Musuta Kusaka's Everyday Journey with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Japan

Parasports are sports, but they are also similar to games.
Many of them involve using equipment (with intriguing designs) to provide completely new experiences.
Of course, it’s fun to try it out. Especially for children.
This is the first time I’ve heard of it. On August 20th 2022, my family and I went to the ” Para Sports Park in Komazawa

” held in Komazawa, Tokyo . It was so much fun, I thought I’d write about it here.

The event was much more successful than expected. We witnessed an increase in awareness of parasports.

I said Komazawa in Tokyo, but to be precise it was Komazawa Olympic Park. There was a five-story pagoda-like structure, and the venue was in the central square at the base of the pagoda.

To be honest, I didn’t have high expectations and just thought, “I hope I can experience parasports,” and “I hope it will be an opportunity for my child to broaden his horizons a little.” “Well, I can see everything in two hours,” I
thought, and left home slowly.

And. As soon as I got to the venue, I had a lot of regrets. The venue was set up on a fairly large scale. As far as the eye could see, there were tents crammed into each other. I had underestimated it… “Damn. There’s no way I can get around this,” I thought, and from there, I began my frantic, foot-sore walk around.

In one corner of the venue, there was a program where you could experience wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball. The players would play with you. It seemed to be popular, so there was a lottery.

What was impressive was the number of people. It was
a little rainy on the day. It was the perfect weather for a sports experience in the heat of summer, so it was dangerous, but the clouds were so cloudy that some people might hesitate to go out.

But look at this.

Every booth was like this: parents and children lining up to try out the events, adults listening intently to talks by event officials, and children flying from booth to booth like butterflies.

There were so many people there! Oh, parasports are so popular. I regret that I underestimated them here too.
I was wrong to think of it as just a summer experience for my daughter. It seems that I was looking at parasports in a very old-fashioned way. Are they now something to enjoy rather than learn about?

That hunch turns out to be correct.

Parasports are enjoyed as an attraction. Children get hooked on them, just like arcades and theme parks.

The booths lined up were basically run by sports organizations. So each one was a corner where you could experience and learn about a sport.

Just to mention a few, there was boccia, molck, goalball, blind shooting, chair skiing (there was also winter sports), wheelchair fencing, archery, para powerlifting, wheelchair racing, and so on.

Try holding it, try wearing it, try riding it, try aiming at it, try hitting it. There are many games that use equipment, so it’s similar to an arcade or theme park. Children are sensitive to that. As far as the eye can see, there is a parade of “I want to try that”. So every booth was crowded with visitors and people who wanted to try it. It’s a real attraction.
A lot of wisdom has been gathered and turned into a competition. And it has been sublimated into sports entertainment.

Just like a stamp rally, you go here and there and look here and there. Everyone seems to be having a lot of fun, but the atmosphere is a little different. At every booth, visitors and staff were chatting away. There was a lot of emphasis on dialogue. There was intellectual curiosity there, and there were people who responded appropriately.
That was very impressive, or rather, it left a good impression. I had a feeling that I would be able to go home having gained something.

So the first thing I experienced was this: a test drive of a wheelchair racer.

It has a meter that measures your speed if you pedal as hard as you can. You turn the wheel by hand, but my daughter whines,

“It’s so heavy! It won’t turn…” You’re right. It’s so heavy. I also took it for a test ride, and could only manage 13km/h. Apparently the top speed of the day was 23km/h by a tough guy. What kind of guy is that? I pedaled so hard my stomach hurt. When you watch the Oita International Wheelchair Marathon, it looks like they’re running at lightning speed, but I realized how crazy it is.

The next thing I tried was goalball. This is what it looked like when I put on the mask and goggles.
“It’s pitch black! I can’t see anything!”
I exclaimed, immersed in the experience of a different world.

The instructor showed me how to do it.

Our family of three experienced it together. From the time the pass was given until we received it, or from the time we gave the pass until it was received. We had to keep calling each other. Because, in the silence, we lost our sense of direction.

As soon as we started, my daughter took off her goggles.
When I asked her what was wrong, she said,
“It’s pitch black and I’m scared.” 

That’s right. I brought her here because I wanted her to have that kind of experience. There are a lot of people out there who are scared. Maybe some of them are close to you. I hope she’ll remember that somewhere in the city.

By the way, in goalball, players throw a ball the same size as a basketball on a court the same size as a volleyball court. And they throw it with incredible force. And it’s in a world with zero vision. I was terrified just thinking about it.

And this! Part 1 of a series I’ve always wanted to try (there are three in total). Wheelchair fencing! Or rather, fencing!

This is a girl poking the instructor. She says it’s “hard.” How it feels.

