The 15th Ichigo Ichie took place on Sunday, February 4. 43 participants (22 adults and 21 children) from Australia, China, Taiwan, U.K., Malaysia, and Japan had fun together. We began with singing, "If you are happy and you know it clap your hands" in four different languages.
Saran Wrap Ball Game
We had a fun game, "Saran Wrap
Ball Game". This is played at Christmas party in
America. You wear oven mitts, and unwrap
a big ball of saran wrap with several gifts layered throughout the ball. You get to keep the gift you unwrap along the
way. It was difficult even for adults to
unwrap the saran wrap with oven mitts, so both the kids and adults were excited!
Having and Raising a Baby in Oklahoma, USA
The day's guest speaker, Shoko, made a presentation. She lived in Oklahoma from 2009 to 2016, and gave birth in 2012. Through the experience of pregnancy and childbirth there, the biggest difference was “insurance”, she said. Only necessary care/exams were covered by insurance, and she had no financial treatment for giving birth. So, the medical cost for pregnancy and delivery she paid was $6000 (approximately ￥650,000)!Family members can attend the childbirth in America. Shoko’s husband was in the room for her C-section, but he fainted… She requested to keep the umbilical cord, as Japanese people do. The doctor accepted it, and also asked her if she wanted the placenta!
She also showed us the baby gifts from her
American family and friends. Since her
baby was born in winter, she got eight blankets; some were handmade. She also got a cake decorated with a small crane
(her baby’s name has a word “thuru” meaning a crane in English), a baby tooth
box, and a hot dinner to feed a new mother.
Others, she talked about baby food, daycare, outing with babies and so
on, pointing out the difference from those in Japan. In addition, she wondered if the floor was
clean for babies to crawl, because it is not the custom to take off their shoes
in America. Although her family had no
shoe rule in their house, she saw people let babies crawl on the floor.
Greeting in Korean & Story Time
Yuko, who had lived in South Korea for one year, taught us how to greet in Korean. “Anneonghaseyo” is used for “Good morning”, “Good afternoon” and “Good evening”. Also we learned “gomawo” (=”Thank you”), and two expressions for “Good bye”.
Upcoming Meeting
Next Ichigo Ichie is to be held at Café Kokoraku
on April 1, Sunday. The theme is “Compare
difference between kindergartens (yochien) and nursery schools (hoikuen) in
Japan.” Application requirements,
nursery hours, annual events, mom friends, etc.… There are a lot of differences in many aspects. See you at next Ichigo ichie!
(Reported by Naoko. Photos by Shinichiro)
