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Let’s see ... I haven’t written anything since before Christmas. I should write about that sometime.
But, I first want to write about the past couple days. Taishi and I saw the semifinals and finals of the national high school basketball tournament in Tokyo Monday and Tuesday. (We also saw the girls’ final, Monday.)
It was a very different experience than I have had in my 14 years in Japan. Well worth the trip and expense. We bought the tickets a couple weeks ago. I belileve I wrote about that. We left Mito Sunday night, stayed at my little apartment in Kashiwa Sunday and Monday night (Taishi and I barely fit in my largest room, LOL!), and went to the tournament both days from there. Monday there were four games, but we didn’t want to watch all four, so we skipped the girls’ 3rd place game and got there just before the girls’ championship at noon. The arena is right in front of the little train station there, just two stops from the big station near my work. The website said it was only one minute from teh station to the arena and they weren’t kidding! It towers over the surrounding area and you couldn’t miss it unless your eyes were shut.
There are basically two levels of seats. There are also what they call “arena seats”, little temporary stands right around courtside, but I found out later from overhearing conversation that you have to pay extra for those, and they look very uncomfortable anyway, so we didn’t budge when there were PA announcements both days that they still had some of those seats available.
When we got there Monday, we could see that the first level seats were virtually full, or people were saving them with their coats or other items. (Even though there were PA announcements not to do that ...) So, we went up to the second level and found decent seats about halfway up.
The girls’ championship wasn’t so good. The winning team had a girl 191 cm tall (about 6’ 3” or 4”), and she scored 31 points and the team won by more than 20. The losing team put up a valiant effort, especially the girl who had to guard the tall one, but the game’s outcome was never really in doubt.
Sometime before the game ended, a boys team that had been sitting behind us got up to leave for their semifinal game. I hadn’t even noticed them when we sat down, so I guess they were quiet and getting ready for their game, mentally. (It turned out that they won their semifinal and then the championship yesterday.)
Right after the girls game ended, we got up to try to find better seats in the first level, figuring some people would leave. We had to stand in the back of that level for a little while, but eventually two seats, separated by one young man sitting by himself, opened up. I asked him and another guy sitting at the other end if the seats were available and when they said they were, I said there were two of us, so ... (In the Japanese way, that’s how you ask someone to move over to make room for you!) The young guy nicely moved over, actually to the seat farther away from halfcourt, so just a little worse than if he had picked the seat in the other direction. We sat down and tried to get as comfortable as we could, sitting with our legs over our bags and holding our coats. (At least the upper level seats had open seats around us that we could use for putting our stuff down ...)
There was a long awards ceremony then, for the girls. When the PA announced that the previous prime minister, Aso, would hand out some of the trophies and awards, there was a collective sound of surprise from the audience. I had forgotten that he occupies a figurehead position in the national basketball association. (Notice small “n”, “b”, and “a”, LOL! Not the NBA!)
The awards ceremony took forever. It seemed that every sponsor of the tournament had to award a cheap, eye-catchingly oversized prize to the best players, the coaches, etc. They had all four top teams on the court.
Finally, the boys first semifinal game was about to begin. The two teams got on the floor to practice. The team that had been sitting behind us was one of them. It was a good game, and I found myself cheering for that team because I thought a few of the players on the other team were playing a little dirty. Nothing major, just a little unsportsmanlike. So, I was kind of happy that “my team” won. (I ended up kind of cheering for the “bad” team in the 3rd place game yesterday, though, because of various factors LOL.)
In the other semifinal, there was one team that Taishi had seen playing practice games at one of the best basketball games in our prefecture. The have one fairly tall (well, really tall by Japanese HS basketball standards) Chinese player. He and his team didn’t play so well, though, and they lost bigtime.
We had bought some snacks and food at a convenience store at the station, and ate during the game. It was nice that they allowed eating in the stands. One thing that I have picked up about Taishi is he is at the age where he can always eat! Must be nice!
Oh, on my left was an old man. I had asked him if the seat next to him was available because the man who was sitting there was alwo old, and I though they might be together. When the other old man left, taking his coat and leaving nothing on the seat, though, and not saying anything to the old man remaining there, I figured the seat must be open. During the two semifinal games, he often would fidget around like he was going to leave, but didn’t till near the end of the second semifinal. I felt bad for him, because I had to get up several times just to stretch my legs. I felt like telling him that if he wanted he could do the same and I would save his seat for him, but I didn’t know exactly how to say that in Japanese.
