by Timothy Leoncio
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MHS students placed high and earned a chance to go abroad at the annual Japan American Society of Hawaii’s (JASH) Japan Wizards Competition on Feb. 23 at Kapiolani Community College. Two teams of three students representing MHS each managed to place in the top three of their category, with one of the teams winning a free trip to Japan. Team A placed second and Team B placed third and won the sponsored trip to Japan since they were the top-scoring public school.
“The out come was really unexpected,” said Senior Kara Nakagawa who was on the Level B team, “When the awards ceremony came around, we were amazed that our score landed us in the overall top three.” The two teams were teams A and B. Team A was comprised of 1st and 2nd year students, while team B was comprised of 3rd and 4th year students.
The three rounds of questioning and judging proved to be stressful for the competitors. “I felt really nervous when the competition started,” said Sophomore Melanie Takeya who was on the Level A team, “Throughout the whole time I felt nervous and didn’t feel any better till we were out of the room.” Nakagawa added, “I was pretty intimidated. Nerves got the best of me because I was worried I’d forget everything I had studied.”
All of the hard work and perseverance paid off as the most desired prize, the free trip to Japan, was awarded to the B team. “I am super excited about the trip to Japan,” said Nakagawa, “Since we are all seniors, going to Japan for free will be the most amazing and memorable graduating present ever.” Zuckeran added “They were definitely excited and kind of in shock.”
The students had spent much of their time preparing for the competition by studying around the clock. “They studied not only with me but on their own as it got closer,” said Zuckeran, “They got together, called each other up on their own; on the weekends, afterschool, whenever. I’m proud of them for the fact that put in a lot of hard work and in the end it was fruitful.”
The competition was not all severe as fun cultural activities were also prepared for the students. “This year they had tea ceremony, they had Japanese calligraphy, they had fish painting, gyotaku,” said adviser Corey Zuckeran. Takeya stated, “It’s really fun and there are activities down at the competition that make the nervous feelings go away. It’s for us to learn more about (the) culture and gain new skills.”
The students will go to Japan during next summer break, and will hopefully learn much from the experience they worked so hard for.
