On a cloudy morning a couple of weeks ago, 26 noisy 3-year-olds at the Kamimeguro Nursery in Tokyo's Meguro Ward were cheerfully throwing themselves into their exercise class in the hall. One after another, the little boys and girls challenged themselves to leap a vaulting horse, jump a rubber rope, balance across a beam and whiz down a slide.
Looking after them were three day-care staffers, including 25-year-old Dan Ehara, who stood by the children sliding down the slide and walking along the low beam -- which, to them, was a perilous bridge over a river where a crocodile lay in wait.
"Be careful not to fall guys! And don't rush your friend walking in front of you," Ehara said to the children on the beam, as he simultaneously lifted his arm up and down, acting as gatekeeper of the slide.