He finally left when the young man on Taishi’s right left, about five minutes before the end of the 2nd semifinal.
The second semifinal game had the team that Taishi had seen before and another team from the same prefecture who had lost the first semifinal. (They had a special invitation to the tournament; that’s why the prefecture had two teams there.) The team Taishi had seen before lost by about 30 points; it wasn’t a very pretty game, to say the least.)
Before we went to the arena, we had an hour or so to kill so I took Taishi to the big bookstore near the station that I go to for my work. They have an entire floor of English books, so it is quite convenient for me. We looked on that floor first but didn’t buy anything, then went down to the floor that has Japanese magazines. The February edition of the basketball magazine Taishi likes about NBA basketball was already being sold, so we got that. I noticed that the monthly magazine that features Japanese pro, college, and high school basketball was also already out, so we picked that up as well, because it had a large, special section about the tournament we were seeing. Lucky!
After the games, it was already about 6 p.m., and I was getting a slight headache from all the loud cheering, so we went straight back to Kashiwa without messing around in Tokyo any more. Since I wasn’t feelling so well, I decided to take Taishi to a restaurant instead of making something to eat. We walked around the station area a while and finally settled on an old coffeeshop that had spaghetti and some other foods to eat. He ordered “mentaiko” spaghetti. Mentaiko is a spicy kind of fish egg; I forget which kind of fish it comes from. I had regular meat sauce spaghetti. It was really good, and the atmosphere was unique. We also split a tuna salad. (Here, “tuna salad” means salad with some tuna on it.)
Monday and yesterday we ate lunch at Wendy’s in Tokyo. They are ending their business in Japan at the end of this month, tomorrow :(, so I wanted to eat there a couple more times if possible.
Yesterday, the 3rd place boys game was at 10 a.m. and the championship was at 12 noon. We had planned to buy stuff at the station’s convenience store again, but there was a line of customers snaking outide its doors! We passed and went on to the arena. I was glad we already had tickets because there was a line of people there to buy tickets, too.
We went inside and I saw that it would be impossible to sit in the lower level, so we went on to the upper level and found the best seats we could that were halfway near halfcourt. There was a boys minibasketball team sitting to our left and in front of us. (Elementary school age kids could get in free!) They were prety well behaved, cause they had two moms chaperoning them.
The 3rd place game was good, but we wanted to buy stuff to eat at the arena’s little shop, so we got up when there was about 5 minutes left to make our way there. Taishi also told me that he wanted to check out a stall that was selling basketball accessories that he had seen the day before. When we got there, he showed me some playing gloves (open fingered) that he had had his eyes on for some time. Without telling me previously of course; I would have gladly bought them for Christmas if I had any idea! There were two salesmen there to help us find the right size. He looked like a kid on Christmas morning when we got them; well, it isn’t that much after Christmas! I told him it was his last, last Christmas present, LOL.
We then went on to buy food. They had totally reasonable prices, so we ended up both getting packaged lunches that had five small pieces of fried chicken and a little spaghetti, accompanied by a lot of rice. Made me very sleepy when I finished eating it in the championship game’s halftime!
We had talked about looking for better seats, in the lower level, for the championship game, but it didn’t look easy as the day before, and Taishi said he was happy with the upper level seats (they did seem roomier, plus we could stash our stuff on one of the seats again), so we went back and our original seats were still open so we sat there again.
Oh, one thing I really enjoyed about both games was that there was a couple sitting behind us and the man actually said stuff during the game that I said at about the same time or thought at the same time! That sound stupid, but during the games Monday, the people around us hardly said anything at all. He wasn’t really cheering for either team, so he would say good things when either team made a good play, or make a negative sound when either team made a bad play, the same as I often did.
Though I was rooting for the team that eventually won, I didn’t really clap except for one or two plays in the second half when they started to pull away a little. I heard the man behind us clap just once, during one of those plays! I think he must have been rooting for them, too, but like me, mainly just wanted a good, close, competitive game.
We didn’t stick around for the awards ceremony, seeing how long the one for the girls was the day before. Also, Taishi said he wanted to buy a little souvenir that had the winning team’s name on it, so I wanted to get to that stall before it was swamped with people. When we got to the concourse where the stalls were, we could see the “hero interviews” on the large-screen monitors they had around there, so that was nice.
