Hotcakes
Today I made hotcakes at the kindergarten. Hotcakes is what pancakes are called in Japan. They resemble Scotch pancakes and are delicious.
The new school year is fresh here so today the second year students made their younger counterparts a tasty treat to welcome them.
We cooked our hotcakes in big electric portable pans. There was no tossing, only flipping. The kids did a good job and only a couple burnt themselves, and then not badly.
I tried to explain the concept of tossing a pancake to the teachers and also about pancake day/Shrove Tuesday. It was difficult. They said it sounded delicious.
After cooking I lined up with the second years as they grabbed pompons and made a guard of honour for the first years. They looked scared as they walked up to their seats on the stage.
Their teacher called out their names and they shouted, “Hai.”
The second years then stood up and said their names, as did the teachers and myself, before consuming our by now cold, hotcakes. They were delicious. The second graders acted as waiters, the biggest hotcake was reserved for me.
After hotcakes we played a game, I think in England it is called freeze tag. If tagged by the person who is “on it” you must stand with your arms outstretched and legs open until another player crawls unfreezes you by crawling between your legs. I was good at tagging and freezing but too big to unfreeze anyone.
One kid got tripped by a class mate and smacked his head on a pillar. It was such a blow that he didn’t cry.
As I left I found a box in my bicycle basket. A surprise gift that contained Japanese sweets and rice cakes. A good day.
