Japan Tour 2018 - Blog #4

Monday, March 26, 2018

We’re halfway through our Monday here in Obu.  This morning the girls participated in a conditioning practice on the track.  They started out with some running and then did a variety of new drills and exercises.  I took several notes and have a lot of ideas that will be implemented immediately to our training back home.  It’s not an accident that this group of women is as successful as they are.

Yesterday was an off day for the Shigakkan athletes.  Kiwa (Ryoko’s daughter) took care of us.  She opened the wrestling room (dojo) for us and we spent a solid hour working on our motion and experimenting a bit.  A couple of our athletes had a breakthrough in a specific problem area that we’ve been focusing on for quite some time.  I’m really excited to see it in action at tonight’s practice.

Following our mat practice, we went to the mall to look for some souvenirs and to eat in the large food court.  The mall was very similar to a traditional American mall, so there was no culture shock there.  However, there was a bit of a cultural clash at the end of our shopping experience.  We showed some of our true American colors as one of our gracious hosts waited for the group to arrive at the meeting spot on time.  I had a lengthy conversation with her about cultural difference.  She said that Japanese teenagers are never late (I haven’t confirmed that with anyone else, but I certainly believed her).  It turned into an important teachable moment when we got back to the dorm and then again this morning. 

Some of our girls were convicted and felt bad.  As I chatted this morning with Morgan (Gabby’s brother who joined us on this trip), I told him that “feeling bad” is a luxury that we take for granted.  If we’re disrespectful, directly or indirectly, we can move on quickly from the shame by covering it with “feeling bad.”  Almost like we take privilege to forgive ourselves.  It relieves us of our regret/shame, but it doesn’t address the missed opportunity to respect or honor someone who is serving you.  It’s complicated, yet so simple.  Do what you’re supposed to do, be where you’re supposed to be and be on time and you are respecting and honoring others.  It adds value to both parties.  It’s having empathy for them and understanding they also have a schedule.  It’s putting others before yourself and making sure that your desires aren’t always the center of attention.  That’s uncommon for American teenagers, isn’t it?  We have to reverse engineer our thinking, don’t we?

In the US, we tell high school students that they are the most important thing on the planet.  We bend over backwards to individualize and differentiate everything they do.  We give them a smorgasbord of choices and empower them with many decisions.  We make it our mission to reassure them that they’re special, unique, privileged, etc.  There’s great intention in this freedom and potential for incredible growth and understanding, however, there are sometimes unintended consequences, too.  We can have our cake and eat it, but we also must have caution when doing so and never lose sight of the big picture.  Other people matter and we can’t forget that.  We must be mindful of others’ schedules and lives.

C.S. wrote, “humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”

Think on that for a while…

I know I have been.