Are you brave enough to enter Godzilla's Den?

We are over the moon to announce that our wee website has won two national prizes in the Japan Web Page Contest.  We have won one of the two Runner-Up prizes and we collected the most votes to scoop the Public Vote award.  This is an amazing achievement and pupils, staff and parents are all equally as excited about the results.  Two representatives from the school have been invited to the Japanese Embassy in London to receive the awards.  Photos and report will follow...

ENTER IF YOU DARE!!!  

But please leave comments if you like what you see:-) 

(All comments are moderated.)

Japanese Sports

There are many sports in Japan. The main ones are sumo wrestling, judo and kendo.  They are all very popular in Japan. Baseball is a major sport in Japan. There are 12 professional baseball teams. Six teams are  in the central league and six in the pacific league.  Both teams play at least 140 games each season and at the end two winning teams meet in the Japan series.

Martial arts
The most popular sports in Japan are Judo, Kendo and Aikido. Men came from a local judo club to teach us some judo. It was a lot like wrestling. They taught us that judo is one of the most popular sports in Japan and that judo means 'gentle way.'  We had to say 'Hajime' at the start.  It  means 'begin.'

Sumo wrestling
Is the national sport in Japan and it has been around for more 1,000 years. A sumo wrestler has to weigh between 100-200 grams and their hair is styled as an ancient warrior.  Rikishi is the Japanese for sumo wrestler. The aim of sumo wrestling is to make his Aponte touch the ground before you.  There are more than 80 ways to win!

Lunchtime Book Club

In our class our teacher has started up a lunchtime book club where we meet, read books, select our favourite parts and talk about them. Our first book, relating to the Japan topic is a book called Young Samurai.

Young Samurai is a book, by Chris Bradford, about a boy called Jack who reached the wondrous lands of Japan after a long voyage out at sea. He, his father, and the rest of the crew, are ambushed on their boat by ninjas under the command of an evil Japanese ninja, Dragon Eye!

He is rescued by the legendry sword master, Masamoto Takeshi, who adopts Jack after his son, Tenno, dies. Jack is left with his father’s rutter, which stores all the possible ways, and shortcuts, of the seas! He masters the way of the warrior at Masamoto’s samurai training school and prepares to defeat Dragon Eye!

The next book, after the way of the warrior, is Young Samurai, The way of the Sword! In this book Jack starts to train for the legendry Samurai competition The Circle of Three, in which he has to master ‘the way of the sword’ and, as a result, he completes it, keeping in mind that he was kicked out of the training school!

A Short History of Mario!

  by  Luis Ballesteros Cortijo 

Through the years, there have been many games like Mega Man and
Contra. But there has been one game that has made loads of new games
and that game is Super Mario. Mario’s first appearance was in Donkey
Kong from 1981 and then made an extremely big game called Super Mario
World. Then Mario got a big brother named Luigi in Super Mario Bros and
what some people do not know is that Princess Peach was originally named
Pauline in Donkey Kong and was also named Princess Toad Stool.

Worst Mario Game and Movie
Throughout the ages of Super Mario, there has been a lame Mario
game called Super Mario 2. In that game, you have a choice of
characters which are Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and a mushroom called
Toad. Now. I know what your thinking.  How could this be a lousy Mario
Game? Well in this game the main enemies are Shy Guys, Ba Bombs and the
main villain is a giant toad named Wart, but did you also know that a
game called Okey Dokey Panic had actually the same version of Super
Mario 2! They also made a Super Mario Bros movie which was the
biggest rip off since Mortal Combat, because in the movie we don’t get
to see the Mushroom Kingdom and the fact is that the Koopa Family look
like stupid little bugs! So all I have to say is that these two Mario
versions are big rip offs!

Large Amount of Mario Characters!
Through the years Nintendo has introduced new Mario characters,
here are some of them:

• Wario and Waluigi, Mario and Luigi’s evil rivals
• Petey Piranha, a big mutated plant with sharp jaws
• Bowser Jr, Bowser’s son!


