Soccer and the Town Festival

I’ve been playing soccer here. It has been a lot of fun. Something that shocked me was that after we play outside, we rake the entire field, because it is made out of this coarse sand. And when we play inside, we mop the gym floor after we’re done. It’s a totally different mentality, and although at first I saw it to be a waste of time and pointless, I appreciate it more now to come play on a field and it is in pristine condition ready to be played on.

On another note, my good friend was in his town festival as a samurai. He got to dress up and parade around town on a horse. It is something like the Santa Clause parade at home where locals line the streets and eat yaki-tori (BBQ chicken on a stick) and drink beer.
Another thing I also found myself thinking about while in Japan is the safety regulations we have in place. Here is a picture of a playground in Japan. Back home I have never seen a playground like this before. They have even taken see-saws out of playgrounds in Canada because they are too dangerous. From an immediate standpoint, that is a logical action. Kids are getting hurt on see-saws so lets remove them from playground so kids can't hurt themselves. Next we'll take out the slides, and the monkey bars and we'll pad the ground with soft woodchips. Where does it stop though? The playgrounds in Canada have started to become so safe that kids can't explore their limits. I remember falling off the monkey bars all the time. Kids are tough, they get up and try again. From a long-term perspective it may not be wise to try and protect our children by removing potentially dangerous obstacles. Let kids make mistakes, pick themselves up and learn from the experience. Anyway, thats enough deep psychology for one day. I need sleep!