June 19 - Every month, volunteers from the American Embassy staff participate in a community service activity to build upon our relations with our neighborhood. In the past these volunteers have tried to improve our community by planting flowers, picking up trash, donating food to the needy, playing soccer with disabled youth, and mapping the sidewalks of Minato Ward for accessibility by wheelchairs. Last month Embassy Tokyo pre-schoolers and their parents visited a local retirement community to cheer up its senior citizens.

I enjoyed accompanying these children to the Sun-Sun Akasaka Retirement Center to watch them perform. The kids were excited to dress up in home-made masks of lions, bears, kangaroos, elephants, and other animals. The young voices began a song about visiting the zoo and the children acted out the role of different animals as they sang. Four young boys particularly seemed to enjoy pretending to be lions! They thought they looked fierce, but all of the adults found them terribly cute. For their final act the Embassy children sang the Japanese song “Tulip,” and many of the senior citizens joined them in singing about blooming tulips.

Although most of the American kids do not speak Japanese, and only one of the senior citizens spoke English, they seemed to get along just fine when they mingled after the performance. The children enjoyed the attention of so many “grandmas” and “grandpas” and the senior citizens seemed to relish stroking the hair and patting the heads of such energetic, lively children. I was grateful to the Sun Sun Akasaka center for providing such a wonderful opportunity to teach our Embassy children about the importance of community service.

Until next time,

Jim