A Visit to Yokohama International School

American parents compulsively volunteer wherever we land, and I am no exception. Last fall I agreed to participate in a Yokohama International School career day questionably called"Work and Life Outside the Box." This explains why I spent Foundation Day, February 11th, a national holiday for the rest of Japan, doing my best to retain the attention of a teenage audience. My session, Puzzles: from Hobby to Career, wedged between Kayak Mapping Business and Wooden Boat Building. No question that the coed classroom I addressed in Yamate-cho epitomized the opposite of the all-girl high school I attended in Manhattan eons ago.

"Look at your classmates: Five years from now you will be networking with each other," I said. Skeptical looks all around the classroom. I then explained how while engaged in graduate work at Columbia University my soon-to-be-husband dared me to write a crossword. That dare led me to construct a crossword for publication that in turn grew into bigger and bigger positions etcetera blah-blah fishcakes. What piqued the boys interest was that the inventor of sudoku did not patent the word. "Is the patent still available?" inquired one Icelandic lad, a future entrepreneur.

A German student council rep accompanied me to the guest lunchroom. The Freelance Dance Designer, a Brit with brilliantly blue eyes, declared: "My parents, who were doctors, did their best to dissuade me from dance but I told them: You made me what I am!" The Indian educator retorted: "That wouldn't work in my country!" The Bahamian martial arts instructor recounted how losing a leg to cancer did not stop him from pursuing his athletic goals. "Please, I'm trying to eat," I nearly uttered.

At my final session the students came to life when I asked their opinion about the new Facebook layout ("no bookmarks!"). Then one Chinese boy put me on the spot: "Did your education help your career?" The research, the writing and communication skills, the deep talks and exchanges, the connections with people from different walks of life, led to my answer: "Yes, but not directly."

How nice to find in my inbox tonight a message from the office of John Wood, author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, the founder of a charity called Room to Read. He has agreed to speak to the members of the Tokyo American Club on March 3rd. In my capacity as library chair, my challenge is to fill the room again. Are there as many charitable souls as sudoku fans among our membership? To be determined.