing survey (Teach History)

George Washington University: The Atomic Bomb and end of WWII -- primary sources

Worksheet from the Wisconsin Historical Society

I love this!

I love the piano chords! Notice the big and bold images and the audience interaction.



Notice his assistant. She's licking a lollypop. The Kamishibai man used to sell candy to children as a way to earn some money.

The art

Jenn Hart is our amazing art teacher at Folsom. I am so excited to collaborate with Jenn on this project.  When I started explaining the Kamishibai countertop stage, Jenn's face glowed and she exclaimed: "We could make the stage with the kids." Her enthusiasm for art knows no bounds! I found a link that really hones in on the creation of art for the storyboards: http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2011/10/kamishibai-is-a-form-of-visual-and-participatory-storytelling-that-combines-the-use-of-hand-drawn-visuals-with-the-engaging-n.html

Here's another link that discusses building a mini Kamishibai stage and boards: http://education.asianart.org/explore-resources/lesson-or-activity/create-mini-kamishibai-lesson (This Asian Education site has some very nice resources.)


But I really like the idea of presenting with traditional 15 inch by 10.5 inch boards. My research continues ...

Essential questions for the 3/4

These are the questions Dr. Robinson focuses on: What is culture? What are cultural categories? What are cultural expressions?

This photo gives insight into her first question. Culture is the way a group lives and get its needs met. Culture is passed on.

On the surface are food, dance, music, visual arts, language, celebrations, homes, pets, fun, games, clothing, jobs.

I love the idea on delving deeper than the tip of the iceberg into values and beliefs. Culture is much more than what you see. But, as Dr. Robinson says, we find the deeper we delve, the most similarities we find.

So, I am hoping teachers and students will chime in with comments about what questions they have about Japan ... About what I should bring back from Japan. Please add your comments and suggestions, 3/4 Team! Arigato!

More on Japanese festival

Here are some photos from the bow shooting demonstration. As you can see the target is not far away. I am wondering if this is because the gym was filled with people. The art form is very disciplined. From picking up and placing the bow to aiming and shooting the bow, the athlete was very deliberate and took plenty of time.

Japanese festival

Here are some photos from the Japanese festival at St. Michael's College. We need to bring students there next year. Lots of hands-on activities, such as trying on a kimono and bow shooting, learning Japanese phrases and more. I loved the bonsai.

Maki Saji performs Kamishibai about Sadako

Thanks to Michiko, who found this wonderful YouTube video of Maki Saji, a Buddhist nun, performing her Kamishibai about Sadako. The little girl who was in Hiroshima when the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb. She lived but was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 10 and died when she was 12. She is famous for her 1,000 paper cranes. Maki Saji is incredible -- her life's pursuit is to share stories of peace -- like Sadako's -- to the world. You can see the tabletop stage in this video.

Here is her webpage: http://www.sajimaki.com/Introduction.html

Nagasaki's web page: http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/peace/index_e.html

Hiroshima's web page: http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/index_e2.html

So, my hope is to team with Mary Ann and the A World of Difference students to create Kamishibai stories on peace -- just as Maki Saji has above. Then we would share these stories with the younger students and the preschoolers at the Parent-Child Center.


7/8 Team: Here is where I need to hear from you. What questions do you have about Hiroshima? Japan and World War II? What items are you looking for me to bring back from Japan? Please leave your comments on this post.
Thank you! Arigato!

Kamishibai

So, above is my first Kamishibai, which I created using the iPad app, Toontastic. This story was created on the free version. As you see, it is only six slides. (The paid version only allows six slides as well.)

I found some folks who make Kamishibai on PowerPoint. Perhaps I am biased, but I like this better because of the animation possibilities! I'm thinking that this will be a collaboration with our art teacher. I'd like the Grade 1/2 students to create their own Kamishibai fairy tales -- with technology and in the traditional fashion -- as our first library project of the year.
   

Kamishibai project

My project is beginning to take shape. I've created a six-panel story using an Ipad app, Toontastic -- it's a free app in which I was able to create characters and save them to a database. I found an Internet source with a list of Japanese fairytales. I chose "The Sea Snail." I drew six scenes relating to the story. Then I animated them and added narration.

Next, I took a piece of white typing paper and folded it into 12 boxes. Using yellow sticky notes, I added scenes to my meager 6-scene story. Traditional Kamishibai are told in 12 panels. The yellow sticky notes will show how I better developed the character of sea snail by showing what he does and what he says. For example, in one scene I show his head growing bigger and bigger and bigger -- crowding out the adoring fish -- until in the next scene his head dominate the frame. Also, I use quotes to show his hubris. He says repeatedly in the elaborated story: "I am amazing. I am strong. Nothing can hurt me." Each time he repeats this refrain his voice will grow more conceited. The final scene will show him on a dinner plate -- big head et al.



