DAILY LIFE
Take a look at how kids spend their time when not under the limelight.		  
           
           
        10-Year-Old Yusaku Shibutani
        Yusaku lives in the city of Aomori, the capital of Aomori Prefecture. He's not a member of the school baseball club, but he's a big baseball fanatic. "All my friends love baseball, so we're always talking about it at school."

Aomori is located at the northern tip of Honshu, Japan's main island. There's snow on the ground from November to April, so you can't play baseball outdoors. When the snow finally melts and the weather gets warm, Yusaku spends a great deal of time playing in the park with his friends.

"There are kids who are better than me, so I don't get to pitch," Yusaku confides. "I usually play third base. I'm a good hitter, though. I hit one pitch so hard that it landed on the roof of a three-story building. I got a big scolding for that."

 
       
 
        Why doesn't he join the baseball club at school? "I'm too busy doing other things," he says. "Besides the shamisen I also learn calligraphy twice a week with my younger brother Daisaku." His mother says that Yusaku has become more outgoing since he took up the shamisen.

On Saturdays, Yusaku usually gets home from school a little past noon. (In Japan, there are classes on Saturday morning, except for the second and fourth Saturday of each month.) He goes to his calligraphy class at around 1:30, and as soon as he gets home he leaves again to catch the 3 o'clock train for Hirosaki some 40 kilometers away. This seems like a really busy schedule, but Yusaku doesn't seem to mind.

 
         
 
          Besides the shamisen, Yusaku says he enjoys watching TV. "I like anime, especially detective stories. I wish I could watch Digimon ("digital monsters"), but it's not aired in Aomori!"

His mother recalls he was really happy when she bought a plastic shamisen for him when he was a small kid. It seems he's always been fond of the instrument.

It's been two years since he starting learning it for real. What does he want to do when he grows up? "I'm not sure yet," he says. "I'm worried now that I may not be able to attend the lessons on Saturday after I get into middle school because you have to join a club there." The shamisen still seems to have a very special place in Yusaku's heart.

 
   

Photos (from top): Yusaku and his family; Yusaku and his younger brother, Daisaku show off calligraphy they drew.