Names of the Mario Games [1981 – 2009]
Through the ages, there have been loads of names for Mario
games, like :
• Donkey Kong
• Donkey Kong Jr
• Super Mario World
• Super Mario Bros.
• Mario Is Missing
• Mario’s Time Machine
• Smash Brothers Brawl
• Super Mario Sunshine
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Super Mario 2
• Super Mario 3
• Super Mario All Stars
• Mario 64
• New Super Mario Bros Wii
• Warning; the order of these games are random!

GOODBYE!!! (From Nintendo and Mario!)

Godzilla's Den!

DESIGNING AND MAKING THE VIDEO GAMES

Our class designed our very own video games for our topic on Japan. We knew from the beginning that our focus was to present our ideas to 3 Godzillas (3 experienced people from the video games industry). Sort of like the TV programme, 'Dragon's Den.' At first our group talked about the idea of a sushi chef who saves from evil sushi that tries to take over Japan! We split into groups of different subjects, one group was designing characters and the other was designing levels.


The character group designed all the enemies, points and characters while the level group designed all the levels and goals.  We also had to include a bonus level to collect points at the end of the game.

PRESENTING TO THE GODZILLAS

Once our games were finished we had to write a script about our video games to present it to the Godzillas who were a game fanatic, a game designer and a journalist. We all wrote a script about each thing in our video game and practised it lots and lots. One person talked about points, one person talked about a character etc.. Then we each made a slide show and added sound pictures and we designed a poster for each group to put at the end of the slide show. Also at the beginning of each presentation we all had to do a drama about the game, like if your character’s experiment goes horribly wrong and creates evil you could act that scene out.
When the day came to present it to the Godzillas most of the class was feeling excited and the rest were feeling excited and nervous at the same time and when they walked in to the room we all sang Blue Oyster Cult’s "Go Go Godzilla!!!" Then we all presented our games.






 At the end of each presentation the Godzillas asked us a few questions about our video games and told us about the things that they enjoyed about the presentations and we got to ask them a few questions about making games, playing games and reviewing games.

RECORDING THE PRESENTATIONS AS A MOVIE

We also recorded our presentations and slide shows and put them into imovie. We made animations for our game with "I can animate" the same way we made the tangram animation and origami animation. Our group did level one [where you have to defeat all the sushi in Tokyo] and level three [where you have to kill the Sushi King!!! ]Other groups did animations like on a roof of a pagoda fighting the last enemy, which is all the other enemies combined!



In another group’s animation you're running through Tokyo trying to defeat Ishi who is an evil midget who works for Yon Yang that wants to make Mount Fudgie erupt (Mount Fuji but it erupts fudge)!!!

Manga

 

Manga is the Japanese comic that is for all ages to read and made in all topics. Osamu Tezuka is the creator of Astro Boy one of Japans most famous manga characters. Astroboy wore tight black pants, green belt, red boots, no top he had black hair and brown eyes.
Manga characters have big eyes and small noses. First you draw an egg shape for the head and put one line down the middle and two lines across the way. Manga characters also have big pupils and their nose is drawn low down to their mouth.
Manga characters have ziggy zaggy and wavy hair. They will almost never have ginger hair or curly hair in Japan because it is very unusual.

Food

  by  Ewan-M

  by  luckysundae

The Japanese word for meal is gohan.  Gohan actually means 'steamed rice' but the Japanese use it so much that it is part of almost every meal! Some of the foods they like to eat are sushi, which is raw fish rolled up in a seaweed wrap, sashimi, which is raw fish and vegetables, rice, okonomiyaki, which is a pancake filled with many different ingredients, (okonomi means as you like and yaki means fried so it makes as you like it fried) soba and udon noodles.  Japanese also like miso soup and they are very keen on deserts they call wagashi. They eat sweet pancakes a lot and they sometimes shape some of the icing into traditional Japanese characters.  Japanese children take things called bento boxes to school instead of lunchboxes. Their parents make their fruit and vegetables shaped like their childs favourite characters like Mario and Luigi.
Japanese bento boxes usually contain:  ongiri = rice balls, furikake = dried fish flakes, pickles, curry, sausages, tofu, dumplings, teriyaki, kebabs, sushi and bitesized vegetables and fruit.
Our lunchboxes contain: sandwiches, juice, crisps, fruit, vegetables, chocolate, cheese and salami.

