Arigato Magic & Easter Fun – April Newsletter 2025

nori — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 23:59:11 +0000

Happy Easter!

Spring Fun at Japanese Club!

Look at these adorable rabbit egg holders we made!

To wrap up the spring term, we had a special Easter-themed session at the Japanese Club at Shotley Bridge Primary School. The children folded origami bunny egg holders—such a fun and creative way to finish before the holidays!

Watch the video tutorial: How to fold a Rabbit Egg Stand

The Japanese Club is part of Newcastle University’s outreach programme and is supported by the Japan Foundation Sakura Network.

I’ll be taking a little break from the club to focus on some exciting new projects—but I’ll be hopping back to Shotley Bridge in September! ( Photos from our Japanese Club sessions )

If you’d like me to visit your local school, feel free to share my school workshop package with them!

New Video

My new Arigato Magic video is live on YouTube!

In this video, you’ll learn how to say “Thank you, snow” in Japanese.

I had originally planned to share it during the winter, but spring arrived before I could hit publish! Sorry for the delay—hope you’ll still enjoy a little snowy magic this spring!

Japanese Art, Culture & Language Workshops

For the past 12 weeks, I’ve been running fun, hands-on Japanese workshops for 8–12-year-olds at Leadgate Youth Club.

Each session explored a different theme—language, food, anime, ninja, and more—through activities like calligraphy, origami, and chigiri-e (torn paper collage).

Big thanks to Building Self-Belief CIO, Newcastle University’s community outreach, and the Japan Foundation for making this meaningful project possible. It’s been a joy to share Japanese culture and spark curiosity in such a vibrant group of kids!

Beginner’s Japanese Online Course

118 students have enrolled in my Udemy course: Learn Japanese with Bocchi & Pocchi’s Creator! Here’s what one student had to say:

“Amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the lessons. Noriko’s teaching is so engaging and interactive. Her English is excellent, and she uses many cute pictures to help me remember the words. The lessons are easy to follow, even for someone with no background in the Japanese language. Thanks to her vivid illustrations, I was able to retain most of what I learned. These lessons include many useful daily dialogues in Japanese. I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to learn Japanese from scratch or is planning their first trip to Japan. Definitely 5 stars class!” – W Nicholson

Ready to start your Japanese learning journey? Join me today!

Buy My Books (from me!)

My picture books (signed & personalised) are available here!

Enjoyed this post? Share it with your friends on social media!

Join my mailing list

Would you like to learn about upcoming events, see my latest artwork, and receive insight into the process of making art?

Sign up my mailing list below to receive my newsletters.

The post Arigato Magic & Easter Fun – April Newsletter 2025 appeared first on NorikoArt.