Mirror mirror on the wall, who was the sharpest looking scarecrow of them all? Suppaiderman!!!

Remember back in July when all the town 5th graders made scarecrows? Well they have been hanging in the rice fields ever since. And before the big typhoon all the town heads went down and decided which was the winner! Although, I thought they all looked pretty fantastic! The officials decided that the funniest, cutest and clearly most clever of them all was...Suppai-derman!!! LOL. Yep, Noah's team won! And I love that my son and his team thought *so* out of the box on that one! It was totally the most original idea...anyone and myself included had ever heard of! Congratulations to Noah and his fellow teammates. The creators of team Suppaiderman! LOL. Remember suppai means..."sour" in Japanese. And in the hot steamy Japanese summer...some iced cold lemonade or lemon shave ice/kakigori would be perfect! And us parents of team Suppaiderman also helped. In fact remember my hands turned black with all that newspaper rolling...to help stuff up Suppaiderman. : )

All kids on team Suppaiderman brought home these goodies. A bag of lemon jelly. Which is perfect considering they created...Suppaiderman, LOL! And just some other little treats too. Noah threw the lemon jellies in the freezer and he split them with Branden. : )  Anyway...just thought you all would like to know...Suppaiderman won the scarecrow contest! Hahaha. Isn't that cute! : ) 

Country kid fun! Noah’s 5th grade class, made scarecrows to hang in the local rice fields! And how we spent American Independence Day, just a quiet little backyard BBQ here at home...

The 4th of July! American Independence Day! Was just a regular school day here in Japan. : ( However, on the bright side? A fun school day! A making scarecrows at school, type of school day! Fun! : ) Plus a backyard BBQ for our family of 4 would be later in the evening. So a very good 4th of July nonetheless. : ) Making scarecrows in the countryside or rural areas of Japan is pretty common. And at our school the Father's Club runs this. It is for the 5th graders only and it runs every single year. Noboru assigned himself Noah's group, that way he could spend some quality time with Noah and me. So that was very nice! 

Each group separated by their own working area on a huge leisure sheet. Our group worked so well together! 

There is only 1 JHS/middle school in our tiny town of just under 5000 people. And there are 2 elementary schools. Our school, which has a small number of students 260 students total combined all 6 grades, meanwhile the other school has a total all 6 grades of about 41 kids all 6 grades. : ) So a very tiny tiny town indeed. And our 2 schools have a playful competition each year with the scarecrows. Between their 5th graders and our 5th graders. And they get simple prizes. But they are looking for creativity! Thinking outside the box. Not just a clone scarecrow...you know... like we're all used to seeing. They want creative...and thinking kids! I think Noah's group was super imaginative and creative however the other groups were very creative too. I know our school did an outstanding job this year! See this? See it's a lemon, right? Okay this is so cool because it is a play on words! If you speak or understand both English and Japanese, you will LOVE Noah's groups idea! You know how there is Spiderman? Marvel comics right? Noah as you know loves Spiderman. Anyway he and his friends started brainstorming. Noah said...Spiderman. Then they thought....something extra creative. So they thought and thought. And then they thought...since it is hot summer in Japan. And people are thinking of cooling off. Lemonade. Lemon shave ice. Lemons are sour. Sour is Suppai in Japanese. So they made a Suppai-derman! Get it?! LOL if you don't understand both Japanese and English you could be thinking. WHAT in the heck? But trust me...it's clever!  It's actually super brilliant actually! 

The play on words was fantastic. And we were all so down with making the best darned....Suppaiderman! You ever did see! The perfect Super Hero for rural Japan! If you should feel like you are about to come down with heat stroke...just holler and your friendly neighborhood Suppaiderman should be there lickety split! To cool you down with a refreshing lemony beverage! Hahaha. : ) 

I rolled so much newspaper. My hands were black from the print. I had to go and wash the print off my hands. The whole mood of the gym? Exciting. All us parents were super pumped. The kids were so into making their scarecrows too. 

I snapped this pic as I came back from washing my hands. 

Go team go!!!

Noah made sure to tape his gloves down because he said Spiderman always bends his fingers this way. So Suppaiderman should too. Oh and...our guy doesn't shoot web-shooters out of his hands. He shoots ice cold lemons at you! You know...to help keep you refreshed! Suppai/sour!!! Nice and sour but refreshing! When life throws you lemons! Make...lemonade! Super creative! I think our team might win it this year! There's like a set number of prizes this year and I think they'll get one for sure!

This was another teams. They just made an ordinary guy! Not too terribly creative, but a nice scarecrow nonetheless. Very nice indeed! : ) 

This was super creative! In fact I loved this one! This was Onigiri Man! His face was a rice ball. His outfit was so cute made out of our local town rice.. which is why I had to gray out the label. But this was super creative and so nice! This is sure to win something! 

Our school made 6 scarecrows. They will be hanging in the rice fields in our town soon... along with the other tinier elementary school's scarecrows too. I can't wait to see how the other school did too. I bet they did fantastic! : )

This one is a Japanese farmer. And that's why this scarecrow is so tan! And because he is a "farmer scarecrow" he has a beautiful sunflower on his chest. And 2 CD's on his hat because in rural Japan they use shiny old CD's to keep the crows away! I loved this scarecrow too! Again...super creative. You can clearly tell that the kids thought deeply about the making of this. The CD's. The sunflower. The tanned farmer skin! A lot of thought was put into this scarecrow. And again...I'd like to see this scarecrow win! In fact....if I were a judge...I'd give every team a prize! Which is clearly... why I would never be asked to be a judge. I'm too much of a fluffy heart! Hahaha. I want everyone to win! : ) 

A slightly blurry picture of Mr. Gorgeous! But doesn't he look so happy, you guys? Noah was so happy that day! Having fun with his mom and dad and classmates.

And then each team carried them outside. School just let out and all the other grades were in rows outside. Walking rows. And the 5th graders went and showed the other grades their masterpieces. : ) The other grades were very kind. And ohhed and ahhed! It was a fun day!

We had a simple backyard BBQ, on the 4th! Just 6 chargrilled burgers. Cheeseburgers. Baked/roasted potatoes. Corn. And marinated chicken and veggie skewers.

Noboru was getting ice in his cup, when I snapped this pic. We 4 enjoyed a very nice simple meal. It was awesome. 

We had ice-cream for dessert. Choco mint ice-cream. So anyway there ya have it. How our fmaily spent the 4th of July this year! Making scarecrows and having a quiet little backyard BBQ here at home. : ) 

How about a little fire Scarecrow?!!

Sorry, you mention the word scarecrow to me, and the first thing that pops in my mind is the Wizard of Oz! Anyway, to welcome the Fall, our town has a scarecrow making contest every year. As do many towns and cities throughout Japan. Luckily for us, living in the countryside, the scarecrow look quite lovely standing in the nice big rice field. They are in the background in this pic.

Here's one.

And here's another.

I like that this one has a traditional Japanese top and a more Japanese face. Very cute. ; )

This one reminded me of E.T.

Sorta funny with the huge plastic head.

Quick, beam me up Scotty! This alien one sorta neat, I thought!

This one with the help of straw, had sort of rockin' hair!

School girl scarecrow!

Hubba hubba! And to quote the fantastic and funny as heck, Long Duck Dong (16 candles), I'll just say...."what's happening hot stuff?!!!" LOL! ; )

What a scarecrow, what a scarecrow! Is this girl stacked or is she stacked?!!! @_@ LOL. Anyway, thought this might get a smile or a laugh. And for those of you living in the US or overseas. At least this way, if anyone ever was curious if we have scarecrows in Japan, you can answer, yes they do. : )