By KATH GANNAWAY
NINJAS, sumo wrestlers, Samurai warriors, Japanese ladies in beautiful kimonos and a Ninja Turtle set the scene for Wesburn Primary School’s first ever Japanese Cultural Day on 21 May.
Japanese students and their teacher from the Upper Yarra Secondary College joined the Wesburn students for the day, which included Japanese folk tales, origami, cooking and conversation with hand-made finger puppets, making dragons and a traditional tea ceremony.
Puppeteer ‘Showco’, fresh from the Melbourne Comedy Festival, amazed and thrilled the young audience with her bamboo stick tricks and ‘Ninja Ken’ and ‘Sushi Monster’ puppets.
Family and community members were also invited along and had fun as they did the rounds of the various activities.
Principal Anne Stenhouse said the day was a great success.
“The feedback has been extremely positive,” Ms Stenhouse said.
“It’s been a great hands on way of getting the extended school community involved and we are looking forward to doing it all again next year.”