As you can see, the Japanese diet is very different from the British diet and they tend to have a bigger variety than us. Bento boxes are set into different sections for different things usually they are fruit and vegetables, main food and dessert. There are some amazing recipes for Japanese food on http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/cook/index.html

  by  avlxyz 

In class, for our Japanese topic we were trying out different Japanese foods, like sushi, wasabi peas, dried cuttlefish and lots of traditional Japanese foods!
Once again our class topic expert, Fai, brought in sushi for us to try and occasionally different dips with mixed soya sauce that they would use in Japan. Our teacher also bought lots of Japanese foods from the different Chinese and Japanese Stores like China town. We loved the wide range of foods that we did manage to grab hold of. Altogether in class we thought that Japanese foods were lovely!
Sushi is raw fish surrounded by sticky rice and rolled in seaweed, or it can just be raw fish rapped in seaweed, so the main ingredients are raw fish and seaweed. Wasabi peas are dried peas with a range of different spices that when you suck feel so, so hot! Dried cuttlefish is just cuttlefish, but dried up. When you eat it it feels all twiggy, as if you’re eating bones, or sticks.

Technology

  by  xcaballe 

Japan is famous for the technology it has and all of its famous companies, like Honda, Yamaha, Nintendo, Sony etc. etc.!
Honda has invented a robot called ASIMO that is made in the form of a human, to help around the factory! ASIMO is a white, with black joints, robot that can run up to 6km per hr and can even ride a bike and dance. WOW! Yamaha is an all around company and it makes a wide range of things from triangles and pianos to motorbikes and trucks! Nintendo, on the other hand, is a game company; it makes consoles and console games.  Sony make CD players, cameras, video games, computer monitors, TV monitors, PCs, laptops and more!
A Japanese professor called Professor Arai Kohei, has recently invented a computer system controlled by the users eyes!!! So over all Japanese technology is absolutely amazing!

Calligraphy

We tried Japanese calligraphy. It was great fun. Someone in our class, who is Chinese, taught us how to do it.
We had to hold the brush in a very strange way, but all the same we were thoroughly enjoying it. Fai, who is Chinese, taught us how to hold the brush, and use it. He was also showing us some of the writing he knew (a lot!) We tried doing calligraphy in a group at a time and I loved it (so did everyone else, of course.) Most of us were writing our names in Japanese, which we translated on the internet, and Japan in Japanese.

Calligraphy brushes have nice thick bristles, which come to a thin point at the end. You hold it with your thumb on one side, your middle three fingers on the other side (in level with below your thumb) and then your pinkie on the same side as your thumb (in level with below your middle three fingers. The class really enjoyed it!!!

Religion

  by  Ethan Prater 

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion that is strongly followed in Japan, as well as Shintoism. The name “Buddha” means “the enlightened one.” Buddhists follow the teachings of the Buddha, but to not believe him to be one of the gods. The Buddha was born named Siddhatta Gotama in around 580BC in the village of Lumbini in Nepal. He was born a prince, in a rich family. When he was young he had it very easy and he was protected from the harsh realities of sickness, suffering and death

The years went by and Siddhatta married and had a child but was worried about many things. He went outside the royal enclosure where he lived and went to many poor areas. For the first time he saw old age, sickness and death. He also saw a holy man. He made the decision to leave his wife, his baby son and his privileged life and began to search the world to try to find a higher truth or Nirvana, being free from sickness and death.

Siddhatta searched for a truth which would release him from the cycle of dying and rebirth after death. He studied with wise teachers, practiced meditation and lived a life of extreme self-denial and discipline, but still he did not find the answers he needed. The search took Siddhatta six years, but Siddhatta found enlightenment whilst sitting under a bodhi tree. Following this he became known as the Buddha and dedicated his life to spreading his message.

The Buddha came to understand that the answers live in the “Middle Way” living a life which is not luxurious or deprived. Buddhists believe that they can escape the cycle of life and death and reach Nirvana by following the Middle Way through the four Noble Truths of the Eightfold Path.

The Eightfold path is how Buddhists believe people should act, here are some examples. They should have the right understanding (seeing things as they really are not as you think they are,) right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration and focus. 

  by  Francesco_G 

Shintoism

Shinto’s believe in Kami spirits, and that there is a spirit in everything, so, for instance, there is a spirit of the mountain and a spirit of the river. The name came from two Japanese words meaning gods or spirits and a philosophical path or study.

