JAPANESE STUDENTS PLAY IN PERRYVILLE

PERRYVILLE -- It looked like child's play when the Japanese students spun a top across the parquet gymnasium floor, but the American students couldn't quite grasp how the toys worked.

Despite the language barrier, the Japanese and American students were able to communicate through games and toys at an assembly Thursday.

Twenty Japanese high school students demonstrated their native children's games and toys for students at Perryville schools.

The students are visiting from Suijo High School near Tokyo, Japan. They leave Perryville on Monday to visit New York City and Washington, D.C.

Colorful tops spun across the floor as the Japanese students played. A rope is wrapped several times around the stem of the toy and then released, spinning the top. The game originated in China.

Other toys included an airplane, which looked like colored propellers on a pencil, and little sacks filled with marbles of small rocks. Children try to juggle the sacks, which resemble bean bags.

Most of the American students had trouble getting the planes to fly, but T.J. Cummings, a fifth-grade student at Perryville, knew how to use them. His family is hosting one of the Japanese students.

Another popular game was Ayatori, the Japanese version of Cat's Cradle. To play, a child needs about 6 inches of yarn formed into a loop.

During the assembly, two Japanese girls showed the fifth- and sixth-grade students how to create a rice field, river, bridge and broom by crossing the yarn through their fingers.

Yoshikazu Sato, a science teacher at the Japanese school, and Kumiko Kato, a student, later showed a reporter how to play. As they played, Sato plucked two strands of the yarn from Kato's fingers and created a new design that resembled a Japanese instrument. The game can be played by either one or two people.

Games were only part of the assembly Thursday since the Japanese students wanted to share gifts, too.

"They are here to teach you about Japanese culture," David Ruhman, a Perryville sponsor, told the students. Part of that education included a lesson in Japanese dancing.

The boys invited Perryville students to join the Soranbushi, a traditional Japanese folk dance. It involves clapping and swaying your arms back and forth. The 14 female students then danced to a song from a popular Japanese rock band.

The Japanese students also entertained their American hosts at a banquet Thursday evening. It was sponsored by TG USA Corp., a Japanese owned company in Perryville.

This is the first trip to the U.S. for the Japanese students and their two sponsors. Kato said she enjoyed Perryville so much she didn't want to leave.

"Americans are very kind and friendly," she said, adding that she would like to attend college in America.

Perryville students will go to Japan for two weeks in June.