Walking through the empty hallways of an old building on the outskirts of Ermita, a colorful entertainment district facing Manila Bay, the voices of about a dozen children echo.
"Breeze goes like this!" Junichi says as he moves his hands in a comical gesture, causing up a roar of laughter from the group.
Then Mariko, the group's 21-year-old leader, comes in, asking Shin to make a happy face. "Act as if the lights have just come on after a long blackout," she says. "That makes you look elated, right?"
The children are having their play rehearsal in the otherwise quiet and unused hallway, as they do every Saturday.