Sumo Day at KIST

Today was our annual New Year's festival at KIST.  A whole bunch of the sumo wrestlers from the local stables (we are in that part of Tokyo) come to the school to share about Sumo culture and celebrate the New Year with our students.
The wrestlers and kids work together to make 'mochi' rice cakes and there is opportunity for the students, and teachers to wrestle too.  It was a great day of fun learning for all.
Sumire didn't wrestle because she 'didn't want to hurt them'.
Enjoy the pictures

yummy rice cakes with her friends

with 2 sumo wrestlers

making rice cakes - you pound rice with a big mallet until it gets really gooey

the sumo wrestler's all get their hair done for them every morning. they cannot do the style by themselves. the man doing it spends 3 hours of every day doing this for the wrestlers at his stable

many parents helping with the rice cake serving

wrestling in the gym for students and teachers

me with a couple of wrestlers

a fun day for all!

The other half of Christmas Break!

Here are some pictures of the other activities from Christmas Break. We went to Nishiwaki to see Yuki's parents and then brought them to Michan and Kirin's for New Year's celebrations. Visited Kumi and Kenji's for Michan and Mayu's birthday and then headed back to Tokyo, along with everyone else in the country it seemed (made it through a 30km traffic jam just to get stuck in another 50km jam before entering Tokyo -  a long tiring ride indeed).

Santa came!

opening presents

Uncle Kirin!

before the New Years morning hike

on top of the mountain

mid hike

the NY food spread

quality time with Mayu

the kids with Kirin's parents

Happy Birthday Mayu and Michan

bye bye's

at the Ninja museum rest stop

a late present from Grandma - Sumire built the whole lego boat by herself!

the only picture i had time to take in London last week!