“The children were crying with fear. It was a success.” These were the first words my coworker said to me as we took off our crudely made demon masks in a storeroom hidden in the back of the school. Half an hour before we had silently descended upon the kindergarten: bursting into classrooms and purposely trying to frighten the kids. This is Setsubun, a festival held the day before the beginning of Spring in Japan. It’s accompanied by a special ritual […]

Categories: Kindergarten Life • Tags: demons, festival, japan, kindergarten, matsuri, ogres, oni, spring, teaching, tefl, tokyo, travel