Tag Archives: playground

Toy: Cassava Leaves

Leave a comment Posted by on June 25, 2014
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Ifugao children walking home from school in Batad

These children and those before them that have passed me by on the paddy dike are holding cassava leaves by their stalks. They would discard the leaf blades and use the leaf stalks to make kwintas (necklace). I remember doing this when I was at their age.  

To these children, the mountain slopes, the rice paddies and the space underneath their houses are their playground.  Anything found within can be their toys like cassava leaves. They may not have those toys citified children have nowadays, but it’s not an unfavorable circumstance, for when it comes to objects that are used for play, it’s the imagination that counts. If a child can create something out of anything, then this sort of learned skill is even more favorable, and that makes manufactured and assembled toys not a big deal after all.

Ifugao, Improvisation , , , , ,

Rail Vehicle Adoration

Leave a comment Posted by on May 24, 2014
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Japanese have very deep attachment to trains. They are even experts in making them such as this shinkansen

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The view from Asukayama Park. People love train watching

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From where I'm standing, there's picnic table and those trees below have been felled so as not to obstruct the railroad view, presumably. Obviously this spot in Asukayama park is intended for train viewing

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Little boys are crazy over trains. This father and son in Minami-senju are waiting for trains to pass in the multiple tracks below

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What the father and son are viewing

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Antique steam locomotive on the left and a non-working streetcar on the right in a children's playground. Kids are free to go inside and play pretend

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Tin tram toy (streetcar)

Japan, Transport , , , , , , , , ,