Dec 18th, 2008
This year, Nippon Kan AHAN’s cultural tour program hosted about 1,400 kids from 26 schools from the Denver Metro area. Children’s classes from elementary, middle school and high school came to Nippon Kan headquarters for a morning of Japanese cultural activities.
The school buses usually arrive at 10:00 am. The tours begin with a lesson on the history of Nippon Kan, and a facility tour. Depending on the age of the children, Japanese history, sociology and architecture are also discussed as the tour winds its way into the dojo. In the dojo, the children are able to participate in hands on demonstration of origami, shodo, Aikido and Japanese children’s games. After this part of the tour has been completed, the children are shown around the Japanese folk art museum and gardens as tour facilitators also talk about the philosophy of AHAN and a description of some of the projects for children that AHAN is involved with around the world. The tour ends at Domo where all children, teachers and parents enjoy a Japanese lunch.
The school tour groups range in size from 35 to 150 and are guided by Nippon Kan General Headquarters AHAN International Program Director Emily Busch, John Cruise and student staff.
All of the children’s lunches are prepared early on the morning of the tours at Homma Kancho’s Domo Restaurant, located on the premises of Nippon Kan Culture Center Headquarters. The cost per person for these tours is $10.00 per person. $3 is used to cover material costs. The remaining $7 is given to AHAN for use in AHAN projects overseas. The tour staff and chef staff at Domo all volunteer their time to support this ongoing project. On this day in December, the last group for 2008 was a small group of 35. All members of the group, both young and old enjoyed their adventure into Japan for the day.
Written by Nippon Kan Office Staff Coordinator
Tyffany Price