The little building sits in front of the tennis pavilion at Three Kings Reserve. Inside, children from 18 months to 2 years play with the colourful toys and Lego-like pieces until they hear sensei (teacher) Miho Yamazaki play her piano.
It is the "clean up song", a signal for them to start tidying up and get ready for the class. Almost instantaneously and with little prodding, the children drop their toys in the proper basket and bring their square mats to the front of the room where Miho is waiting for them.
The playgroup is called "Himawari" - sunflower. No deep, hidden meaning there. It is just an image Ms Yamazaki liked and decided on as a young teacher dreaming of opening her own school.
She came to New Zealand five years ago, teaching at a kindergarten on the North Shore. Having been a teacher in Japan for 14 years, she observed the good things New Zealand early childhood education has to offer and saw an opportunity to offer the best of both worlds
"A really big thing wasn't just to push the Japanese culture as the only way to do it or the only thing," she says.
"There are a lot of immigrants in New Zealand, so the base culture is New Zealand. But the main idea is to respect and to learn about and to put meaning into their Japanese origin and roots."
Ms Yamazaki says she finds a lot of children learn English much faster than their immigrant parents and tease their parents about their difficulty.
"So it's about children appreciating that it's not about ... one culture being above or below, or one language that's better or worse," she explains. "It's just about difference in languages and difference in cultures, and everyone respecting and understanding those differences."
"If they say a word in English, we don't say, 'no, no, no, we only speak Japanese here'. We tell them that 'yes, that is the correct word in English. In Japanese, we say it like this'," she says.
She believes respect comes from the children naturally discovering and understanding these things for themselves.
Two-year-old Moana Radovanovich - a little bundle of Japanese, Eastern European and Maori ancestries - listens attentively. Her Japanese mum, Misha, says the playgroup gives the children a small glimpse of what the Japanese culture is like. "I think it's a really positive thing," says Misha.
Mrs Radovanovich adds that a side benefit is having a supportive network of like-minded parents.
"We like to get together outside of class and may go to cafes or picnics or each other's houses."
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