I am hoping my students will see the importance of elaboration and what details bring to the story -- not only to the author and the illustrator, but also to the listener or reader. I hope they recognize that six frames did not allow me to develop my character and his problem. Instead I was relegating to telling them that the snail was arrogant. The more elaborated story shows them the extent of the snail's hubris and why that is such an issue.

Meanwhile, Michiko sent me a YouTube video of Saki performing Kamishibai. I am hopeful I can have this translated for myself and my students. I am collecting Internet links relating to my project in my Diigo library.

Japanese

http://www.rocketlanguages.com/japanese/learn/japanese-greetings/

Although I prefer learning from Michiko because I can watch her mouth as she speaks, and I so appreciate her immediate feedback, this site has been helpful to me in my Japanese practice. I am learning so much about myself. I don't learn language easily. I think I don't have a great ear. So, I plan to keep my goal simple by learning several phrases and then hoping I can find English speakers!

One of my friends who is a world traveler cautioned me not to worry. "Everywhere I go," she says, "people speak English. Don't worry. You'll be fine."

We'll see ....

One thousand paper cranes

One Thousand Paper Cranes

http://camcc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/kamishibai.pdf

Maki Saji

Myozoji Buddhist Temple, Izu Peninsula

Diane Williams

Resources

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/guest-post-teaching-about-japan-one-year-after-the-disaster/

http://resources.primarysource.org/content.php?pid=132301&sid=1134565

http://www.ceas.ku.edu/outreach/documents/children-lit-review-japan.pdf

http://www.montessoritidbits.com/2012/07/favorite-children-books-about-japan.html

http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/lit_resources/diversity/asian_am/japanese_am/nihon_japan.html

http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/lit_resources/diversity/asian_am/asian_am_links.html

Informational text about Kamishibai
http://www.storycardtheater.com/PDFs/One+Magazine-Kamishibai-article.pdf

More resources on Japan:

http://library-resources.www.gresham.k12.or.us/modules/groups/group_pages.phtml?gid=2787614&nid=367558&sessionid=&printable=TRUE&SID&portrait_or_landscape=landscape

Lesson plans on Japan (Thank you, Emily!)
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/

Project

Manga -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rfRU4DxziY

http://www.aems.illinois.edu/events/educator_events/anime_workshop.htm#lessonplans

http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Kamishibai-Japanese-Paper-Theater/dp/081095303X

http://www.kamishibai.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6URceEr_zc


http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Kamishibai-Japanese-Paper-Theater/dp/081095303X

http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view_print.php?book=26254

http://www.cvsd.org/progress/documents/PDF_files/kamishibai.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamishibai

http://www.uvm.edu/~outreach/?Page=JapanInstitute2013.htm&SM=overseasmenu.htm

http://www.shin-eiken.com/info/img/PeaceCraneBill.pdf

http://www.kotatsufestival.com/blog/2011/08/invitation-to-a-kamishibai/

http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2011/10/kamishibai-is-a-form-of-visual-and-participatory-storytelling-that-combines-the-use-of-hand-drawn-visuals-with-the-engaging-n.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEId2SFRezY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlZty1TZMU4

http://www.sajimaki.com/News.html

ipad http://aramatheydidnt.livejournal.com/2941705.html

http://saku1991.blogspot.com/2011/01/ipad-gives-kamishibai-stories-new-lease.html

Gail Tsukiyama "The Samurai's Garden"

Spoiler alert

Being confined to my bed with a stomach virus, I took a break from Embracing Defeat to enjoy Gail Tsukiyama's The Samurai's Garden. This is a coming-of-age story of 20-year-old Stephen, a Chinese boy whose grandfather's summer home is in Tarumi. Stephen's family has him recuperate from tuberculosis in 1937 there with longtime family servant, Matsu.

Through Matsu, a longtime servant to Stephen's family who first came to Stephen's grandfather's beach home in his youth, Stephen is introduced to Sachi, a beautiful Japanese woman who lives in a leper community in Yamaguchi. Stephen learns of the pain that these people have been through. Matsu's younger sister Tomoko, also contracted leprosy but she committed suicide as a young girl a long time ago. Even though this happened long, long ago Matsu is still suffering from her loss. Sachi's family wanted her to kill herself for the honor of the family, but she could not. At one point Matsu told her: "It takes greater courage to live."

