Elementary School Competition Winning Work

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Judo and International Exchange

by Akiho Higuchi
Sixth Grader, Koshu Municipal Ijiri Elementary School

I am a member of the Judo Junior Sport-club. During the past summer vacation, some German people came to Yamanashi City. When I learned that they would join our Judo training, I felt like a dream came true. I heard that this is the first time in 23 years that German people visited Yamanashi City.

On the day of the training, I started having butterflies in my stomach. Finally, I got to speak to German people and practice judo with them for the first time ever in my life. The Germans could not speak Japanese, so they use their bodies and gestures to express things they wanted to do. My partner, Marx, was 17 years old, but he looked bigger than my father. The more surprising thing was that when we were practicing with each other, Marx did not count in “one, two, three.” Instead he said “ichi, ni, san”, so that I could understand his instructions. I was very moved by his kindness. At the beginning, I thought the Germans had never played judo before, but in fact they used to practice five to six hours everyday in Germany. Even though their bodies were huge, they did marvelous handsprings. I noticed that the ways handsprings performed in Japan and Germany were totally different. I also realized that originated in Japan, judo had been well spread to people around the world. When Marx was taught by my friend’s brother to say “MA-I-U” (note: the proper way in Japanese is actually U-Ma-I) whenever having delicious food, he actually memorized it and told us about it. Marx is very funny, and he is a cool guy.

Before parting with each other, we folded origami cranes and airplanes and handed them to our German friends. They were very happy and shook hands with us. I was very sad that we had to say goodbye to each other.

International exchange is not only about getting to know people in Japan, but it is also a chance for us to be friends with people around the world. I was scared when I first heard about foreigners, but as we met each other and practiced judo together, I realized foreign people were very friendly. Even though we spoke different languages, we understood each other by gestures. It was a great learning experience for me. I thought to myself that I would become an Olympic judo athlete and visit Germany one day.