Crosswalk guard meeting

Yesterday I had to attend a crosswalk guard meeting at the City Hall.  Or rather, I had to HEAD a crosswalk guard meeting at the City Hall!  How did I ever get into this predicament!

Years and years ago, I read a funny article in the Japan times about a foreign woman married to a Japanese man and whose children went to the local elementary school.  Every year the school has to choose a PTA  president and vice president and every year, practically at any school you go to, there will be a long drawn out meeting trying to find volunteers for the different jobs, the last and most feared being the PTA president.  Even for class duties, the process would be long and drawn out with everyone looking at the floor and studiously ignoring the pleas for volunteers.  Everyone is always willing to "help" but no one ever wants to be the leader of any group.  (This problem is seen even in the Home Owners Association.)  I lived through this annual torture in each school my kids attended and the threat was always if a parent didn't attend the meeting he/she would automatically be given a position and so that was why we all went to meetings and looked at the floor!

Anyway, in this funny story, the foreign mother finally had had enough of the meeting that was getting nowhere and she raised her hand and said, 

"Okay.  I'll do it.  I'll be PTA president this year."  

Everyone was shocked into gaping stares and then they all ignored the foreigner and went back to trying to convince one amongst them to take the position.

"I said I'd do it.  I'll be the PTA president and since everyone is so willing to be "helpful" then you can all help me."

The poor vice PTA president who had already been chosen looked forlorn as she now had the bigger responsibilty of helping out and "controlling" this wild foreigner who had no idea what she was getting herself into.

I think the story went on to the year long experience and how all the meeting notes and announcents which the foreign PTA president took had to be translated for everyone, how she would boomingly announce "Well, if no one wants to run the bazaar this year then I declare it canceled." and everyone would step up waving their hands saying that the bazaar couldn't possibly be canceled and now that they thought twice they'd be happy to oversee the project.  (The vice president did have an exhausting year as I remember.)

In my crosswalk guard case, I was approached about becoming a member of the central committee and I politely turned the offer down laughing and saying that I was the LAST person they would want on their committee as I don't speak in front of a group well (not in Japanese) that I couldn't read Japanese nor write it at all!  

"I want to be "helpful" (there's that tricky word again) but I hope you'll be able to find someone else and that I'll only be thought of as a last resort."

I guess I'm the last resort, or maybe my polite refusal wasn't taken seriously.  The next thing I knew I'd been accepted into the committee as Vice Chairman!  

"WHAT!!!!!!  Are you all nuts!!!!!??!!!"

Because of Covid, the regular meetings have had to be held in smaller groups and being the chairman of each group is part of the central committee members duty and therefore, yesterday I got to head the meeting...  Sigh.

The City Hall staff went to a lot of trouble to get the written agenda to me in simple Japanese that I could read and understand myself but I knew from the beginning that I would not be able to follow word for word the four pages on the agenda.  Instead, I stood up and painstakingly read off the first sentence in Japanese to the group.  

"The meeting of the Nikko City Traffic Instructor Contact Meeting Autumn Workshop, will now commence.  I am the Vice Chairman, Watanabe and this is the Treasurer Mrs. S."

And then I laid my agenda down and played it by ear.  THAT too is not done in Japanese meetings.  Everything is always formally written out, everything is read aloud word for word and everyone reads along quietly.  I have always wondered about this boring way of leading meetings especially as I was the only one who couldn't actually read the papers being handed out!  But who was I to complain?!

Our meeting was about bicycle safety and we explored ways to teach children about checking their bicycles before ever beginning to ride them...  The crosswalk guards will all be called on to teach 6th graders later this year about bicycle riding as most of them will be going to middle school on bicycles next year.

I guess our meeting went alright.  No one seemed to mind my adlib way of conducting a meeting.  I wonder if anyone regrets that they put the foreigner in charge this year....

I was also featured in the school newspaper.

Tanya Watanabe

67 years old

Originally from America and came to Japan as a missionary 45 years ago.

Has been working as a crosswalk guard at the school for 12 years and before that did voluteer crosswalk duty for 8 years.  Altogether 20 years of being a crosswalk guard.

Took an interest in crosswalk guarding when my daughter was in elementary school and realized cars didn't stop for the children.

Message to the children:  People can communicate without words with a smile or a greeting and it is such an easy way to add a bit of happiness to someone's day.  I'd like the children to learn the power of a smile and a greeting.