Every year, the Japanese Business Association (JBA) gives grants to teachers for projects that teach about Japan. This year my class got a nice grant from them. We did a unit on Heian Japan that combined information, Sei Shonagon's writings from The Pillow Book, and the story, The Girl who Loved Caterpillars. Their project was to write an ending to the story, The Girl who Loved Caterpillars. The ending had to incorporate art and other cultural elements from the period as well as two pieces of writing in the style of Sei Shonagon. The student product was a written and illustrated hand scroll. The grant that we received covered: 45 Pillow Books, 30 of Jean Merrill's translated and illustrated The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars, and a dvd of The Tale of Genji.

The people from the JBA were impressed with my students and that they were so interested in the Heian period. They asked me how I knew about Sei Shonagon. I told them about the USC East Asia institute. They were very pleased.[Edit by="mkang on Jul 18, 4:31:47 PM"][/Edit]