Sadako Sasaki and the 1000 paper cranes.

  by  Lisa Norwood 

Once there was a girl called Sadako. She was born to be a runner and an athlete.  She had won every single medal execpt the 600 metres.  Her friend Chizuko became her coach to train for the 600 metres.  But every time she runs a 600 metres she always runs out of breath.  One day, during a 600 metres run she suddenly fainted and was rushed to hostpital.  Her  carrot loving mum came to see her and brought some carrots and carrot juice.  She didn't like kids who don't eat carrots, so she makes Sadako eat carrots daily, to help her get better.  Then her friend Chizuko showed up. She rembered that the cleaner of the hostpital had said that if you make one thousand paper cranes you could make one wish, so she kept making them, and making them so she could hopefully gain Sadako back. Eventually everyone in the town helped her make her one thousand paper cranes!! But this also made Sadako very tired when she needed to rest.  Sadako's mother kicked Chizuko out of the hostpital and told her not to come back. One night Chizuko sneaked back in to the hostpital to see Sadako. Sadako was in her bed crying because her mother had kicked Chizuko out. Chizuko spoke to Sadako, then Sadako looked up to see Chizuko. They played a little game. Next morning Chizuko came back to find Sadako dead.  They had managed to reach a total of 644 paper cranes. 
Sadako died of a type of cancer called lukemia that she developed because of the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima during WWII.  Today, people from all over the world send 1000 paper cranes to Hiroshima to remember the sad story of Sadako and as symbol of peace for the future.

Drama Workshop - 1000 Paper Cranes

After our visit to the theatre we got a special visit from two people that asked us about how much we enjoyed the sneak peek. We also explored the characters' personalities, for example Sadako's mum loved carrots and had carrot juice in her purse. They told us to write a short paragraph in memory of Sadako's death.  At the end we made a paper crane and we gave them to the people that led the drama.  We really enjoyed the drama workshop!

Tangrams

(image made available from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tangram_set_00.jpg under a Creative Commons Licence)
The first known tangram was invented in 1813 in China. At the time it was considered a game for woman and children. No one actually knows what the word tangram means. A likely story involves the Tanka people. Tanka people are Chinese river men who were great traders. They sailed all round the world and played with tangrams with when returning to their Tanka girlfriends! It first appeared in a book published in Japan in 1742.  Another story is that a man was carrying a square tile and he fell and the tile smashed into seven pieces and created the first tangram!
A tangram always has seven peices. There is a special tangram called "Sei Shonagon" which also has seven pieces but is much more complex.
We watched an animation called "Laughing Moon". It was created by a Japanese animator called Kiyoshi Nishimoto.  Kiyoshi Nishimoto was born in Shimonoseki City. He had graduated from the the Commercial Design Department in the Musashino Art University in Tokyo.  Laughing Moon is simple, clever and very funny.  It inspired us to make our own tangram animations.

We made our own tangrams out of gummy paper and cut out different shapes including, five triangles, one square and a parallelogram.  We then planned and filmed in  groups of threes and fours a minute long tangram animation.Then we added them all together to make one long film.  Lastly, we added our sound effects and some music to help make the tangram shapes come alive!!

Origami

Japanese people came to enjoy paper folding (origami) during the Edo period (1603-1868) when the production of paper increased and that made it easier for most people to enjoy origami.

The  oldest origami book in the world was published in 1797 and is called Hiden Senbazuru Orikata (How To Fold 1000 Paper Cranes.)

We tested out different designs of origami and together, with the other P6. class, we tried to make 1000 paper cranes... AND WE SUCCEEDED!!! Here are some examples of what we also
made: paper pagodas, paper frogs, star boxes and paper cranes.

ENTERPRISE
We made different types of Origami for the school winter fair.  To help sell the products we dressed up in Kimonos and Happy jackets which we got from the Japanese Embassy in London.  In the
star boxes we put chewy santa sweets. We also sold Hokusai block
prints of the Great Wave and fans that we decorated with ink. The things that
we put on the fans were all associated with Japan like Mount Fuji and
cherry blossom.  The money that we raised is helping to build a new playground for the school.