12 Established 1961 Lifestyle Features Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Members of the Japanese senior cheerleading squad ‘Japan Pom Pom’ take part in a practice in Tokyo as the city hosts the Eighty-nine-year-old Fumie Takino (second right) joins members of the Japanese senior cheerleading squad “Japan Pom 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. — AFP photos Pom”.

Members of the Japanese senior cheerleading squad “Japan Pom Pom” stretch Members of the Japanese senior cheerleading squad “Japan Pom Pom”. Eighty-nine-year-old Fumie Takino (center) joins members of the Japanese senior before taking part in a practice in Tokyo. cheerleading squad “Japan Pom Pom”.

heering is frowned upon at the They are currently rehearsing for Cheerleading is a fun way to stay fit Cvirus-postponed Olympics, but their 25th-anniversary show, which was for the “Japan Pom Pom” girls, who get training continues at a Tokyo postponed until next year because of together once a week for a rigorous gym for an energetic squad of cheer- the pandemic. Takino said it was once two-hour practice with almost no break. leaders whose average age is 70. To difficult to share her hobby with others, Masako Matsuoka, a 73-year-old mem- the beat of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It who didn’t see the appeal of senior ber of the squad, said the activity is her Off”, Fumie Takino, 89, twirled and cheerleading at first. “I couldn’t say I “ikigai”-Japanese for purpose in life. “It’s waved her pompoms as her fellow was doing cheerleading... I struggled a fun to do something different in your cheerleaders showed off their standing lot.” Their original sparkly costumes everyday life,” she explained. — AFP splits. “Members suffer from leg or with a mini-skirt weren’t so popular back pain, but they’re working hard,” either, she recalls. But as the squad Takino, who founded the senior cheer- became better known and attracted the leading squad “Japan Pom Pom” attention of local media, views about when she was 64 years old, told AFP. them changed, Takino said. “There are There is a strict selection process for many other groups like us... I think members, who must be over 55, and (senior cheerleading) has started to be Members of the Japanese sen- have to pass an audition and three- widely accepted.” Japan has the world’s ior cheerleading squad “Japan month trial period. All applicants must oldest population, with around 28 per- Pom Pom” stretch before tak- also have “self-proclaimed good cent of the population aged 65 or over, ing part in a practice. looks”, the squad stipulates. according to the government.

Members of the Japanese senior cheerleading squad “Japan Pom Pom”. Eighty-nine-year-old Fumie Takino (second right) joins members of the Japanese Members of the Japanese senior cheerleading squad “Japan Pom Pom”. senior cheerleading squad “Japan Pom Pom”.

since 2013 to include authors outside the (“China Room”) and Canadian Mary Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe. Lawson, (“A Town Called Solace”) are Kazuo Ishiguro Past laureates have included other cele- among the past Booker contenders to brated authors like Ian McEwan, Julian make the longlist. among 13 Barnes and Roddy Doyle. Douglas American novelists Patricia Lockwood Stuart’s debut novel “Shuggie Bain”, (“No One is Talking About This”), Nathan about a boy growing up amid poverty Harris (“The Sweetness of Water”) and enri Vernes, the prolific Belgian contenders for and addiction in 1980s Glasgow, won Maggie Shipstead, (“Great Circle”) author of popular French-language last year’s prize. The winning writer received their first nominations. Sri H adventure and science fiction nov- receives £50,000 ($69,000, 59,000 Lankan writer Anuk Arudpragasam (“A els, has died at the age of 102, his pub- 2021 Booker Prize euros) and huge international attention. Passage North”), British-Canadian lisher announced Monday. The creator of This year’s victor will be announced on Rachel Cusk (“Second Place”), South the French adventurer Bob Morane who November 3 after the longlist is whittled African Karen Jennings (“An Island”), ritish author Kazuo Ishiguro could featured in 200 novels that sold 40 mil- down to a shortlist of six in September. British-Somali author Nadifa Mohamed win his second Booker Prize after lion copies worldwide died on Sunday, B South African Damon Galgut (“The (“The Fortune Men”) and Briton Francis judges Tuesday named him among his publisher Lombard said. “I would love Promise”), Briton Sunjeev Sahota, Spufford, (“Light Perpetual”) make up the 13 finalists on this year’s longlist for one to write a hundred more books, woo a rest of the field. Gaby Wood, director of of literature’s most prestigious awards. few women and leave the rest to the Booker Prize Foundation, said this This file photo taken in Brussels on February Ishiguro, who first landed the prize in chance,” Vernes told Belgium’s French- year’s list was notable “for the engross- 24, 2012 shows Belgian scriptwriter Henri 1989 with “The Remains Of The Day” as language broadcaster RTBF for his ing stories within it, for the geographical Vernes, creator of the comic strip “Bob well as the Nobel Prize for Literature in 100th birthday. range of its points of view and for its Morane”, posing with his book “Memoires” 2017, was nominated for his latest novel Jacky Legge, curator at the Folklore recognition of writers who have been during an interview. — AFP “Klara And The Sun”. He joins several Museum in Tournai which set up a per- working at an exceptionally high stan- other previously shortlisted or winning manent exhibition after his 100th birth- publishing house Marabout to write a dard for many years”. “To see them writers on the longlist, including day, said he was amazed at Verne’s book series for young people. Thus was brought together, and to hear from them American Richard Powers, who won in powerful memory, grasp of detail and born the steely-eyed Bob Morane, a 33- in these books, is to know that literature 2018 for “The Overstory” and will hope to passion for telling stories. “It was what year-old multi-lingual Frenchman, spe- is in the most capable and creative of be lauded again for his new work, surprised me each time I saw him,” said cialist in martial arts and former war hands,” she added. — AFP “Bewilderment”. Legge, who added that Vernes died as a hero who took on pirates, space mon- The Booker Prize has launched result of general decline. While a jour- sters, Miss Ylang-Ylang and the “Yellow careers and courted controversy since its nalist in Paris in the years after World Shadow.”—AFP creation in 1969, expanding its remit Kazuo Ishiguro War II, Vernes was asked in 1953 by