Did you know? The handle of a saber has a complicated structure. But this is designed to make it easy to hold.
The wire that goes into the guard is what transmits the electricity and counts the points.

I thought a saber was conical, like a long toothpick, but it’s not. It’s a pyramid, like a long, thin pyramid.

And this is the tip of the saber. It has a bumpy, push-button-like structure, and when you stab your opponent with it, an electric current is sent through it. Of course, this was the first time I’d ever seen such detail.

I was wondering what that saber was like. That was the moment the mystery was solved. I think there are very few people who have seen it. That alone made it worth going.

There was also a wheelchair skiing experience. As there was no snow available, this was adapted from the Wii home video game console. When you lean your body left or right, the character on the screen responds and slides. It’s just like an arcade game.

But this machine feels real.

I wonder how much research has gone into evolving it to the point where it looks like a living organism.
It was impressive to see it up close.

And here is the second part of the series I wanted to try. Shooting! I say shooting, but rather than aiming with your eyes, you aim with your ears, that is, with sound. When
the sights get close to the center of the target, a high-pitched sound will let you know, and when you miss, a low-pitched sound will let you know. The person teaching my daughter is Miyuki Iguchi, who won gold medals at the Nagano and Turin Paralympics. She was very kind.

This is a gun for shooting. It doesn’t shoot bullets, but emits infrared rays (I think) to make the target’s sensor react.

By the way, there is a logo on the side of the gun that says “For the blind.” No, it’s the writing. Even if it’s a gun for people who can’t read, is it okay to say something like that? It’s a literal translation of English. I want to turn that writing into a beehive. Not that I’m the one to say it.

And this is the third thing I wanted to try. VR wheelchair racing. It’s “CYBER WHEEL X,” where you put on VR goggles and race in the cyber world. That’s what I went there for!
But…Yes. Back to my big regret at the beginning. I ran out of time and couldn’t experience it.

However. As I was dying of disappointment, the person in charge gave me some useful information. It seems to be permanently installed at
the Chiba Institute of Technology Tokyo Skytree Campus (I don’t know if it’s in Chiba or Tokyo. Is it a tradition from TDL?).
And you can experience it. And what’s more, it’s free. It’s worth going to the Skytree just to do this. I have more to look forward to in the future.

And finally, there’s Cyber ​​Boccia. The position of the ball is displayed digitally, making it easy to understand and play.

The ball rolled faster than expected. My daughter also made a mysterious comment that the ball was cute . Yes. It’s cute. If that’s cute, then the Earth must be cute too. That’s a big scale, 5-year-old.

Well, this is a very rough summary, but that’s how I toured around. It was so much fun.

As a parent, I wanted my child to have the experience of “wearing someone else’s shoes.”
To put himself in the shoes of someone he has no connection with. To experience it with his body and senses.
I wanted to create that memory.

This ” Tokyo Para Sports Park in Komazawa ” far exceeded my imagination. It was like trying on someone else’s shoes and they were jumping shoes! So much fun! If putting yourself in someone else’s shoes is fun, there’s nothing more wonderful than that. I never thought I’d have such an experience.

And the sport my daughter enjoyed the most was goalball, despite her fear of the dark. Unexpected. Unexpected experiences open up new senses. That’s also the appeal of parasports, isn’t it?

Ah. I really hope they hold the event again.

Muscle or nothing. It would be great if there was a parasport like that! Para powerlifting.

Of course, the whole experience of competing was intuitively fun. And when you learn about the origins of the sport and the rules and equipment that came from it, your understanding of human beings deepens and the enjoyment increases. You can enjoy it not only with your body, but also with your mind. I think that’s the appeal of parasports.

But!
Muscles over head!
Muscles are everything!
Muscles or nothing!
It’s okay to have such a para sport!
That’s diversity, isn’t it?
So I ended up liking para powerlifting. It’s a sport where
you put your feet on a bench and do bench presses using only the muscles of your upper body (and sometimes only the muscles above your chest) without using any of the muscles of your lower body.

I mean, the whole booth was packed with muscle.
The white tent was covered with meat, so it looked like a giant meat bun. The para-powerlifting booth was filled with so many superhumans that it felt like that . The instructor (probably a top athlete) who looked like a mass of muscle except for his legs, let us try out bench pressing.

It’s just a normal powerlifting. And it’s no surprise. It seems that one of the characteristics of para powerlifting is that there is no difference between the records of disabled athletes and able-bodied athletes, even among para sports.

My daughter was frightened, so I didn’t manage to take a photo.

Look at this flyer.
“Para Powerlifting: Lifting Japan with Muscles”
– no obstacles involved!

And this is the back side.

“Let’s sweat in our heat and detox”….
It should be “Let’s do some muscle training”!

This is why I don’t dislike muscle maniacs!

That’s it.