Friday, September 28, 2007

Japanese children 日本のお子供さん


I love children and I get along with them very well. Everybody who knows me well knows this much. But Japanese children are different, because they are.. well, different!! So, while in Japan I took pictures of my little friends and with my little friends.

In the home stay post you already saw pictures of Mao-chan and Shoutarou-kun. Here's another picture of Mao holding the picture book I bought her and wishing for peace, like all Japanese people in almost every picture..

She's got style, doesn't she?

In the first real day of the program after orientation day we went to Nanba in Osaka and rode the train for the first time. While there a mother and her two kids enter the train and stand in front of me. The mom looked nice so I asked her for permission to take pictures of her children (In Japanese, I swear) ...

That little devil in the green shirt looks cool!

I try to take another shot and he glues himself to his mom, then pulled her hands and tried to hide behind them, but I caught the culprit at the right moment..

Kakkoi na~, omae!

In the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, I found a group of students in a school trip, so I took a picture of them and then they noticed me and started flocking towards me and posing and saying 'san kyuu, san kyuu, san kyuu' (Thank you). Great, I started a scene in the Peace memorial museum, a very grim place. Other program participants started taking pictures and the students -and their 'san kyuu's- kept increasing. I don't know how old they are, but obviously they have passed the 'cute' age and are well into the 'annoying' age. Someone has to teach them a thing or two about smiling though...

Cheezu! Peesu! SMILE!!

And now, the stars of the show! This was in the last day of the program, duing the farewell party. I tried to avoid the adults who were drinking (and drinking) and look who I found!

Sticking her tongue out in shyness. Gotta love the hairdo

There was another little girl beside our starlet but she was shy and didn't want to take a picture. So, to 'break the ice' I walked to her asked 'what's your name?' she said something incomprehensible. Again, 'what's your name?', incomprehensible. I give up. 'Let's take a picture' Nod! Easy!...

Lovely expressions..

Look at me; I keep smiling as I have no idea what's going on.

That's all I got, I didn't see much children and sometimes I didn't have the courage to ask their parents permission for a picture.

During home stay, home stay mom noticed that I got along with Mao and Shouta and she told dad 'there's a sense of attachement, because Samer speaks Japanese'. It was a new word for me in Japanese.. shinkinkan.. I tried to guess the kanjis to understand it.. 親切のしん、最近のきん、感... 親近感. 単語ゲット! :D

See you next post.