What Does a Piano Competition Have to Do With Raising Children?

The Semi-Finals and the Finals for the 16th Chopin International Piano Competition in Asia were just held at Showa University of Music in Shinyurigaoka. My just-turned 11-year-old son was in the competition.

The Chopin International Piano Competition in Asia is one of the highest level and most prestigious competitions all of Asia. Just to be able to compete means that these children have made it to the top level of their class. Some of those kids are simply amazing!

In October the finals were held for Tokyo and, in his first attempt, we were pleasantly surprised when our son won a Bronze Medal and made it to the semi-finals. He is in the 11-year-old to 13-year-old category so we did not expect to win a medal (some of those 13-year-olds are incredibly awesome and there is a big difference in growth and body strength between a 11-year-old and a 13-year-old!) So we were extremely happy that he even made it to the semi-finals in his first year trying. Most 11-year-olds didn't pass the earlier competitions.

If you have a child and they are involved in any sort of competition like this, then you know it is not just a competition for the child; it becomes a group effort involving the parents, siblings, an instructor (or two or three) and, perhaps, even some family friends. My contribution? I make breakfast and dinner almost everyday, do the grocery shopping, and am chauffeur and delivery boy so that my classical-piano-trained-wife can focus on working with our son in honing his skill and talent. Thanks to this group effort, and the extra effort of his instructors, he fared well.

A few days before the semi-finals, we had the chance for our son to practice on a real Steinway grand piano for a few hours so I decided to make a video of his practice. It's not often that one can get to where a real Steinway is located and be allowed to video tape and have a run of the stage! So, I just had to make this video! When it was finished, I just knew I wanted you, dear reader, to see it.

This was a live performance, in a private seating, on Jan. 8, 2015 at Shiodome Hall in Tokyo of Chopin Impromptu. If the link doesn't work, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGg9FEXgqTY

(If you enjoyed the performance and the video by Mike Rogers and Ken Nishikawa, please go to the Youtube link and give us a "Thumbs up!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGg9FEXgqTY)

Trust folks, that when kids get to this level of skill (the top level in their peer group) in anything; be it any musical instrument, ballet dancing, classical violin, soccer, baseball, swimming, painting; heck, anything involved with art, skill or talent, that they have gotten to the point that it is almost 100% completely up to the child as to whether or not they can succeed. Only if the child really wants to do this and they have the inner talent, hunger and desire to succeed in their hearts and minds, can they take their "game" up to the level they need. The parents can push and push and push forever, but it won't matter (in fact, pushing too much is detrimental); the child must feel and desire to succeed in their goal in their entire being in order to, well, hate to be corny but to "Feel the Force." A flower cannot be forced to grow.

Well, as it turns out, our son didn't make it to the finals. He was a bit disappointed but... at the semi-finals, he played the best he's ever played, so we are more than proud, pleased and satisfied. We couldn't have asked for more! In his first try he made it to the semi-finals so we are not disappointed at all. 

If he didn't play well; we might have been disappointed. But, he played his heart out and played wonderfully. At this level of competition, winners and kids who didn't win (because win or lose, all these kids are winners), are all decided by the tastes and whims of the judges. 

One of my sons instructors was at the competition and witnessed his performance and praised him greatly; she believes he can win. Maybe he can win, but not this year. My son says he wants to try again next year. 

So, we get to go through it all again… Next year. What a wonderful experience and great memories for parents and their children.

As my friend Ken always says; "Dream as if you will live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow." 

As my friend Jyoti reminded me;

"What day is it?" asked Pooh.

"It is today." squeaked Piglet.

"Oh? My favorite day!" said Pooh.

Life is fun. We are happy. Hope you are happy too. 

