Cultural Festival Day!

I know I say that my work has been busy, and I guess I can't complain when sometimes the extra stuff is self inflicted. Still, this day, extra work that it is aside, is totally worth it and lots of fun. I run a 文化祭 (bunkasai) cultural festival day for the whole school. It's changing gradually each year and the kids love it. That said, it always required some prep work. 

This year, I had my ninja throwing boards that I painted for the 2025 festival ready to go. I also had the set of blue bean bags I'd made for the first one we ran back in 2024. I needed two additional sets of bean bags (one yellow, one white to match the sports teams we have), but thankfully, Steve's mum came to the rescue there. Not only did she cut all the fabric, but she sewed and filled over 200 bean bags for me as well. Good thing I blogged about it back in 2024, because that post turned out to be the best instructions to follow. 

Rachel came with me to school in the holidays for a day and did some prep work on the boxes I needed for a relay game as well as the shoe boxes I used for a sumo game. 

She also helped me paint the background for this six-metre long cherry blossom mural. 

This was a collaborative art work that the year 1 and 2 students contributed to on the festival day. They added the cherry blossoms all over the trees. 

I've been asking at school if I can paint murals, but the answer thus far has been no. This, however, feels like a step in the right direction. It's hanging where the Year 1 and 2 students put their bags, and you can see it all the way from the carpark because it's so big. Really brings some colour and fun to an otherwise boring wall. Wonder what we will do next time. 

Learning Mandarin, Teaching Language and Generally Being Inspired

I can't believe how much Mandarin I can speak and understand now. It's a very weird thing for me to say, given that I had zero desire to learn Mandarin and the classes I took were only for a week, but here we are. 

2026 started with an opportunity to attend the Comprehensive Input Down Under conference which was being run at South Bank for a week. Comprehensive Input (CI) is a teaching method for language based on the premise that language is acquired by listening and reading to compelling, comprehensive inputs in the target language. It's how we all learnt our first language, so why not use it for a second, or any additional language for that matter? 

Obviously there is a difference in development levels, if you are comparing a baby or young child learning a language to a teen or adult. For the latter you can add the development of different skills, and you have a first language to map onto. But still, listening and reading - that's the way to go. 

I've been teaching using a CI method since I returned to the language classroom in 2024, but it was largely based on my own guess work (after seeing my kids acquire language) and things I'd listened to in podcasts. Not a lot of direct training in the field. A whole week of conference about that with teachers from all over Australia and presenters from around the world was an opportunity too good to miss. 

Along with all the usual conference type offerings - key note speakers, workshops and presentations, this conference also ran Language Labs. This was where two teachers (Spanish and Mandarin) would teach a class of "students" using CI methods every day for the week. We had about three to four hours of classes every day. The teachers attending the conference could sign up to be students in the class, or attend as observers in the room. 

I really wanted to get the experience of what it's like being a student, and despite being really keen to learn more Spanish, I figured the Mandarin class would give me a better understanding of how to teach an Asian script. More practical for my Japanese setting.  

When the conference rolled around in mid January, a full week before any teachers were due back in the classroom, I was a little bit second guessing my decision to attend. So hopeful that it was going to be great, but also aware of the huge time commitment. But the conference did not disappoint. Far from it. Even when we were on day three and I was expecting to start fatiguing from all the brain use, we were so motivated and excited by the learning and connections that it was amazing. 

Along with learning so much about how to teach with a CI approach, I was also lucky enough to make great connections with other teachers. An Indonesian teacher I met on the first day who came down from Agnes Waters to attend was staying with her daughter a few streets over from me, so we ended up being bus buddies. The two Japanese teachers from Genesis (where I've taught previously) and I also ended up connecting and sharing our love for Jesus. 

I can't even say how encouraged I was by this full week of fantastic professional development. So ready to head back to the classroom and put it all into practice. And I'm still going over my new Mandarin vocab in my mind, and listening to Taiwanese dramas on Netflix to see if I can pick out the words. Language learning really is so fun, and I get to teach it! 

