Eight-year-old Sachiko lives with her family in Tokyo, Japan's capital city. Japan is a country in Asia which consists of lots of individual islands and which is surrounded on all sides by the Pacific.
The name Sachiko means “child of luck” and is written like this in Japan: 幸子. In Japan they don't write with letters but with characters. The children learn the Japanese characters in nursery.
Since Sachiko started going to primary school, her day has started off very early: her alarm clock rings at 5 o’clock. Then they have a typical breakfast. Instead of cornflakes, she likes cooked rice with a raw egg and soy sauce. Rice is part of virtually every meal in Japan and they also often eat fish. Then she has to hurry to make sure she gets to school on time, because punctuality and discipline are very important in Japan.
She has recently started going to an art course for mangas after school. Mangas are Japanese comics with pictures in black and white. What she finds most difficult is drawing the eyes, because the eyes are supposed to show what the figure is feeling. Currently, Sachiko is also attending a course in her free time in which she is learning lots about the Japanese tea ceremony, which has an etiquette all of its own.
Sachiko gets excited every year about all the festivals because then she can wear her kimono. A kimono is a dress made of silk or cotton which is fastened together with a belt.
In January, Sachiko visits friends in China with her family. Every year, they celebrate Chinese New Year there between 21 January and 21 February. The streets are often full of magnificent processions with a dragon dance. For this purpose, the Chinese make a colourful dragon with a very long body and fasten it to several poles. The dragon is then moved by dancers through the air so that it looks like the dragon is flying. Particularly the colour red is very important because it is the colour of luck and you can always use a bit of luck.
And Sachiko also always looks forward to the cherry blossom festival. In the spring, the cherry trees in Japan blossom very intensely for around ten days. In the park, she celebrates with friends and family under a cherry tree with a large picnic. When it starts to get dark, the beautiful white and pink blossoms are actually illuminated in her favourite park in Tokyo. Then she is allowed to stay up later than usual and go for a walk through the mini wonderland with her family.
The name Sachiko means “child of luck” and is written like this in Japan: 幸子. In Japan they don't write with letters but with characters. The children learn the Japanese characters in nursery.
Since Sachiko started going to primary school, her day has started off very early: her alarm clock rings at 5 o’clock. Then they have a typical breakfast. Instead of cornflakes, she likes cooked rice with a raw egg and soy sauce. Rice is part of virtually every meal in Japan and they also often eat fish. Then she has to hurry to make sure she gets to school on time, because punctuality and discipline are very important in Japan.
She has recently started going to an art course for mangas after school. Mangas are Japanese comics with pictures in black and white. What she finds most difficult is drawing the eyes, because the eyes are supposed to show what the figure is feeling. Currently, Sachiko is also attending a course in her free time in which she is learning lots about the Japanese tea ceremony, which has an etiquette all of its own.
Sachiko gets excited every year about all the festivals because then she can wear her kimono. A kimono is a dress made of silk or cotton which is fastened together with a belt.
In January, Sachiko visits friends in China with her family. Every year, they celebrate Chinese New Year there between 21 January and 21 February. The streets are often full of magnificent processions with a dragon dance. For this purpose, the Chinese make a colourful dragon with a very long body and fasten it to several poles. The dragon is then moved by dancers through the air so that it looks like the dragon is flying. Particularly the colour red is very important because it is the colour of luck and you can always use a bit of luck.
And Sachiko also always looks forward to the cherry blossom festival. In the spring, the cherry trees in Japan blossom very intensely for around ten days. In the park, she celebrates with friends and family under a cherry tree with a large picnic. When it starts to get dark, the beautiful white and pink blossoms are actually illuminated in her favourite park in Tokyo. Then she is allowed to stay up later than usual and go for a walk through the mini wonderland with her family.