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NOTES: I have harped on this subject relentlessly and will until the day I die: I am a professional in broadcasting so I like to think I know what I am talking about concerning the subject of TV. There is no way my son (or any of these other children who were in the Chopin Competition in Asia (or anywhere else) could ever be in this sort of competition or at this sort of level of skill had they been watching TV. Do your children a favor; throw away your TV set. For more, please refer to: The Plug-in Drug www.lewrockwell.com/2008/02/mike-in-tokyo-rogers/the-plug-in-drug/

School is, of course, extremely important. I choose my son's school for a variety of reasons and, soon, I will post about that. But for now I'd like to recommend St. Mary's International School in Tokyo. I know many graduates of that school who are leaders in business (presidents and high ranking executives of big companies in Japan) as well as well known musicians and athletes. In fact, in the music department, St. Mary's Boys Choir is internationally famous and has won many awards over the years... You don't get that way without skilled and talented professional instructors. I know that St. Mary's is tops in this country in these fields. I cannot count the number of times, in my capacity as a guy who did marketing for huge corporations in Tokyo that I have met big shots who were graduates of St. Mary's in Tokyo. http://www.smis.ac.jp/ 

The world is getting more and more difficult. It's getting harder to succeed, and even to survive in. I think this is because of the economy; and it's going to get much tougher from here on out. School is to teach math, reading and writing, but also needs to teach our kids how to think and get a meaningful job, a dream in life and how to prosper in our society. 

Get rid of the TV; get them into a top level private school (or even home school?) Our kids need all the advantages they can get.

THANKS: To my best friend Ken Nishikawa. Without Ken, none of these video productions could be possible.

ADDENDUM: August 27, 2017. My son made it to the "All-Japan Finals" again... "Hell time" at my house from now. Do or die! Step up and hit the home run or go back and try again..... School, study, practice - AND karate practice (he is one step away from Black Belt)... Could have NEVER done these things if he was watching TV.

Japan is Collapsing

The financial situation just keeps getting worse in Japan...

I send my son to a very exclusive international private school in Tokyo. It is very expensive too. So expensive is it that just about every family who sends their kids there has their company foot the bill for tax reasons. Me too. I could never afford it; the company pays. If the company didn't pay, he'd go to public school and get a crap education.

At that school there are so many children of foreign ambassadors and the bosses of big Asian and Western companies that the list is like a who's who of Fortune 500 company children.

Then there is our family. I drive a used Toyota four-door and most of the other parents drive new Mercedes Benz or BMW's with the occasional Saab running around. Many children have chauffers drive them to school. 

Not my kid. He's stuck with his hung-over and disheveled and unshaven dad behind the wheel every morning.

Our family is like a desert island in an ocean of opulence at that school.

Or, at least I thought so until the other day. 

I was at the grocery store where I met one of the moms from the school. I see her sometimes; she doesn't work. Her husband is an executive at some big company. She drives around in a very nice Benz. They are rich... Or, like I said, so I thought....

We were on the escalator at the grocery store and she asked me how work was going. I answered that work was tough for us, just like it is for everyone else now. We all have to work 3 times as much for 1/2 the money. She sighed and said,

"Us too. I don't know if we can afford to pay for school anymore!"

That blew me away. Here I thought these folks were loaded with money. Heck, they are, or were. I have a hard time with one kid at that school. She has two!

I said to her,

"Yeah. You know, 20 years ago, I sent two girls through international school at the same time and I don't really remember it being too much trouble, money-wise. Now? Now it's all I can do to work and send one!"

She didn't say anything but I could tell from the expression on her face that she was genuinely worried.

I thought about it and got angry. I am angry at the stupid Japanese government for taking our tax money and bailing out these zombie banks and keeping the status quo intact at the expense of the people and our children's future. I am furious that the situation has gone on for so long. I am angry that it is not only us who is feeling the pain but everyone else I know... I get angry when I read the news and see that 15.7% of all Japanese are under the poverty level. I get pissed off when I see that our debt to GDP is over 237%....

And I really get angry when I read that these idiots in government want to raise our taxes and keep with the failed policies of these last twenty plus years.

And it really really astounds me that the people who got us into this mess can get reelected again. What a farce.

Mish Shedlock writes about the disaster about to befall us:

Doorsteps of a Currency Crisis; Economic Illiterates Debate Monetary Policy; Monetarist Mush

Japan's grand experiment of decades-long QE coupled with Keynesian foolishness is about to take one last gigantic leap forward before it plunges straight off the cliff into a massive currency crisis.