Teacher Training Program: Trip to Kanazawa and the Finale

[Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4, if you need a catch up or for pre-reading]

This should be my last post about the Teacher Training Program I attended while in Japan this year. It was nearly seven weeks long, and honestly, I came away from it feeling so rich. My Japanese language skill improved so much, but I also benefited so many other ways. Getting to know people from all over the world, hearing how life is in their countries and classrooms. All of the Japanese cultural experiences that we got to do. Even a day trip to visit a Japanese high school and talk to students and teachers. The fact that all of it was covered by a grant, so we didn't pay for any of it. Not only the lessons (twelve students to a teacher is a pretty great ratio!), but the resources they gave us too; text books, cultural books and other items. What an experience. 

I also just felt really privileged to be an Australian. And an English speaker. Everyone else there had learnt English as a second language, and then Japanese on top of that. A fair few people had another language or two up their sleeves as well. I was in awe of them, but how lucky are we to naturally speak the language that so many people have to learn as a necessity to communicate outside their home country? Such privilege.

Anyway, to top off the amazing experience we had, the last week included a one night stay at Kanzawa, which was a three hour shinkansen ride across the country. I'd never been to Kanazawa, so I was pretty excited to go. Most of the other teachers had never ridden the shinkansen before, so they were so keen for that too. It was great to catch their excitement. 

Kanazawa actually gave me Brisbane vibes as we got off the train and walked to our hotel. The streets were wide and so were the footpaths. The buildings around us in the city were really similar to Brisbane size. Not like the immensely tall and over crowded Tokyo skyline at all. Sure, there were Japanese style buildings, but when there is spaces for trees on the side of the road, I'm feeling much more like Australia than Japan. 

The first day we were there, we did a Japanese sweets making experience, which was fun (and delicious) and then a gold leaf workshop. Kanazawa is famous for gold leaf but doing the workshop (where we decorated a plate with some designs) was possibly the most stressful twenty minutes ever. The gold leaf was so thin that even breathing was a hazard when you picked it up and tried to place it on the plate. Thankfully the staff at the workshop were there to fix (or "cure" as they said in Japanese) our mistakes. 

The rest of the first day was wandering around and exploring. I did go to the castle before I found my way to the local Pokemon centre for this photo and had some delicious tempura for dinner (while messaging back and forth with Steve who was sitting in various waiting rooms getting x-rays on his hand). 

The next day we started in the famous gardens in Kanazawa and saw this (again iconic) lantern balanced precariously on two legs after an earthquake broke the other. It was a hot day, and our group split up to go and explore. 

I tried to go to a kimono store, but sadly found it was closed on a Wednesday. So instead, I took a bus to a very fancy library. From the outside it looked like a regular building and I was initially worried I'd gone to the wrong place, but once inside; stunning. The whole Library was designed in a circular way, with four levels going up, and mezzanine floors floating around. There were break out spaces on the corners and lots of hidden nooks to study, sit or just enjoy the library vibes. 

I couldn't get enough of it, but I also didn't want to be annoying taking photos. You'll just have to go see its beauty for yourselves! After wandering around there for a bit, I took the bus back to central Kanazawa  and visited the samurai district. Lots of old style Japanese houses all built up together next to each other behind walls with lovely tiled roofs. 

I visited this Samurai house/museum which had a beautiful garden and lots of spaces to sit and take it in. Because gold leaf is so iconic in Kanzawa, you can get it on a variety of foods, including ice cream, so I had a hojicha (roasted tea flavour) ice cream with gold leaf. Actually delicious. 

Then I wandered around the city some more, through these lovely red tori gates and then back to the station and hotel to pick up bags and get onto to the shinkansen. 

It had been a rich little trip away, even though I was worried for Steve for large parts of it. Back at the centre in Kita Urawa, we had a few wrap up classes, mostly giving lots of feedback on the program and reflecting on our learning. There were also a few karaoke sessions together and planning for our final graduation ceremony and breakup party. 

The graduation ceremony was appropriately formal and Japanese. We all went an bowed when we received our certificates and were experiencing lots of mixed feelings that it was all over. Excitement, relief, pride, sadness, it was all going on. 

