Our Planet

Text : Yuki Baba

The Yamanoko Shopping Street opened on March 30, 2021. I would like to share my perspective of how the events took place in my eyes.

The sound of the bell announcing the opening of the Yamanoko Shopping Street rang, and the loud voices of S, K, J and H saying, “Welcome! Welcome!” echoed. The number of customers gradually increased, and in Yamanoko’s Little Earth, which is bustling with people, there were S’s Everything Shop, M’s song stage, Y and K’s candy shop, and C’s magic shop. There were many shops mainly by senior children. Despite her nervousness, M sang Let It Go to the clapping of the customers. There was a long line at K’s *Gashapon shop, and it was so crowded that K struggled to respond.
(*Gashapon is a variety of vending machine-dispensed capsule toys popular in Japan.)

When E forgot her pochette at K’s shop, K gave S a pochette and *10 yamanoko in an attempt to return the pochette to E. S got a tip and went to hand over the pochette to E. S, who handed over the pochette, lined up at K’s Gashapon shop for the money she received. S was happy to get a gashapon (*10 yamanoko is the money that circulates on the day of the Yamanoko Shopping Street).
As the relationship between K, S, and E was created, I imagine that various communications were taking place in various shops where I could not pay attention to.

That day, I felt that the playground was no longer the usual playground, but was a Yamanoko Shopping Street. In a place called a playground, adults and children, children and children, and adults and adults who usually do not interact with each other, started to mingle as the roles of “shop clerk”, and “customers”. It was a new place and it was ever so lively. I was so surprised to see what I was witnessing.

One of the games that children usually play is a pretend game where they create a “pie” and a “cake” using mud and sand so perhaps this market project was a magnificent pretend game that involved children, Yamanoko staff, and parents. If you have the imagination, the power to express it, and the power to receive the imagination of others, cardboard will become a shop, and paper will become curry, sweets, and swords. The sharing of imagination is not completed within the range of 3 or 4 people, but by sharing it with about 40 people who participated in the market, the usual Yamanoko was transformed into a place called Yamanoko Shopping Street.

To be honest, during the preparatory period after the market project was launched, I was worried. I thought, “Will this project be really successful?” This may have come from the difficulty of sharing the “imagination” with a large number of people.

However, on the day of the event, everyone was so absorbed in it, and there was a sense of unity. It seems that both adults and children enjoyed shopping and communication by using the playground as a shopping district. I was impressed that it was a rich space where people could interact. I wondered who could have imagined this scenery, and I frankly respected the children and staff who made this project as a big project before graduation. It’s really amazing to be able to create such a rich space!

I think the reason why it was able to clear the difficulty of sharing a collective imagination was that the parents presented themselves as the last element of being a real customer. Yamanoko Shopping Street could not have completed itself without any missing piece. I really feel that it was a great experience for both the children and me. Thank you very much for those who had participated.