Lifestyle
Kenyan-born Mayaka has made it big in Japan
Mayaka with daughter Yuri Jerusha and son Chui Hiromu.
Posted Saturday, January 3 2009 at 15:15
The 36-year-old Mayaka also won the prestigious Sapporo Half Marathon from 1995 to 1997, then running for various top clubs like the Team Daiei and Hitachi Cable.
Mayaka eventually settled down with a Japanese girl, Sachiyo, and the couple finally tied the knot in 1998 with Sachiyo taking up the Kisii names, Moraa Mayaka. The couple has a daughter, Yuri Jerusha Mayaka, and son, Chui Hiromu Mayaka.
“Both children take up the names of my parents who are both deceased,” Mayaka says.
“Sachiyo is basically a housewife but sometimes she coaches some of my athletes in Japan when I’m out of the country. She used to be a marathon runner and represented Japan at the 1995 World Athletics Championships in Sweden and she is also an assistant coach of the Japan women’s athletics team.
“I took up my Japanese citizenship in 2005 because of my family and also because the future, as regards my career, looked brighter in Japan. After all, I had lived in Japan for a long time and knew a great deal about Japanese life and culture.”
Mayaka is among the pioneers in the long list of top Kenyan runners who took up jobs in Japan during their running careers.
The list includes distance running greats, the late Joseph Otwori, Eric Wainaina, Thomas Osano, Douglas Wakiihuri and Daniel Njenga with Burundi’s Aloys Nizigama the other East African who made an impact in Tokyo.
Otwori, like Mayaka, an alumnus of the Yamanashi Gakuin University, was Kenya’s first university student runner in Japan.
He was killed in a road accident three years ago near Kericho while back home on holiday, handing over the mantle of mentor of Kenyan runners in Japan to Mayaka. The athletics set-up in Japan is quite different from other parts of the world.
Rather than run all over and survive purely on prize money and kitting contracts, the Kenyan athletes based in this Asian nation register with the top companies, many of which have sports clubs, like motor companies Toyota, Honda, Suzuki or electronics firms including Hitachi, Fuji and Panasonic.
Popular sport
Marathon running is among the most popular sports with the traditional Ekiden (relay marathon) the most lucrative. Mayaka was quick in learning Japanese, which is one of the conditions one has to meet before taking up athletics scholarships in the country.
“I learnt Japanese at a language school in Tokyo after finishing my fourth form at the Kiomiti Secondary School and I also enrolled at Yamanashi High School and the Yamanashi Gakuin University.”
Mayaka’s trip to Japan was facilitated by Shem Omasire, then a teacher at Kisii’s Cardinal Otunga High School and who had great contacts in Japan.
“Former Kenyan Olympic gold medallist, Robert Ouko, Omasire and Misiocha Miyigo, who was the headmaster at Kiomiti, helped me a great deal in building my career.
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Submitted by kibiritiPosted January 09, 2009 06:49 AM
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Submitted by gaciru
We love you Mayaka and family!!
Posted January 09, 2009 02:22 AM -
Submitted by marete377
Good job Mister.Mayaka.I tend to think most of these receptionist r uneducated. I had a bad experience at an hotel at the Coast ,whereby as a young lady i was asked yu wapi bwanako?And later..Utalipaje? When i said am not married n am with ma kid...Hell broke loose and the manager intervened.I did tell the fool that atleast i didn`t save all ma life for an African Safari:)
Posted January 08, 2009 03:10 AM -
Submitted by JonBforever
What an adorable family... Kudos to Mayaka. Martin Luther King put it the right way “Lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection.” Here in United States people of darker skin suffer from a "culture of victimization". It's hard for Kenyans to understand until you live in a foreign country.
Posted January 07, 2009 08:44 PM -
Submitted by orinnah
It's so unfortunate that some of these front desk staff are programmed by hotel management to perceive others of foreign origin, especially whites, as being more superior to indigenous Kenyans. What they don't seem to realize, some foreigners would feel so offended and refuse service if they noticed such discrimination taking place in their presence. It's a shame that our politicians don't have the guts to address this obvious selective prejudice against our own people over foreigners.
Posted January 07, 2009 07:55 PM
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Well if you want to be served like a king, then consider tipping these hotel workers generously. Americans like tipping, however the Kenyans and Brits rarely do. So don't complain, given "money talks". Having said that, I would suggest we begin to respect our own passports too. Nothing is more precious than a Kenyan passport. I hold an American one myself but the Kenyan one holds a special place in my heart.