After the official ceremony, we had a break up party. Mostly just some snacks and drinks and people taking loads of photos with everyone. Then we had about a half hour of performances. A number of people got together for different things. Class 3, that I was part of, wanted to sing a Japanese song. I had said I'd play guitar for them, but when they chose the song (tegami, by Angela Aki), it was a very piano song. So I figured out how to play the piano part instead. Honestly it's been soooo long since I've played piano let alone for something like this, but I practiced like mad in the week and a half that I had leading up to it, and I was really proud of our performance. 

Then Wine-san from Myanmar did a dance, and a group of people from Class 2 did a mash up dance (lots of Indian moves). I got up and taught everyone how to do the Heal and Toe, which was lots of fun. At first people had no idea what we were going to do but ended up getting into it. It was great to see people from 33 countries all dancing something so iconically Australian. Everyone in the room was dancing and I wish I had a video of it. 

The last group I accompanied on guitar this time, some people from Class 1 singing a BTS/World Cup song: "We are the Dreamers". That was really fun because I helped them translate the chorus into Japanese so we sang it in English and then Japanese. 

Then it was over. We had the rest of the afternoon to pack before people started leaving for their flights home the next day. Carlos from Mexico would be the first to leave at 4:30 in the morning, but technically, I was the first to go on the Monday afternoon. I was wondering when would be the best time, but in the end, I just said goodbye to people I saw on my way out and handed my room key in at the front desk. It was about 2pm and they were shocked and immediately went to get the coordinator (Mori-san) and some teachers to say goodbye. They were worried there wasn't people to say goodbye, but I was fine. I don't need fuss!

I'm actually so relieved I had the freedom to leave that way (rather than having to have a flight booked and airport transfer organised), because I saw the videos the next day of everyone else leaving. Even Carlos, who was up at 4 in the morning for his departure, had almost everyone else there as well, giving hugs and waving goodbye. Every person until Laura from Cuba (last to leave on Wednesday) got a huge farewell with lots of extended crying and waving. I'd consider myself in touch with my emotions and I'm fine to cry, but definitely sure I don't need all the extra drama. 

And then it was officially over. Time had gone so strange while I had been away each week at this course and we were really racing towards the end of our Tokyo time. Even when we finished, I didn't have heaps of time to process because once I was back in Tokyo, it was only four days before the girls finished school, and we had a stack of things to sort out. Glad I can type it up now and I'm honestly so thankful for the whole thing. If I ever got the chance to apply again (which I can do in five years time), I totally would, but I also don't want to take a space of someone who possibly needs the experience more than me. 

Teacher Training Program: Expo

More updates on the Japanese language program that I got to do with 32 teachers from ten other countries (here are part one, two and three if you need them). One of the hands-on learning experiences we had to do was present an Expo. We were allowed to choose whatever topic we liked and then work with a group to come up with some kind of presentation. 

There were people performing dances, or telling others about fashion and sharing local cuisine. Just like a regular world Expo, the focus was sharing things that were unique to your country. Some of the groups focused on one country - like the group of Indonesian teachers who all performed an Indonesian folk tale for us. Other groups were made up of people from a variety of countries - like one of the dance performance groups with a representative each from Myanmar, Cuba, Morocco and Algeria. 

Dance group from Indonesia

I really didn't mind what I did, since Australia is such a melting pot of culture anyway, so I ended up joining in with two other teachers who wanted to talk about the oceans around their countries. Celine from the Philippines and Cynthia from Indonesia and I had a great time working together. 

Umi-Gumi; the Ocean Group

All of our team work and then the presentation were done in Japanese. We had three sessions leading up to the Expo day as well as a full day of preparation before the event. It was pretty big and a lot of work. If you opted to perform on the stage (like the dance groups, or the drama groups) you had to prepare a short information speech to give as well. For the people who made posters, we also had to organise a speech explaining things, but didn't have to give it on stage. We just presented on the floor to whoever came to view our exhibit. The plus side was not being on the stage, the down side was that we had to do it three times over. 

