Today is an adventure for my son: his juken, or high school entrance exam, which he’s prepared for all year. This morning we got up early, riding the train down to Yokohama where the two high schools he’ll be applying for are located, both of us wearing health masks to make sure we didn’t catch this year’s flu from someone while riding the train. Naturally he had the Kit Kat his mother had given him, since Nestle’s popular chocolate-cookie snack has become the official food of test-takers and hardworking students in Japan, as it sounds like kitto katsu (“you will surely win”). Today and tomorrow he’ll take his tests, divided into math, kokugo (“national language,” e.g. Japanese) and English. It’s been a big experience for him, learning to focus himself on something important although he was just 14 when this all began, and I’ve learned a lot about my son. Of course every parent views his or her own child in a special light, a phenomenon that’s called oya-baka or parent-fool in Japanese, but I can’t help feeling pride for my son.
The Japanese have created an amazing culture of advancement through studying hard.