Please consider the New York Times article A Call for Japan to Take Bolder Monetary Action 

For years, proponents of aggressive monetary policy have offered this unusual piece of advice as a way to end Japan’s deflationary slump and invigorate the economy. Print lots of money, they said. Keep interest rates at zero. Convince the market that Japan will allow inflation for a while. 

Japan’s central bankers long scoffed at such recklessness, which they feared would ignite runaway inflation. But now, the bank’s hand could be forced by an unlikely alliance of economists and lawmakers who have argued for Japan to take more monetary action after more than a decade of weak growth and depressed prices.

Championing their cause is the former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who is favored to return to the top job after nationwide elections next month. Otherwise deeply conservative, Mr. Abe surprised even his own supporters by calling for the Bank of Japan to be much bolder in tackling deflation, the damaging fall in prices, profits and wages that has choked Japan’s economy for 15 years. 

In escalating remarks over the last week, Mr. Abe has said that he will press the Bank of Japan to act on government orders if his Liberal Democratic Party wins the Dec. 16 election and even rewrite Japanese law to reduce the bank’s independence.

In a speech in Tokyo on Thursday, Mr. Abe said he would call for the Bank of Japan to set an inflation target of 2 to 3 percent, far above its current goal of about 1 percent, with an explicit commitment to “unlimited monetary easing” — an open-endedness that has caused jitters among some economists. The bank’s benchmark interest rate should be brought back to zero percent from 0.1 percent, Mr. Abe added.

He went even further over the weekend, saying in the southern city of Kumamoto that he would consider having the bank buy construction bonds directly from the government to finance public works and force money into the economy, according to local news reports. That raises concerns, however, the bank may be called on to bankroll unrestrained spending on more roads and bridges that Japan does not need. 

Economists cite several missteps by the central bank that have entrenched Japan’s deflationary mind-set and made consumers and businesses wary that the bank’s policies will stick. In early 1999, as the country’s economic woes deepened, the bank lowered a benchmark interest rate to virtually zero and said it would keep rates at zero until deflationary concerns disappeared. But an economic uptick in mid-2000 caused the bank to raise that rate to 0.25 percent despite protests from the government that the move was premature.

Monetarist Mush

Anyone who thinks an interest rate hike from 0% to .1% or even .25% has much influence on economic growth has "monetarist mush" for brains. Seriously.

The NYT does not name the economists, but I have no doubt they exist. Highly respected (for no reason) Richard Koo is one of them.

I have written about Koo on numerous occasions. From Japan's decade long experiment resulting in public debt of a 1,000,000,000,000,000 yen (a quadrillion yen), Koo reckons Japan failed to defeat deflation because it did not do enough!

Japan is in a crisis alright, and it was entirely self-made, by politicians listening to clueless economists all begging Japan to do something. 

One Thing Worse 

Central banks are bad enough on their own, but history shows that one thing worse than central banks acting on their own is central banks acting under control of politicians.

Committing to a little inflation will push stock prices higher, while a weaker yen will bolster Japan’s exporters and strengthen corporate balance sheets. Incomes will rise, fueling consumption and raising tax revenue for the government, said Kozo Yamamoto, a lawmaker of Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party.

“Basically, it’s what the Bank of Japan should have been doing for the past 15 years,” he said. “A few percent of inflation is nothing to be worried about.”

The economy is in the trash can and inflation is nothing to be worried about? Haven't these clowns in the government done enough???? We're doomed! Folks, get canned foods and buy gold and silver while you can.

For more please refer to:

Happy Thanksgiving! Sony and Panasonic are Junk! Japan Has No Leadership! Mish Shedlock Spells it Out!

Also for more absurdity and proof the US education system is in the sh*t can, read this: Japan Was First to Use Nuclear Weapons... On Korea???!!!! Dave in Austin is Confused - You Need to Drink More! http://bit.ly/TjWqO9