More than 120 students from nine schools in the Kanto Plain particpated in the soroman competition at the New Sanno Hotel. (Tim Wightman / Stars and Stripes)
The sound of thousands of tiny beads sliding up and down wires as directed by more than 120 school-age kids was enough to make their parents and teachers sweat on the sidelines Wednesday.
"Daddy’s getting nervous," Air Force Tech. Sgt. Raymond Ferrer admitted aloud.
He was watching his 9-year-old son, Nathan, from the back of the ballroom of the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo.
Forget the NBA draft lottery and playoffs that were taking place at the same time; even a parent wearing a jersey of a team playing in the Western Conference Finals stayed glued to his chair.
He, Ferrer and the other spectators were focused on the action taking place in the middle of the room, where kids from nine elementary and middle schools across the Kanto Plain were matching wits using an ancient math tool called an abacus.
The faster the kids could correctly calculate answers to problems written on paper or called out by announcer Russell Sparks, the closer they’d get to taking home one of the extravagant trophies on the stage in front of them.
"You have to have courage, and then you’re going to have [self-doubt] at the same time," said fifth-grader Joshua Orciga from The Sullivans School at Yokosuka Naval Base.
"It’s really hard to win against all these people."
Joshua denied he was nervous but said he was "really, really, really, really scared."
The kids were using the Japanese version of an abacus, called a soroban.
Long and narrow, each wooden soroban consists of 23 columns of wires/rods with five beads sliding along each.
Depending on location, the rods represent values in the millions, thousands or hundreds on down.
The students use them to add decimals and large numbers faster than many who use calculators, said Dave Russell, principal of Shirley Lanham Elementary School on Naval Air Facility Atsugi.
"When you watch some of the expert children, sometimes their fingers move like they’re using the abacus but they aren’t even using it. It’s impressive," Russell said.
The competition started getting fiercer a half-hour in as Sparks began calling out problems faster.
More and more kids started holding up their papers, indicating they were eliminated.
Nervous chatter filled the room as students turned around in their chairs after each round to see who had survived.
Two Yokota Air Base residents took home top honors: eighth-grader Emily Beemsterbore for the middle school category and fourth-grader Matsurika Palmer for elementary schools.
Bruce Derr, superintendent for Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Japan, said the event is a great way for kids to develop a connection to Japanese culture.
"I kind of call this [an] exercise for your brain," Derr said. "I’m amazed that they can calculate large numbers by just moving the beads. I just think it’s really good for the children in learning another way to do math and becoming more proficient in math."
More than 120 students from nine schools in the Kanto Plain particpated in the soroman competition at the New Sanno Hotel. (Tim Wightman / Stars and Stripes)
Volunteers pass out papers with math problems. (Tim Wightman / Stars and Stripes)
A student uses a soroban to solve math problems at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo on Wednesday. (Tim Wightman / Stars and Stripes)
Reina Lewis concentrates on a math problem during the soroban competition. (Tim Wightman / Stars and Stripes)
During the competition, the students used Japanese sorobans to calculate answers to written and spoken math problems. (Tim Wightman / Stars and Stripes)
