By Toshiaki Aomatsu
It was on the airplane on the way back to Tokyo after participating in the 20th Ski for Light International last year when Aki and I decided to start a Ski for Light program in Japan. That was Aki's first time attending SFL International, and my second. We liked the idea of Ski for Light, and thought we would like to bring it to Japan.
Aki, Akiteru Maruta, is sighted and works for a consulting company. He also deals with computer products for the blind. I was the first person to purchase an OCR product for the blind from his company about two years ago. We have been friends since then. I myself am blind and work for the National School for the blind in Tokyo. I teach social studies, geography, and computers to high school students.
About one month after we got back, we started to look for a good location for our first Ski for Light Japan. We went to Hokkaido, Nagano, and Fukushima. Among them, Fukushima was the best. It had a permanent double track for a blind skier and a guide, and was not too far from Tokyo where most participants would come from.
The problem was accommodation. The big lodge just by the ski course was already booked. So, we decided to use two family-operated small hotels located about five minutes away from the ski area by car. This turned out very well and provided a homey atmosphere for the program.
In august, Aki and I flew to Washington D.C. to meet with Judy and Bud. We had dinner together at a nice Japanese restaurant. We all had sushi, which was very good. They gave us much advice with which to start the program. It was a very encouraging talk for us.
In September, we began to advertise our program. We created a short document about SFL International with many pictures, and sent it to various newspapers. A weekly braille newspaper called Braille Mainichi, and one of the major newspapers, called Sankei Newspaper, printed articles about our program. The magazine called OUTDOOR also featured our program and helped us look for sighted guides.
With the help of the media, we received many applications. The final number of participants was 34. The ages ranged from 19 to 59 plus a five-year-old girl who was the daughter of one of the participants. Most blind applicants had little or no prior cross-country ski experience. About two-thirds of the guides did not have much experience interacting with blind people.
The first Ski for Light Japan was held from January 5th to 8th, 1996 at Urabandai in Fukushima prefecture. The snow was good and the weather was marvelous throughout the program.
We started the program with guide training on the evening of the 5th. Guides learned how to assist a blind person when walking, how to describe food, etc., and how to guide a blind skier on the snow. The next morning, two guides became a pair and each tried skiing while blind-folded. This was a good experience for them, and changed their way of explaining things when they guide a blind skier.
Blind skiers arrived around noon on the second day. As soon as they arrived, their partner was announced and each pair started to ski. They skied until about noon on the 8th.
We had guide and skier meetings separately every evening. The meetings were very fruitful, especially the guide meetings. The participants were very serious about the topic raising many questions and then trying to answer them. The topics were usually about how to interact with blind people, and how to better guide blind skiers.
We also had an entertainment program every evening. On the first night, each person introduced his or her partner in front of the group. This was very good for everybody, facilitating the communication with his or her partner because each one had to ask many questions of their partner in order to introduce him or her. It was also good for the whole group and made people feel more comfortable.
On the morning of the last day, we had a 3k and 1.5K rally. The participants were very excited and nervous at the starting point. Surprisingly, the winner was only 12 seconds off the estimated time for each distance.
We are now analyzing the survey we took to see how we can make the program better in the coming years. It seems participants enjoyed the program as much as the staff did. Many people wrote on the survey that they want to come back next year. Some participants who helped us to organize the program are also saying they would like to help set up the program next year, too.
We think that the method we learned from SFL International was very effective. The participants seemed to understand the meaning of a fifty-fifty program very well. We would like to continue our program for many years.
We are also sending nine participants to the SFL International in South Dakota. With only seven Japanese participants during the first 20 years of Ski for Light, this a big change. We would like to send about the same number of Japanese participants from this year onward.
I look forward to the time when Americans will participate in SFL-J in the near future. You will enjoy our program as much as the one in the States.