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My father had a soroban that he had bought in Japan just after World War II, when he was in the U.S. Navy, and when I was around ten years old I got an instruction book and learned the basics. I never got very fast, but some Japanese-American friends had learned soroban and were pretty good. This was in Southern California in the 1960s.

I moved to Japan in 1983. For the next decade or so, I often saw clerks using soroban in offices, shops, department stores, and even banks. It’s been a long time, though, since I last saw one in action. But soroban basics are still part of the elementary-school curriculum, and there’s a private school that teaches soroban a few blocks from where I live in Yokohama.

Some sorobanists (?) are able to do rapid mental arithmetic with large numbers by visualizing the beads in their mind.




oh yeah i'm sure doing this sort of manipulations helps learning how to play with numbers wider and faster in your mind too.

it's an embodiment of the possibility to transform numbers how you need them to




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