From the arena, we went to my school. The winter holiidays officially began yesterday, but the main lady who works in the office was there, by herself. I had told her I might bring Taishi there one of the two days, and was surprised when she told me she had to work both days so she might be there. Taishi seemed impressed by the school. It is definitely unique, being in one building and having a libary occupy one entire floor, a computer lab another floor, and things like that. He took a few pictures from outside.
After that, we stopped by a men’s store just a few blocks from my school, on the way to the station. I have bought a few things there, because they have things in my size, even, LOL. There are always some sales items on the sidewalk, but they are too small for me so I walk on by usually. I thought that Taishi might want to look at what they had out there, though, and luckily a winter coat caught his eye and it was very cheap! Less than twenty dollars! And in a style that is very popular with young men here, a puffy kind of ski jacket style with a fake fur lined hood. I had thought that the coat he was wearing was too thin for winter, and he told me it was getting too small for him and showed me one place where it was going bad, as if he needed to convince me that he really needed this sidewalk find.
When we paid for it at the register, I asked him if he wanted to wear it then and he said, “Yes”, so I had the lady cut off the tags and put his old coat in the store bag.
I was pleased to see his happy face more than once after putting on that coat. He smiles enough, usually, but this was a different look of happiness. I was so glad that such a simple purchase cold make him so happy. :) He really is an easy kid to please, but he never says what he really, really needs!
From there, I took him to Shibuya. It is a big shopping, “play” area just three stops from where we were on the train. I had hoped it would be the same atmosphere as usual, with the intersection in front of the station very crowded and the whole area full of young people (teenagers to 20-somethings, mostly). However, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as usual and there were actually many families there! I didn’t mind that the sidewalks and pedestrian street weren’t as crowded as usual, but I had hoped that the huge “scramble” intersection would be like always so Taishi could get a sense of that. Maybe another time, LOL!
I took him to a huge store called Tokyu Hands that sells just about anything you could imagine, and he was happy to see all of the school stuff they had, such as erasers that looked like miniature sushi. He bought a couple things and looked around a lot, and then we had supper at Wendy’s. I was surprised the waiting line wasn’t too long, but it is kind of off the beaten path, as Shibuya goes, so a lot of people who would normally have lined up for their last chance to eat there before they “leave” Japan undoubtedly didn’t even know it was there. Lucky again!
From there, we went on back to Kashiwa. We had kind of thought about staying one more night there before going back to Mito, maybe even heading into Tokyo during the day for whatever sightseeing Taishi wanted to do (before he had to get back for his Wednesday night b-ball practice), but I knew Taishi had had enough of the big city for a while, LOL. I was looking forward to getting back to my normal winter vacation routine, too, and enjoying the last few days before school started again, so we got our stuff at my apartment and headed back to Mito. I told him we would get seats on a “green car” since there would be so many people on the regular “cars” that we would have to stand for quite a while before seats opened up. He said, “Cool”, so I was happy he could enjoy a new experience like that.
We got back home and he enjoyed reading one of the basketball magazines we bought before finally I had to get him to take his shower and go to bed at around 11:30. He was glad to show off his new coat to his mom, too. :)
Okay, that catches us up with the b-ball tournament and all the accompanyig side trips in Tokyo. Maybe next time I can write about our Christmas finally!
But, I first want to write about the past couple days. Taishi and I saw the semifinals and finals of the national high school basketball tournament in Tokyo Monday and Tuesday. (We also saw the girls’ final, Monday.)
It was a very different experience than I have had in my 14 years in Japan. Well worth the trip and expense. We bought the tickets a couple weeks ago. I belileve I wrote about that. We left Mito Sunday night, stayed at my little apartment in Kashiwa Sunday and Monday night (Taishi and I barely fit in my largest room, LOL!), and went to the tournament both days from there. Monday there were four games, but we didn’t want to watch all four, so we skipped the girls’ 3rd place game and got there just before the girls’ championship at noon. The arena is right in front of the little train station there, just two stops from the big station near my work. The website said it was only one minute from teh station to the arena and they weren’t kidding! It towers over the surrounding area and you couldn’t miss it unless your eyes were shut.