By the third time, we were quite confidently giving our speeches and sharing the information, so that was great. Achievement unlocked I guess? So thankful when that was over though! Our poster was pretty awesome. Celine had a big vision for it to be 3D (possibly inspired by her love of BTS and their song 3D), and we had a lot of fun putting it together. I suggested the origami animals and promptly made quite a few to give it that extra something. They came in handy when I was describing the oceans of Australia and warning people to be careful of all the dangerous animals that could kill you. Visual aid is always good right?

It was so cool on the day to see everyone dressed up, and many people in their country's traditional clothing. It does make me a little sad that Australia doesn't have something, but I also love how multicultural Australia is so I don't mind that much. 

After my group presented their poster in the morning session, we all watched the stage performances for the middle and afternoon session. There were a number of extra roles to help run the day, tech people and MCs to keep everyone on time and things moving. I had to MC the afternoon session, but thankfully that was only two performances and the final remarks. Still don't love having to talk with polite language since I'm so bad at it. 

Ai-san and Carlos-san checking the tech was all going to work. 

And here we are celebrating the fact that it's all over and we made it through, thanks to Aiman-san with his excellent selfie taking skills. 

Teacher Training Program: Japanese Culture

I've actually finished up my teacher training program (read the intro here and part two here), but I've got lots of things to remember about it, so here we go down memory lane. In between all the classes that left us feeling challenged and also exhausted (see an actual shot of us in a ten min break between lessons below), we did loads of cultural stuff. 

Some of it was just around the area we were staying, like the day we did "orienteering" in the local area, and other parts were learning about Japanese houses and etiquette for the optional homestay weekend. I really liked the focus the teachers gave on asking us to notice differences and then push ourselves to wonder why the differences exist. It was a great reminder in the world of social media videos that often complain about the differences in other cultures, or languages for likes and views that we could be different.  

After our first cultural experiences of yukata wearing and fuurin (glass wind chime) blowing, the next one we did was furoshiki. Furoshiki is a reusable cloth. The name comes from furo, meaning bath, and shiki which is like to sit. Traditionally, people would wrap up their bath things and clean clothes into the cloth and take it to the onsen to get clean. There, they would unfold their furoshiki, have their bath and when they came out, would sit on the furoshiki to finish getting dressed. 

Now days, furoshiki can be used for all sorts of things and come in a large variety of sizes and patterns. I've even made my own furoshiki before and I use them all the time in Australia. We had an intro session on furoshiki and then a hands on practical workshop to practice using them for all sorts of things. It was really great. 

We also did a shodo, or calligraphy, workshop. This was again, a very practical workshop where we learnt how to use the equipment and practice writing with the calligraphy brush and ink. I had done this before when I went to school in Japan way back in 2004, but it was great to practice again. 

After we practiced the different techniques using the kanji for eternity, we wrote a kanji of our choice on a fan to take home. I wrote frog. 

The last thing we did was a group poster with a Japanese phrase on it. We were invited to make it creative and given a number of coloured paints as well. Our group chose the Japanese saying "七転び八起き" which translates to "fall down seven times, get up eight." It's a "never give up" type of slogan. 

Pretty proud of our handiwork, though I think working together as a group was harder than actually doing the art. You think it's hard when you all come from the same place, but throw in people from five different countries with their own cultural styles a language barrier and a time limit and then you've got some work to do! 

Our art was hung in the foyer of the Japan Foundation Centre where we were in Kita Urawa, along with our classmates work. It will stay there for a year I guess, until the next summer teacher training program comes along. 

The last thing we got to do (for this post anyway) was see a shamisen performance by a world renowned shamisen player, Nobuto Yamanaka. Shamisen is a Japanese three stringed instrument which was amazing to see played so well. I could have listened for ages to all the different sounds and songs this master was performing for us. He also played shakuhachi (a wooden flute), and had a variety of shamisen for us to see. 

At the end, we got to play a little bit ourselves, so here I am playing my three notes on the shamisen. 

