I am a challenger and unique student & young researcher

As in Japan, there are proverb “If the nail stick out, it gets struck”, Japanese people are afraid to be noticeable within his/her class, instead try to fuse into their groups to keep harmony. Considering this culture, I may be unique. I have no hesitation to stand out within a group, and can take action alone when I believe if it is right thing to do even if it has never been done before. Instead of putting tremendous amount of energy to keep harmony, I prefer to put my energy to study in depth in my area of interests. In fact, after spending many of my hours researching what I love, I won the First prizes of the summer research and development competitions for three years in 2016, 2017 and 2018 in a row.

I am an experienced water polo player, and was captain in my water polo team both in junior high school and high school.

I am an experienced player of water polo. I have been a regular member of my school team since the first year of Junior high school. I do well in all the positions except keeper. I was chosen to be a captain for the Toho junior high School water polo club when I was in senior year of junior high school (which is ninth grade in the US) by teammates and teachers. I was also chosen to be a Co-Captain by Toho high School water polo club members and teachers when I was freshmen year of the high school. And I was selected as captain of Toho high School in year of Junior and senior in high school.

It might be surprising to people but because the school values the independency of the students, the water polo club of the school has neither coaches nor supervisors. Therefore, as the captain, my roles included the coach’s and supervisor’s job such as making practice plans, arranging schedules including expeditionary practice games, facilitating the meeting after every competition, contacting alumni, motivating team members and giving proper care and time to Kouhai (younger students). So being a captain in this water polo team meant taking heavy responsibilities.

---

The team achievements when I was a co-captain (2019-2020) and captain (2020-2021)

Year 2019

• Third place in Tokyo Junior competition in 2018

• First place in Chiba Prefecture Competition for Year 9 players

• Third place in Tokyo League Competition which qualified us to proceed to a regional competition called Summer Kanto Competition. （This competition is for all top three water polo teams from all the prefectures around Tokyo: Kanagawa, Saitama, Yamanashi, Ibaraki, & Gunma.

Year 2020

All the competitions in Japan were cancelled due to COVID 19.

Year 2021

• Third place in Tokyo High school competition which qualified us for a regional competition called Spring Kanto Competition.

• Third place in Tokyo League Competition qualifying us to proceed Summer Kanto Competition. We practiced extremely hard in order to win fourth place and qualify for Inter-High Competition (All Japan High School Sports), but our team ended up being fifth place. However, we were able to at least rank in the BEST EIGHT team among Kanto.

• I was awarded as “the top scorer” in Tokyo League Competition from Association of Tokyo high school athletes (koutairen-suiei-tokyo.net)

I was chosen to be one of the representative players of Tokyo Selected water polo team in 2019 and in 2021

I was chosen as one of the representative players of Tokyo by the Tokyo Selected Water Polo team’s coach, for underage of sixteen league in Japan when I was in 10th grade. I was the only one who was selected as a representing player of Tokyo Selected Water polo team from Toho High School water polo club. I worked hard to stay on the roaster. I went to Meiji Nakano High School, which is known as No.1 water polo club in Kanto area and No.2 water polo club in Japan, to practice almost every day with the other selected players (under selected Tokyo team coach), right after studying at Toho high school. Taking the train, Toho was about one hour and a half from Meiji high school. I continued to work hard for about 4 months. I was able to become one of the finalist members of Tokyo selected water polo team this year.

Also in 2021, I was again chosen to be one of the representative players of the selected Tokyo team by Tokyo selected water polo team coach for National league (Kokutai) in 2021, the biggest competition for high school students in Japan. Kokutai is usually held early in September, so I was at Meiji high School again practicing all day long with the selected members. In spite of the fact that all the other senior students have already graduated from all school sports clubs before summer or in the middle of July at latest to concentrate on studying for entering examinations for Japanese universities which will start from January. Half of senior students resign from clubs at the beginning of the senior year, which is April, so that they can concentrate and be able to focus their energy on studying. Since this is the norm in Japan, all my colleagues were surprised that I choose to keep my dream, going to training with selected members in Meiji Nakano High school to participate in the biggest competition until the end of summer, while studying for entering examination for universities at the same time. It is truly a challenging process in Japan. However, competing in Kokutai had been one of my dream since I started water polo, and I did not want to regret “not taking chances when they appear right in front of you”.