There are basically two levels of seats. There are also what they call “arena seats”, little temporary stands right around courtside, but I found out later from overhearing conversation that you have to pay extra for those, and they look very uncomfortable anyway, so we didn’t budge when there were PA announcements both days that they still had some of those seats available.
When we got there Monday, we could see that the first level seats were virtually full, or people were saving them with their coats or other items. (Even though there were PA announcements not to do that ...) So, we went up to the second level and found decent seats about halfway up.
The girls’ championship wasn’t so good. The winning team had a girl 191 cm tall (about 6’ 3” or 4”), and she scored 31 points and the team won by more than 20. The losing team put up a valiant effort, especially the girl who had to guard the tall one, but the game’s outcome was never really in doubt.
Sometime before the game ended, a boys team that had been sitting behind us got up to leave for their semifinal game. I hadn’t even noticed them when we sat down, so I guess they were quiet and getting ready for their game, mentally. (It turned out that they won their semifinal and then the championship yesterday.)
Right after the girls game ended, we got up to try to find better seats in the first level, figuring some people would leave. We had to stand in the back of that level for a little while, but eventually two seats, separated by one young man sitting by himself, opened up. I asked him and another guy sitting at the other end if the seats were available and when they said they were, I said there were two of us, so ... (In the Japanese way, that’s how you ask someone to move over to make room for you!) The young guy nicely moved over, actually to the seat farther away from halfcourt, so just a little worse than if he had picked the seat in the other direction. We sat down and tried to get as comfortable as we could, sitting with our legs over our bags and holding our coats. (At least the upper level seats had open seats around us that we could use for putting our stuff down ...)
There was a long awards ceremony then, for the girls. When the PA announced that the previous prime minister, Aso, would hand out some of the trophies and awards, there was a collective sound of surprise from the audience. I had forgotten that he occupies a figurehead position in the national basketball association. (Notice small “n”, “b”, and “a”, LOL! Not the NBA!)
The awards ceremony took forever. It seemed that every sponsor of the tournament had to award a cheap, eye-catchingly oversized prize to the best players, the coaches, etc. They had all four top teams on the court.
Finally, the boys first semifinal game was about to begin. The two teams got on the floor to practice. The team that had been sitting behind us was one of them. It was a good game, and I found myself cheering for that team because I thought a few of the players on the other team were playing a little dirty. Nothing major, just a little unsportsmanlike. So, I was kind of happy that “my team” won. (I ended up kind of cheering for the “bad” team in the 3rd place game yesterday, though, because of various factors LOL.)
In the other semifinal, there was one team that Taishi had seen playing practice games at one of the best basketball games in our prefecture. The have one fairly tall (well, really tall by Japanese HS basketball standards) Chinese player. He and his team didn’t play so well, though, and they lost bigtime.
We had bought some snacks and food at a convenience store at the station, and ate during the game. It was nice that they allowed eating in the stands. One thing that I have picked up about Taishi is he is at the age where he can always eat! Must be nice!
Oh, on my left was an old man. I had asked him if the seat next to him was available because the man who was sitting there was alwo old, and I though they might be together. When the other old man left, taking his coat and leaving nothing on the seat, though, and not saying anything to the old man remaining there, I figured the seat must be open. During the two semifinal games, he often would fidget around like he was going to leave, but didn’t till near the end of the second semifinal. I felt bad for him, because I had to get up several times just to stretch my legs. I felt like telling him that if he wanted he could do the same and I would save his seat for him, but I didn’t know exactly how to say that in Japanese.
He finally left when the young man on Taishi’s right left, about five minutes before the end of the 2nd semifinal.
The second semifinal game had the team that Taishi had seen before and another team from the same prefecture who had lost the first semifinal. (They had a special invitation to the tournament; that’s why the prefecture had two teams there.) The team Taishi had seen before lost by about 30 points; it wasn’t a very pretty game, to say the least.)
Before we went to the arena, we had an hour or so to kill so I took Taishi to the big bookstore near the station that I go to for my work. They have an entire floor of English books, so it is quite convenient for me. We looked on that floor first but didn’t buy anything, then went down to the floor that has Japanese magazines. The February edition of the basketball magazine Taishi likes about NBA basketball was already being sold, so we got that. I noticed that the monthly magazine that features Japanese pro, college, and high school basketball was also already out, so we picked that up as well, because it had a large, special section about the tournament we were seeing. Lucky!
