Victoria teacher inspires students after wearing elaborate costumes 100 days in a row

Sharlize Yaranon will never forget the morning she was greeted at school by a giant Pokémon.

“It was this huge inflated Pikachu walking down the hallway,” Yaranon says. “And I was like, ‘What is happening here?!’”

Then, as the Grade 10 student and her classmates prepared to start the class, they realized the character had followed them into the room.

“Then [the costume] started deflating,” Yaranon laughs. “Then out came Mr. Sakiyama in his Pikachu onesie!”

Dale Sakiyama ended up teaching his Japanese and English classes in the bright yellow costume all day.

“I felt, ‘Wow’!” Yaranon smiles. “This is not a normal day!”

What Yaranon didn’t know then was just how normal the abnormal would become.

“I really like to get involved with anything to do with getting the school spirit going,” Sakiyama says.

Because of that, Sakiyama had dozens of dynamic duds for special occasions. But, what he was considering doing with his outfits this year was different.

TRIPLE DIGITS

“I just thought, ‘100,’” Sakiyama says. “It’s a nice number.”

Sakiyama committed to dressing in costume for 100 school days in a row.

“I hoped to inject some energy into our daily lives,” he says.

Sakiyama was definitely a dynamo for the first few months. The costumes ranged from pirate Jack Sparrow, to a life-size Christmas tree – to a red, inflatable balloon-animal that Sakiyama danced around in before unzipping it to reveal he was also wearing a Deadpool costume underneath.

“It was a fun experience, definitely,” Yaranon smiles.

The costume challenge even inspired the students he didn’t teach to smile

“It might be that they’re not having a great day,” Sakiyama says, before showing me a video of him dressed as an upside-down clown appearing to walk on his hands down the front steps of the school as students arrive in the morning.

“Those five seconds that they walk past me gives them a little energy and joy.”

But then somewhere around day 50, Sakiyama started questioning if it was worth it.

“It was just getting harder to get up,” he admits. “And [wonder], what am I wearing today?”

But then Sakiyama started receiving unexpected feedback from other teachers and students, that more than inspiring fun, his dress-up days were instilling confidence.

“It was empowering,” Yaranon smiles. “It made you feel okay about expressing yourself the way you want to.”

It motivated Sakiyama to complete his goal of teaching in costume for 100 days, and offered the school community a lesson about the power of authenticity.

“I think that’s maybe a life lesson for everybody; allow people to see who you are,” Sakiyama says. “It’s okay to let people see your other sides and in the end, you get a much more positive reaction.”