Author: billkralovec

Our school held its annual swim carnival yesterday. We are fortunate to have an indoor swimming pool at the school. The architect did a good job by having a natural light come into the pool, despite it being below ground level. The elementary school students competed in over 60 races in the afternoon. Parents and students alike were entertained by the races. I was the starter for many of the races and so you can hear my voice in the videos below.

The first video is Oliver’s 25-meter freestyle race. There are a couple of regular swimmers in the school, so Oliver held his own and earned a ribbon. There is no need to point him out in the video as he is in the lane nearest to me.

Ocean is competing in the next video in the 25-meter fin race. The students wear fins and start in the water. She has nice form and I think finishes second or third in the race.

The highlight for me was the father-son relay race. The fathers started on the blocks and at the half-way point, picked up the sons and dragged them holding onto those foam worms. There was a bit of confusion at the start and we all started at slightly different times. It was very funny and Nadia got a good laugh at us trying to swim.Oliver and I went to dinner last night to celebrate. It was good to spend time with him alone.

 
Both Ocean and Oliver earned ribbons in the relays and solo races. It is nice that they learned to swim and feel comfortable in the water. They also have good attitudes towards competition, trying their best and being positive about athletic competition.

The International Baccalaureate curriculum requires students to demonstrate their learning at the end of their elementary school with an exhibition. The students dive deep into a topic, and this year, Oliver’s grade 5 class looked at the push and pull factors causing migration around the world. It is a very relevant topic in today’s world. The video above is the opening speech. Oliver was a bit nervous but did a good job.

Besides introducing their topics, the students sang a couple of songs and showed the video of the process of the exhibition. They then went to their booths where parents and students could ask them questions about their topic.

Oliver focused on Libya and the perilous journey of refugees crossing the Mediterranean into Italy. His research led him to look at dictators around the world and how oppressive governments push people to migrate.

Oliver is growing up and like his grandfather, Popa and his mother who are both quite social. He loves spending time with his friends. I snapped this picture of him riding around the neighborhood with one of his classmates. Our house is one story above ground level with a garage underneath, hence the view from above.

Congratulations Oliver! We love you!

(I am catching up on blogging this weekend.

Owen’s middle school “B” team won the Western Japan Athletic Association volleyball championship on May 20. This was his first year out for the sport and he really enjoyed it. The “A” team also won their division. Both teams are pictured above.

He was the captain of the “B” team although he could have been a substitute for the “A” team. It was his first year and he wanted to play more and when the coach gave him the choice, Owen chose to start and lead the team. It was a good experience for him.

Owen loves sports and played baseball, basketball, soccer and volleyball this year. I am glad we are at a small international school where he can play different sports, not specialize like many students have to in the USA to even make the team, and he can make the teams. His team won first in the WJAA in all sports except basketball, where they finished third. I would like to thank athletic director Pete Heimer, and coaches Mike McGill, Rodney Ray, Michael Routh and Nakamura sensei for their work with Owen this year!

I have been super busy with school as we are approaching the end of the year, so I have not been posting as much as usual. Yesterday, Oliver, Ocean, Nadia, Kenta and I biked to Expo ’70 park. We spent the morning walking around the park while Nadia and Ocean shopped in the mall. The park is a huge green space near our house in the north of Osaka. It was the site of the Exhibition 1970, similar to the world fairs they used to hold in the 19th and 20th centuries. The park today is a multi-use area with fields for playing sport, playgrounds, a couple of museums, some nature areas, etc. Behind the boys is a massive work of art built for the expo, called “Tower of the Sun”. 47 years later, I wonder what they were thinking, although it is quite distinctive. We met up for lunch at the food court in the mall and then biked home. A really nice time!

Thursday we went to Oliver and Ocean’s student-led conferences. You can see the videos of Ocean going through her learning on our family YouTube channel.

It is so funny that the kids get really nervous and excited for showing us what they have been doing in school. Oliver will be heading to middle school next year and I think it will be a good change for him. Being with the same teacher all day must be hard for him and the teacher. The moving around and different teaching styles will help him. However, the challenge of staying organized will be tough for him.

The convenience stores always a huge variety of cold drinks they come out seasonally. I discovered the “Relax Orange – Orange + Jasmine”. It was the perfect refreshment on a bike ride on Thursday night. It is not very sweet and the jasmine gives it a nice aroma and after taste. It will be replacing the “Litchi + Salt”, which is a spring drink.

Finally, the weather in May and early June has been perfect! It feels like that Mediterranean sunshine, with bright blue skies. The nights and mornings are cool, however, the humidity feels like it is lurking. The summer in Osaka is oppressively hot and wet. I often go to the university for meetings and I snapped the picture below. The Spanish-style buildings and Chinese fan palms give it a California feel.

This book is right “in my wheelhouse” in many ways, so of course, I liked it. I enjoy historical fiction, the story takes place in Osaka, where I live, and expatriates play a role in some of the stories.  Author Min Jin Lee is Korean-born but raised from age 7 in New York. Her book brings attention to the discrimination Korean immigrants faced and are facing, in Japan, still today.  It follows four generations of a Korean family, starting in a fishing village in Busan in 1912 and ending in Yokohama in the late 1980s.

Many Koreans immigrated to Japan from when Japan annexed Korea in 1910 through to the Korean War in 1953. Over 2 million Koreans came to Japan, but most repatriated to their ancestral homes following the end of World War II. They were treated very badly in Japan, not being able to find jobs or good housing. The book really gives you the sense of how tough they had it, always on the brink of starvation and struggling to get ahead. Adding to their misery, life in Korea at the time was probably worse, so they were stuck in Japan. The Korean people had been through a lot in the 20th century, and even today, the misery continues for the North Korean people.

Today there are about 800,000 Korean residents in Ikuno-ku, a ward in the southeast of Osaka. It is the area in Japan with the most Korean immigrants and their descendants.   As you can see in my top photo, it is a rather poor area, with narrow streets, older buildings, etc. It reminded me a bit like a typical Southeast Asian city like Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, but of course, somewhat cleaner and more organized, because this is Japan. We went to dinner a couple of weeks ago at a well-known Korean restaurant (second photo). We heard people in the streets speaking Korean. It is a really cool area to walk around and explore.

The title of the book, Pachinko, is a Japanese gambling game, something like a slot machine. They are quite popular in Japan, but like casinos, they have a reputation of being associated with organized crime. It was one of the few industries that Koreans could find employment. Several characters in Lee’s story become rich through owning pachinko parlors.

The book mentioned the burakumin (hamlet, or village people), which is a lower caste of people from the feudal era in Japan. I had never heard of this group, but apparently, they are still around today. I need to learn more about them.

In summary, Pachinko is a good story and brings attention to the Korean community in Japan. Lee has a good understanding of Japan, having lived here, and knows the Koreans here. I highly recommend the book.