The theme of this book is beauty -- the understanding that true beauty is not what appears on the surface, but what lies beneath -- in a person's heart. Sachi and Tomoko are physical beauties -- thin, young, gorgeous pale skin and faces -- popular in their village with the young men. Then leprosy takes their physical beauty away. To Tomoko this loss of physical beauty means she cannot bare to exist. Her brother comes to her and offers to help, but she won't listen. He refuses to procure her father's fishing knife, as she request him to do for her. The disease propels her to take her father's fishing knife, which she is forbidden to touch, let alone hold or use. She walks into the ocean with this knife and never returns from the sea. Meanwhile, Sachi, as a young girl, is in a similar place. She is a silly girl who equates people's worth with their physical beauty. She admits to Stephen that she did not allow herself to know Matsu in their youth. It's only after he comes to her rescue again and again that she realizes what a beautiful human being he is.

Piece by piece Stephen learns about Matsu's, Sachi's, and Tomoko's past -- along with Kenzo, Matsu's friend who owns a tea house in the village of Tarumi. He sees how nature feeds the souls of both Sachi and Matsu and he learns the valuable lesson from Sachi that true beauty is the beauty that lives within.

Meanwhile, Stephen is learning his own life is not all that idyllic. He meets Keiko, a beautiful Japanese girl his own age, but she can no longer see him because of her father's hatred of the Chinese -- especially after her older brother is killed fighting for the Imperial Army. He learns from his mother that his father is living in Kobe with another woman. When he approaches his father about this letter, his father admits that he has been with this woman for 12 years. Stephen longs for the simple existence of his youth.

The end of the novel in late October 1938 sends him back to his life in Hong Kong -- it's a life that's filled with uncertainty with his parents' marriage unraveling and the Japanese continuing their crushing defeat of China. I'm eager to read Tsukiyama's "Women of the Silk."

Haiku

National Geographic article on 1600 haiku poet http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/bashos-trail/howard-norman-text/1 -- see if you can borrow books from UVM or another source.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2011/09/30-1/jean-jacques-beineix-documentary-otaku-added-to-netflix-streaming

Look at this on Netflicks

Jiro dreams of sushi

A glimpse into life in Japan through a famous chef and his sons. Jiro is a famous sushi maker. He is 85 at the time of the film. I am wondering if he is still living. In the film, he no longer goes to the fish market -- relegating that task to his oldest son, who will take over the restaurant when his father retires.

It's interesting the attention to detail paid at the restaurant. At one point Jiro is joking with his customers about being left handed and how he tries to take notice when a customer is left handed and make the dining experience easier. He speaks about how he gives men larger pieces and women smaller pieces so they will finish the course at about the same time.

At least one of Jiro's workers mentioned how nervous he was about eating in Jiro's restaurant and the journalist who is conducting the interview mentions the same thing.

Interestingly, the younger son has his own restaurant and is thriving. The journalist mentions how difficult it will be for Jiro's son when he takes over the restaurant.

Clearly, this is a tight-knit family with high expectations for father and sons. I wondered, too, about the boys' mother. One of the sons mentioned that he told his mother that a stranger was sleeping in their house -- one rare occasion that Jiro was at home while the child was awake. Other than that there was no mention of Jiro's wife.

I loved seeing father and son visit the graves of the ancestors and watering the flowers on the graves. I also loved hearing the stories about Jiro's youth when he was a bit of a prankster and troublemaker. I understood his quandary in whether he should share that information with youngsters when he visits schools.

This film is 50 minutes or so. Preview to make sure it's appropriate for your students. Available on Netflicks.

Pray for Japan

I just watched an amazing documentary titled "Pray for Japan," which interviews folks who lost family members and their homes in the 2011 tsunami. More than 20,000 lives were lost in the earthquake and tsunami. The volunteer effort in the aftermath was nothing short of epic.

The film does a wonderful job showing people of all walks of life who traveled to the devastated parts of Japan to help in the cleanup. Several parts of the film focus on two Pakistani men who make food for the victims of the tsunami. Another focus is a school that wrapped up for the year merely hours before the tsunami hit. Amazingly, every one of the children of the school were accounted for. The principal and the art teacher speak about sifting through the wreckage in hopes of finding anything to salvage. The art teacher finds several pieces of rock used for etching that she hopes her students will use to make art which will in turn survive the next tsunami.

Clips at the beginning of the movie highlight the devastating waves that hit the shoreline and swept away boats, cars and unsuspecting people. One young man who plays in a band spoke of losing his mother, both grandparents and his little brother, who was five years old. His home was utter destruction. His family had piled into their car hoping to escape the storm when they were caught in a traffic jam and then swept out to sea.

Certainly there is heartbreak in this film; however, what resonated most with me was the hopefulness of this people and of the people who traveled from across the globe to help. People in one shelter existed for three days without a drop of water. One gentleman explained how he waited to distribute food until fair portions could be given to everyone. Despite these conditions, people survived.