The New York Sophist

Our stop at Kitakyushu University was amazing for a couple of reasons. Of course we had amazing hosts, food, drink and an interesting debate, but additionally this was one of the most organized, punctual and well planned student run debate clubs that I have encountered. In this photo, the American debaters Chris and Tony are given a tour of the club room at Kitakyushu by one of our hosts, and our opponent for the debate, who goes by the name “Pan.” We were treated to a nice suprise when we were shown the debate room, which brought nice continuity to the tour:

No it’s not the sexy man picture. Look again. It’s an American flag, signed by members of the 2007 Debate Exchange Tour. It was cool to see it displayed so proudly by the debate club.

After this tour, we were treated to some snacks and preparation time, then the debate started. Some of Pan’s family came to watch the debate, which I thought was really nice. They drove nearly 5 hours to come see the debate, which shows how much they care about his endeavors. Here is a photo we took just before the debate of Pan, his partner who went by the name “Jimmy,” (a nickname he picked up in Australia while studying there) and the Americans:

We look so happy to be about to debate!

After the debate, we went to a fantastic party (nomehotai? I hope I spelled that right, but I have some trouble learning this great language). Here is the collected team having a great time, and enjoying what was definitely a successful debate well planned and excecuted by these great students.

Thanks to everyone who made this fantastic day possible! Such a blast.

Anything I say about the quality of the students that I have had the chance to meet, talk to, and watch debate during the tour will be lacking. I have had such a great combination of experiences – fun and exciting combined with intellectual stimulation – that it is hard to express my full appreciation for the students who hosted us and made it possible. But I’m going to try to detail the events as best I can.

First is Kyushu University in Fukuoka, they have an amazingly beautiful campus as seen here:

It’s a totally new campus, so everything was pristine. The debate was about banning mobile phones from those who are minors, and was attended by about 100 students. I gave a talk about the Second Life Debate and recieved a good number of criticisms and questions. Then we had an amazing reception with many delicious foods – I really enjoyed a kind of beef stew served over rice with okra. Simple flavors, but very delicious.

The students were very well organized, and very excited about the debate:

The girl on the right kept trying to convince me that I should eat natto, which is a sort of fermented soybean dish usually eaten for breakfast or maybe lunch. I haven’t become brave enough to do it yet, although I almost did this morning.

Kyushu University was a great stop on the tour, we were treated as honored guests, given a great debate, and hosted with a fabulous reception by some really outstanding debate students!

One of the best things about this stop was meeting Prof. Inoue, who really took a great interest in my studies and work, and we had a great conversation or 2 about University life. One of the most interesting stories he told me was how he judged a debate round alongside Charles Willard once. Amazing! He also printed for me a story about how Musashi used to live in Fukuoka City. He really took a personal interest in hosting us, and also handed us off very nicely to our next hosts.

Thank you Kyushu University!

I have only about 10 days left on the tour, and I must say it doesn’t seem like I’ve been in Japan that long. Of course, by now I am very anxious to get home to my regularly scheduled life, but at the same time I feel like I just arrived.

The tour is an exceptional experience, no doubt. I think that the key part that keeps it all together is the generosity and care of the host schools and host debaters. Everyone goes out of their way to make sure that we are entertained, fed and housed beyond anything we could have expected.

The most interesting element to me has been insight into how Japanese debate operates. They are still very committed to policy debate, but there are a few parliamentary teams here and there popping up. The future for Japan I think will have more and more parliamentary teams, but policy debate is so well supported at the student level that transition to parliamentary debate in total would be very difficult. The built in retirement system will see to it that debate continues uninterrupted at the student run level. The wildcards are the few programs that are directed by faculty. They might choose parliamentary debate, but I doubt it. The reason is that there are many more tournaments in the policy style (which they call academic debate). Nearly 4 or 5 to 1 in some areas, so if you want to teach debate, you simply must do policy debate to get a good number of tournament experiences.

I don’t have a preference myself, although Japanese policy debate really should be called and studied under the name “academic debate” because it is a fully different form. The evolution of Japanese debate took a very different turn at some point and developed its own theory and patterns of argument, as you can see from my earlier posts. I think that coming here with the expectation that the debate cultures are the same or even operate under the same limits and rules is not smart. Most debate students, for example, feel that a topical counterplan is equivalent to conceding the round.

I think it would make a fascinating study.

I am right now in the hotel lobby waiting on our ride to the university for another debate on the topic of equal pay for equal work. Tonight we fly to Tokyo and are there for a couple of days. I hope to be able to post some more pictures and give a great report on my next most anticipated stop on the tour – conducting a debate workshop for Toastmasters club members in Tokyo!!

Today was a very unique and exciting experience – teaching Japanese high school students. I started the day by (oddly enough) meeting Texans in the hotel lobby who are here in Fukoka just checking it out. We went to the school about 11, and then met the principal and had tea in her office and spoke with her while one of the English teachers translated. We then moved to the teacher’s lounge for lunch and worked on the debates with two Americans who are in the Japanese English Teaching program (JET) and work for the consulate. This was the first debate of the tour where the Americans were on opposite sides in the debate.

I regret not taking a video of this, but it was really unavoidable. I sat at the back of the room and took photos of the event, but it’s not the same as having a great video. The lecture went well, although I think I had trouble keeping my vocabulary to the level of 2nd year English students. There were a few frowning faces as I spoke, but I think it worked out well. The teachers seemed to enjoy it and thought it was good so I’m pleased. Many of the students’ questions were excellent and I enjoyed answering them. Overall it was an experience I won’t soon forget. It’s not every day you are invited to speak about debate to such a great group.

When we first arrived at the school, we were asked to remove our shoes before entering and to put on slippers. We were introduced to the Principal, who was very excited to see us. She welcomed us into her amazingly large office, and presented her business card to us in formal Japanese style. Then we sat, and she had one of the English sensei translate for her as she spoke to us for a while.

Here is the coolest part. She told us that before she was a principal, she taught Japanese history so she expected us to learn some before we left Japan. I told her about my interest in Miyamoto Musashi. She was surprised, and then told me that her first job was teaching at a school set up by and run by his descendants. That is, she taught along side of Musashi’s descendants. Oh man is that cool.

But that’s not all we learned:

The school day, we learned, is really long in Japan. There are tutoring sessions that begin at 7:30AM and class begins at 8:30. School goes until 4:15PM, but then there is after school tutoring, sports practice, clubs, and “cram” school in the evenings where students go to off-site places to learn even more to advance in their classes. Overall it seems the day ends around 8PM for these students, only to begin again in less than 12 hours.

I now have some free time, so I plan to check out a nearby shrine, then we are having dinner with some University students, then beers later with one of the Americans we met earlier.