Finally, you might have noticed I have been wearing yukata in a few of these photos. That's because it's summer here and the right time to wear them! I wear yukata all the time back in Australia, so I figured, why not in Japan as well! I may have collected a few new ones at this point in our stay, so I just wore them when I felt like it. At first, people were shocked and confused (much like Australia), but then it was normal. 

What I wasn't expecting, was for other people to join me. A number of the ladies at my course asked me about wearing them, why and how etc. I just encouraged them to give it a go. Yukata are clothes, and there is nothing stopping you from wearing it if you want to! I was honestly so excited to have a number of the other teachers start wearing them too. Especially the teachers who said to me that they didn't think they could do it, and then were wearing them the next day. 

Didn't consider myself an influencer until now. 

Teacher Training Program: Motivational Articles

Back in June I talked about starting a teacher training program for Japanese teachers, which you can read about here if you need a refresher. It was a bit of a whirlwind, and time did all sorts of wibbly wobbly tricks while I was there. Sometimes it was so fast, and others it felt like it would never end. 

After the first week, we really got into studying Japanese. We had been split into three classes of different abilities and we all studied different topics. I don't think I realised that at first, just assuming we were all doing the same kind of thing at our various levels. Kind of silly in hindsight. 

The first real piece of work that my class did was to consider why we were teachers. What was it that made us want to teach in the first place. Why did we keep coming to work each day now? We spent a whole week on this one topic. Our first lesson was talking about it with each other, then listening and reading examples of other people's stories. Finally we had to write our own article in Japanese. It was a pretty organic process, since we learnt new words and terminology as we progressed through speaking, listening and reading about the topic, and then had to use it in our own articles. 

I was really surprised by how my own answer to these questions changed over the week. I think teachers are often asked this at the start of a motivational speech, or some PD when the new school year begins, but we are only given minutes to answer, and then whoever asked it has moved on. And even if you've got a good answer, because you've got to summarise it into 30 seconds (or less), it feels much less impactful. My initial reason for becoming a teacher was a fairly selfish one; wanting to do what I liked to do (music and Japanese) and tell others about it. So different from why I'm doing what I'm doing now! 

Anyway, I was also really proud of the writing that I did; the whole article in Japanese! So I wanted to put it here to remind me. Not only of why I'm motivated to do what I do, but also that I can write all of this in Japanese! It's easy to feel like my language is slipping away when I'm not using it as much back in Australia, but hopefully this gives me the nudge that if it was possible once, it's possible again. All I have to do is keep showing up and moving forward. 

Living in Saitama: Japanese Teacher Language Training Program

This story begins last year, in September, when I decided to apply for a Japan Foundation intensive language training course. This was specifically for international teachers of Japanese language to help us improve proficiency and thus be better Japanese teachers in our home countries. The application process was involved, several proficiency tests and a written section as well as school approval etc. Obviously, back in September we didn't know if we would even be in Japan, but I applied anyway, since I was wanting to improve my Japanese proficiency and this course looked like a good opportunity. 

Application sent, and we didn't hear anything until March; the week before we were due to fly out. I was in! The acceptance process was nearly as detailed as the application process, and included medical approval and a chest x-ray, which I had nine days to get organised before our flight. Talk about panic mode. It wasn't exactly what I needed on top of wrapping up everything at school (assessing kids for report cards and prepping for the two weeks of relief lessons I had to leave) on top of cleaning out the house and finalising packing. 

There was also a question of whether or not I could actually accept and attend. The course is designed for teachers to fly in, attend and fly out. The Japan Foundation organise specific travel/study visas for the applicants and provide all the accomodation etc. We had a bit of back and forth about my specific situation, but in the end, they said that yes, I could attend. 

The timing worked out well, because we got here, settled in, the girls started school, and just as I was really starting to stretch the limits of my "what to do with free time" activities, I began. As I mentioned at the end of this post, I am living away from the rest of the family for the week (Monday to Friday) and then heading home for the weekend. Steve and the girls are doing fantastic without me. 

