 Hello folks!
My name is Shunpei Otokawa, a staff of Purchasing Planning Team. I am from Tokorozawa city.
My families have been living there since Edo period. This traditional city holds a big Matsuri festival with floats in every few years. Now, Tokorozawa city in Saitama Prefecture is known as Tokyo's bed town. It is also known for producing of Sayama-cha, one of the three major Japanese tealeaves. The three major Japanese tealeaves are Uji-cha, known for its color, Shizuoka-cha, known for its aroma and Sayama-cha, known for its taste.
And more over, Tokorozawa is a memorial place where the first airplane flew in Japan.
 Today, I would like to introduce the culture of Japanese children. It was in the 1970s and I was just an ordinary kid.
When I got home from school, I yelled out "Tadaima (I'm home)!" at my mother, threw out my school bag and went to temples or shrines near my house with my friends to play, because there were no computer games.
At those places, seniors and juniors at my elementary school naturally gathered together.
When the boss of the kids calls out "close in!", that is the time when the game starts;
 In fact, the thief team is allowed to go save their captured teammates. The tip for this game is to follow-up the teammates who are a slow runner or less muscular juniors. In spite of these efforts, these types of children are easily captured anyway...
So, juvenile bosses who are fast runners and having good strength would save them.
This game is called differently depending on areas, but I called it "Doro-Kei" Doro is for Dorobo (thief) and Kei is for Keisatsu(police). This seems to be just a children's play, but there are factors to learn such as leadership and teamwork. In this game, we have learned the spirit of leadership the strong supporting the weak.
 In addition, we played with newspapers; making samurai helmets and swords by folding and rolling the paper. We also thought deeply how to save the world from the evil spirits as we were a hero of some story. When it gets dark, we realize it is time to go home. When I returned home late and yelled out the second "Tadaima (I'm home)!" of the day... oh my god, my mother stood in front of me with her feet set apart looking like a devil.
Then she shouts out "What on earth do you think you were doing until this time?" at me. I felt defeated.
 At the end of the day, I went to bed feeling exhausted. During my sleep, I charge my energy, to dream again tomorrow. As you can imagine, I grew up dreaming without Nintendo or Play Station.
I will be happy to invite you to a dream world like this when you have a chance to visit Japan.
If I have a next chance to write, I will take you to "Dagashi-ya" (lolly shop), a children's social place.
See you soon!
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