Mo' Sports Day

In September, Lady E. & M’s supplementary language school held a sports day.  It was a small piece of the Japanese education system in action in middle Tennessee.  Still, experiencing this traditional Japanese rite of passage while we are living here in the South was somewhat bewildering. I felt I’d had a day of being back in Japan—and I loved that day of limbo somewhere between the two cultures. 

Recent trade friction aside, the kids are alright

Just like in Nippon this sports day was one big track meet mixing in calisthenics, bonkers games, and die-hard martial marches. The kids were split into class teams and ran relay races including a wackier version with huge truck tires. They gamely offered up slapstick ball tosses, ran obstacle courses, danced, sang, built human pyramids, and went through an elaborate paper/rock/scissors contest involving everyone, including parents. But it's better than being in a classroom all day on a Saturday, right? The Big Idea remains to teach students about the virtue of healthy competition and doing one’s best, all the while learning how to cooperate within a team. The building blocks of Japanese society, basically.

The mid-summer heat and humidity were still oppressive. If any of the parents, myself included, had to do more than one of these games we’d need paramedics to remain standing. As it stands, I got sunburned again and yakked it up with other parents using my deteriorating Japanese skills. Naomi soaked up the cultural vibe and chatted with her acquaintances.

Some of the differences between the ‘real deal’ sports festivals I’d experienced in Japan compared to the Volunteer State version were:

- It's wasn’t necessary to line up at 0600 to reserve a good photo vantage point at the sports day venue; lots o’ space here.

- Old habits die hard. By 0730 there were huge family-sized sun tents erected in a neat ring around the track and field pitch. Parents eschewed the usual humble blue plastic sheet for more space and sun protection, comfort, and unrepentant dozing while the kids did their thing. Yeti coolers everywhere!

- Since most of students’ parents were expat Japanese here on work assignments, there were fewer grandparents present. Very few gaijins, too.

- The event started and ended on time. Yet somehow it lacked that precision, the esprit de combat that you feel in the air with the strict adherence to schedules and loads of “gaman” (enduring with patience and dignity) so venerated in Japan.

- Very-visible sheriffs were on duty protecting us from gun nuts.

Did I have fun? Yessir, absolutely. As I mentioned, it was like being back for a day in Japan, providing the fish out of water elation I seem to relish.

And the Rising Daughters™ appeared to have also enjoyed the day. They did their part during their team events. Both E. & M showed some decent sprinting prowess. Elena was the anchor for her grade’s girl’s team and won her leg of the relay race. Marina was a close second against a bunch of girls one year older than she was. 

The school principal sealed the close of the day with a properly formal farewell message amid the clatter of chairs folding and tent pegs clacking as distracted parents pulled down their sun tents and awaited the kids. Just like back in the land of the rising sun.

Somewhat dehydrated from the heat and humidity, we left for home and stopped for stomach-bloating 26 ounce sodas—only 99 cents at a nearby gas station. God Bless America, too.

Green Eggs and M.

School has started for real.

I have been spending time with Marina to help shape her study habits and offer nudges in the right direction. Recently we reached a waypost in connection with her English reading comprehension and phonics. That is, building and protecting her self-confidence as a reader.

Extracurricular reading is part of her school’s recipe for school-parent child-centered learning “partnership.” Ofttimes my book suggestions were derided by the M-ster as boring. As a fun and less challenging diversion I suggested “Green Eggs and Ham." This is the Dr. Seuss book I read to the girls when they were toddlers, reinforced by YouTube views of the old CBS animation from the 1960s.

As Marina bit into the good doctor’s rhymes her facial expressions took on a mischievous bent. Her brow furrowed when she recognized familiar sections, perhaps triggering memories of me reading it years ago. As she read aloud the words: “That Sam I am, That Sam I am, I do not like that Sam I am,” the tumblers seemed to fall into place. As we burrowed deeper into the text, roughly halfway through the book, she smiled and uttered, seemingly to herself, “I can really read this.”

Courtesy of CBS Productions

It was music to my ears. She generally reads with gusto and with incredulity at the words she’s discovering. It's tough work for her, and she earns each one, sometimes grudgingly. Still, it’s gratifying to watch your kids expand their horizons right in front of you, real-time.

We’re playing catch-up ball right now, but we are turning this franchise around!