Kamikita Preschool
During the Christmas season, here in Misawa the local elementary schools have performances. I was asked by one of my co-workers, at the school I teach at part-time, if I had a friend who would be willing to play Santa Claus. Well, I found a co-worker who was willing and off we went. Two consecutive weekends, I went to two different schools. When we get there, we walk in and there are rows and rows of parents seated on the auditorium floor in front of the stage. It’s crowded and there are lines of tripods with a wide array of electronic recording devices mounted on them, all aimed at the stage. It’s amazing to see how many parents were here to see their children perform. It didn’t matter whether their child just stood there and didn’t do anything remotely close to what they were supposed to or if they were the star of the performance, they just wanted to see their child being apart of something. It was a beautiful sight. There were several displays of music, dance, and a variety of stories, almost all of which I was unfamiliar with. Most of the stories were Japanese folklore and since my Japanese is not that fluent, I wasn’t able to understand everything.
After everything, all the younger classes are brought to the stage for the coming of Santa. At the first school, Santa just walked in from the side of the audience. At the second school, they had all the children ready on the stage, but behind the curtain. In front of the curtain, they had a large box that was wrapped like a present. Of course, my friend was hiding inside the box. They opened the curtain and began by having the children call for “Santa-san!” Once the chants were over, they opened the box and Santa appeared. Of the few children that began pouring out tears, I couldn’t tell whether they were afraid of Santa himself or the 6’4″ human being towering above their little world.
The principals gave me the privilege of being able to take photos backstage or up right in front of the stage. I managed to get some good photos and of course a select few will be added to my portfolio. Everything will still be displayed here though for your viewing pleasure. I was using my 5D paired with a beautiful 85mm 1.2L. What a great lens, it is nothing but GLASS from front to back, and boy does it take some great photos. There are going to be quite a few pictures from this series of photos, so this post is probably going to be quite long. The photos will be posted in separate galleries though on the Gallery page. Anyhow, Enjoy!
