Japan

I'm afraid I can't tell you the name of the village in which any of this took place. In fact I can't even tell you in which of Japan's 66 prefectures or even in what year of the benevolent reign of which emperor any of this occured, for all of this happened so very long ago that there isn't a soul alive who could possible remember any of it.
None the less, once upon a time...

 

We are now 'in' Japan - a country of weekend strangers (fathers who work too many hours), education moms (who will attend class if their children are ill), and cow massagers (for the famous Kobi beef)

We've listened to many Japanese folk tales - our favorite being The Boy Who Loved to Draw Cats (the intro is at the start of this entry), watched the full 9 hours of Shogun, dabbled in origami, learned a few new words in Japanese (the children can easily count to 30 thanks to their karate class) and prepared a low table for our authentic Japanese meal :)
(since it is winter, we should have a heater under the table and the quilt lays over our laps to keep us toasty warm during the meal)
 
The appearance of Japanese food is as important as its taste. Because of its Buddhist roots, it must contain the 5 flavors & colours - those being salty, sweet, bitter, spicy & sour.... and black, white, yellow, red & green.
The children prepared (white) rice - always in a Japanese meal, in fact the word for meal is the same as rice - (black) berries, (yellow) egg, (green) cucumbers, and (red) smoked salmon.
 
They also made miso soup with tofu and soba noodles; you are supposed to use chopsticks to eat a morsel, then take a sip from the bowl, and repeat.
 
The children also made a fat roll of sushi with rice, salmon, cucumber and carrot.
 
 
 
Pepper has been trying her hand at manga (japanese comics) where the story traditionally flows from right to left:
 
 
Lastly, Fierce worked diligently for a week to create a samuri costume for Bosco made out of hole-punched cardboard and string.