There are 33 teachers here (including me), and we represent 11 different countries. I'm the only Aussie. There is a large group from Indonesia (18), and then a few from India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Cuba, Mexico, Algeria, Morocco, Thailand and Myanmar all have just one teacher. Our common language is Japanese, so every day is a lot of practice and improvement. 

We are living in small hotel room style apartments in one building on the campus, and using the classrooms, hall, library etc for studying. The first couple of days I was very overwhelmed and thinking "why am I here?" which I'm pretty sure at least 95% of the other people were thinking too. That settled and we did some testing to be sorted into three classes of skill level. Some of the other teachers were really stressing about that testing, but I was honestly unworried. I mean, we were all already accepted, in, actually here! What came next was to help us learn and progress from whatever level we were at. 

Among all the language learning, the course also includes a large amount of Japanese cultural classes. In the first week we had lessons in how to wear yukata, which made everyone else delighted - most of them have never worn one before. I struggled with that because I didn't know how to not show my knowledge and experience, especially since I was starting to realise that for a lot of people, this was their first time in Japan. Everyone had lots of fun though, in their borrowed yukata (I bought my own) and several people considered buying one afterwards. 

We also took a day trip to Tokyo where we got to do a fuurin experience. We were able blow our own glass wind chimes and paint a design on them. These are very Japanese summer time things that I don't have and was hoping to get one this time round, so hooray! Afterwards we went to lunch and then Asakusa, which I've been too before, so I skipped off to have dinner with a favourite uncle of mine. 

Now coming up on three weeks in (7 weeks total), things are settling into routine. Lots of lessons and things to do. We have an "Expo" to prepare for - I'm in a group who are going to showcase the oceans around our respective countries. We are doing more cultural things as well, and in our spare time we hang out in the karaoke room, play ping pong (though I did that for ten mins last night and hurt my shoulder again, gah!), or just sit around and chat. Lots more to say about this whole thing, but I'll save it for another day - this post is long enough already! 

Organised School Painting: Ninja Skills

Organised as I am, I finished this school year by preparing for an activity that's happening in March 2025. Since I've taken over as Japanese teacher, I've run a full day of "Cultural Festival" activities, otherwise known as the 文化祭 (bunkasai). It's a pretty huge day, with all students from years one to six participating in 12 round robin activities. When I ran it earlier in 2024, we had a group of Japanese students visiting, so there was a mix of Australian and Japanese culture. Next year is all Japanese activities. 

I was inspired by another Japanese teacher to have a ninja-skills station and needed some resources to make it work. Luckily I had a bit of budget left this year and the school groundsman was willing to help me get what I needed from Bunnings. Largish pieces of MDF, a bunch of extra pine beams, some hinges and screws were the main part and then of course - some paint! 

Even more amazing than being this organised was that when the kids finished school and the staff week rolled around, I was ahead on my paperwork and had the time to spend getting this done at school in office hours. One of the groundsmen also helped me out by cutting these big circular holes in MDF. 

These ones are for the kids to throw bean bags through the holes. They will have support beams on the back to hold them up on the oval. I was pretty stoked with my ninja - especially the green one who looks very invisible from the right angle. (Notice that pink goes good with green? If you know, you know.)

My other two boards have yet to be finished - I need to add dowels to the balloons in the Pikachu one for the kids to throw quoits at. Poor Pikachu is a little fat in the face, but I think he does an alright job of being iconic and recognisable. 

I knew I'd be going for an "up in the air" theme with the Pokemon boards, so I quizzed a bunch of grade five kids in the last week of school to get ideas for who else I could put in the air with Pikachu. "Dragonite", "Charizard!", "Areodactyel".... The replies were enthusiastic but also way too tricky for me to paint. 

So I went with Butterfree, who is chasing away a Charizard through the clouds. I'll add dowels to the clouds on this board. Not too bad for ten hours of work if I do say so myself. And I got to listen to podcasts and loud music while I did it. Now to keep going with my tedama production and another activity so I'm ready when March rolls around. Teacher life! 

Bean Bags

Teaching Japanese this year, I wanted to promote this relatively new subject with an all grades cultural festival day. I had been planning it for term two, but the deputy organised for a group of Japanese students to visit the school in the last week of term one and asked me to move it forward. 