Unfortunately, at the end of August, it was announced that the National League has been cancelled due to emergency state has been announced all over Japan due to significant numbers of cases of COVID 19 started increase. So, my dream to participate and compete in the National league was cut short, but I believe what I have worked for so hard twenty four-seven during this summer has lead me to the next level of challenge, that is to continue play water polo, study and train harder than ever to reach both a higher academic and athletic level in University.

---

About me:

～Not only am I an excellent water polo player, but I am also skillful at making program of analyzing water-polo games.～

I have been interested in the strategy of water polo games as Mr Raijki, wrote in his book in “Raijki’s water polo” that water polo is a king of sports and very scientific sport. So as a leader of my team, I wanted to create “real time analysis and scouting analysis program for water polo game” from scratch to make my team stronger. Because it is indispensable to have object data to see each of us and to analyze ourselves objectively since we did not have coaches nor supervisors. So, I created “SONODA (SND for short) real time analysis and scouting analysis program” during 8th and 9th grades. See shown below video for how the program works and see two papers which I have written about all the procedures on the development of SND analysis program. (click the URL under each picture of a research paper to display the version translated to English, in PDF). I got first prize for both these research papers as well.

I am a good analyzer of water polo games.

In 2016, the Japan men’s national water-polo team got a ticket to play at the Rio Olympics. It was big news as the last time they got a ticket to the Olympics was in 1968. I was so interested in how they developed their skills and got stronger. So, I decided to do analysis research on Japan men’s national water-polo team style, as opposed to other countries’ strategies for School summer research homework. I did this research not only to get a personal insight and apply it to improve my own team’s strategies, but also because if my research paper was chosen by School as the best paper, more than 10,000 to 30,000 people would have a chance to see my paper, effectively spreading awareness about water polo. This is because all the projects that received first to third awards were always displayed in the Toho festival, held every year for Toho students to have fun and promote the School. Many sixth graders who wish to enter Toho middle high school come with their parents to see the school atmosphere and meet actual students. On average, over 10,000 to 30,000 people come every year and enjoy the festivals. The winning projects are usually printed in Toho research journal called “Kiri no Tomo,” published and handed out to all the students and visitors.

Fortunately, I was able to receive the first prize for my paper. My original papers were displayed in Toho Festivals and printed in the research journal as I hoped. And the captain of Japan men’s national water-polo team, Mr. Yusuke Shimizu found out about my paper, and he asked to see it. He read it and he thought that the way I analyzed and put it together was outstanding and he wanted all his National Water polo Team members to read it for the next Olympics. Here are all their autographs.

Since then, I developed a relationship with Mr. Shimizu, and we became remarkably close. His mother-in-law sees us as if we are relatives. Mr. Shimizu called me the other day by phone and told me that he sees me as his younger brother, and he is looking forward to having a talk with me on the subject “Japanese water polo” after I became university students. I have already learned about depth the sport of water polo and tips to become a better leader from him. I am fortunate to have him as my older brother. I am very much looking forward for us to sit together and talk about water polo if possible.

On my graduation

On March 5th, Toho high school held graduation ceremony for senior year students. I was very honored to receive an award from two associations of Tokyo Prefecture. This award is given to only one student who accomplished elevated level of the academic and sports.

For me, those years are learning process in every aspect. There were many failures and achievements, and also there were regrets and satisfactions. Those years were the years of the development, the exploration and the finding true values within myself.

I want to conclude this part, “About me,” with an appreciation; to my friends, teammates, and teachers who were able to build a relationship of mutual trust, and all the people who have come to precious ones in my life. Lastly, I want to express my appreciation to my parents and family.