So I did. With Japanese students here, it made sense to make it a mixed Australian and Japanese cultural day. This worked well, because it meant that for a first time event, teachers weren't being asked to do completely new things all day, but a mix of things they were familiar with and other new things. 

Anyway, one of the activities I have planned is a Japanese game called たまいれ (tamaire) which translates as "ball in". It's a game where you have a basket on a pole and then the kids throw bean bags in. The team with the most bean bags (or the team that does it in the shortest amount of time) is the winner. You need roughly 100 bean bags per team, so I asked the sports teacher how many we had. 

She said we had about 25 without holes in them, so I asked if we could order more. I was relieved that she ordered them early, because I'm an organised person and it makes sense to me to have everything ready to go three weeks in advance. I was less relieved when she told me she'd ordered 50. This was a fair bit short of the minimum of 100 I had said we needed, but unfortunately those 50 bean bags had cost $400, so there was no way to order more and still have any money left for the rest of the year. 

What is one to do, but solve the problem with sewing. 

I looked through the material I had in my stash for something sturdy enough to become bean bags and found two of the blue stripe curtains that I'd made when we first moved into the house. You can read about them here if you are really interested. These were not in use anymore, so I figured they would make great bean bags. 

Cutting them out was incredibly satisfying, because I could snip and rip. I watched/listened to the Emma miniseries while I did it and ended up with 240 squares of fabric to make into 120 bean bags. It took somewhat less time than I anticipated to actually sew the bean bags, and I did bother to snip the corners to make turning them out easier. 

Both girls helped me to turn the bean bags, and I did a huge chunk of them in church listening to the sermon one Sunday morning. Then I came home and filled each one with 80grams of rice which happened to be on special at Coles that week, making it the most cost effective thing to fill them with. 

Ten hours of work and $20 in materials (only the rice, since the material was recycled), and I'd estimate that these would have cost $300, which is considerably cheeper than the 50 we ordered for school. Mine are also environmentally friendly, since both the cotton fabric and rice inside will compost when we are done with them. 

Not a bad effort for one weekend and now, I can rest easy knowing the bean bag toss station on the cultural festival day has more than enough bean bags to function as it should.  

Japanese Banner

Here is a little something I worked on in the September holidays of 2023. I didn't know for sure if I would be teaching Japanese in 2024, but I had Japanese fabric and I wanted to sew something. Was I sewing in faith or folly? No idea. I might have just needed a project. 

In any case, I started with a yukata that I loved wearing, but had found on inspection that it had some holes in the fabric from some little bug that had been living in my storage drawer. So much of the fabric was still perfectly fine though, so I took the thing apart and considered how to use it. 

I decided if I were to teach Japanese again, I would need something for my classroom. So this, along with a number of random Japanese fabric samples that I had collected from homestay students over the years, my old sushi dress and a new piece of Japanese fabric mum had given me earlier in the year and I was ready to go.  

I did end up buying some black fabric for the letters, wanting this to be more than just bunting (if there is such a thing as "just bunting"), but also a sign for a potential room that I would be teaching in. Doing the maths, I figured I had enough fabric to make a rather long and big sign to declare Japanese to everyone. 

This did make it super hard to photograph on the floor of my house. I printed/hand drew all the letters on paper first to check size and layout and then went onto the black. Did the fancy interfacing glue stuff to get it stuck down and then zigzagged around each letter with white to make it clearly visible. 

Each of the letters down, I sewed the backing fabric on (right sides together and then flipped out) and bound the top with a long strip of exactly the amount of fabric that I had left. This project was actually a great way to use up all this fabric that would possibly have had no life otherwise. I only ended up using the sleeves of the yukata and a part of the okumi, so I actually still have a stack of that fabric left for something else. Pajamas maybe? 

Anyway, I did end up getting given Japanese to teach for 2024, as well as my own room, so hooray for faithful preparation. Hopefully the kids get excited when they see it too. My classroom as a whole is still coming together, but it is rather exciting to have one!