After the games, it was already about 6 p.m., and I was getting a slight headache from all the loud cheering, so we went straight back to Kashiwa without messing around in Tokyo any more. Since I wasn’t feelling so well, I decided to take Taishi to a restaurant instead of making something to eat. We walked around the station area a while and finally settled on an old coffeeshop that had spaghetti and some other foods to eat. He ordered “mentaiko” spaghetti. Mentaiko is a spicy kind of fish egg; I forget which kind of fish it comes from. I had regular meat sauce spaghetti. It was really good, and the atmosphere was unique. We also split a tuna salad. (Here, “tuna salad” means salad with some tuna on it.)
Monday and yesterday we ate lunch at Wendy’s in Tokyo. They are ending their business in Japan at the end of this month, tomorrow :(, so I wanted to eat there a couple more times if possible.
Yesterday, the 3rd place boys game was at 10 a.m. and the championship was at 12 noon. We had planned to buy stuff at the station’s convenience store again, but there was a line of customers snaking outide its doors! We passed and went on to the arena. I was glad we already had tickets because there was a line of people there to buy tickets, too.
We went inside and I saw that it would be impossible to sit in the lower level, so we went on to the upper level and found the best seats we could that were halfway near halfcourt. There was a boys minibasketball team sitting to our left and in front of us. (Elementary school age kids could get in free!) They were prety well behaved, cause they had two moms chaperoning them.
The 3rd place game was good, but we wanted to buy stuff to eat at the arena’s little shop, so we got up when there was about 5 minutes left to make our way there. Taishi also told me that he wanted to check out a stall that was selling basketball accessories that he had seen the day before. When we got there, he showed me some playing gloves (open fingered) that he had had his eyes on for some time. Without telling me previously of course; I would have gladly bought them for Christmas if I had any idea! There were two salesmen there to help us find the right size. He looked like a kid on Christmas morning when we got them; well, it isn’t that much after Christmas! I told him it was his last, last Christmas present, LOL.
We then went on to buy food. They had totally reasonable prices, so we ended up both getting packaged lunches that had five small pieces of fried chicken and a little spaghetti, accompanied by a lot of rice. Made me very sleepy when I finished eating it in the championship game’s halftime!
We had talked about looking for better seats, in the lower level, for the championship game, but it didn’t look easy as the day before, and Taishi said he was happy with the upper level seats (they did seem roomier, plus we could stash our stuff on one of the seats again), so we went back and our original seats were still open so we sat there again.
Oh, one thing I really enjoyed about both games was that there was a couple sitting behind us and the man actually said stuff during the game that I said at about the same time or thought at the same time! That sound stupid, but during the games Monday, the people around us hardly said anything at all. He wasn’t really cheering for either team, so he would say good things when either team made a good play, or make a negative sound when either team made a bad play, the same as I often did.
Though I was rooting for the team that eventually won, I didn’t really clap except for one or two plays in the second half when they started to pull away a little. I heard the man behind us clap just once, during one of those plays! I think he must have been rooting for them, too, but like me, mainly just wanted a good, close, competitive game.
We didn’t stick around for the awards ceremony, seeing how long the one for the girls was the day before. Also, Taishi said he wanted to buy a little souvenir that had the winning team’s name on it, so I wanted to get to that stall before it was swamped with people. When we got to the concourse where the stalls were, we could see the “hero interviews” on the large-screen monitors they had around there, so that was nice.
From the arena, we went to my school. The winter holiidays officially began yesterday, but the main lady who works in the office was there, by herself. I had told her I might bring Taishi there one of the two days, and was surprised when she told me she had to work both days so she might be there. Taishi seemed impressed by the school. It is definitely unique, being in one building and having a libary occupy one entire floor, a computer lab another floor, and things like that. He took a few pictures from outside.
After that, we stopped by a men’s store just a few blocks from my school, on the way to the station. I have bought a few things there, because they have things in my size, even, LOL. There are always some sales items on the sidewalk, but they are too small for me so I walk on by usually. I thought that Taishi might want to look at what they had out there, though, and luckily a winter coat caught his eye and it was very cheap! Less than twenty dollars! And in a style that is very popular with young men here, a puffy kind of ski jacket style with a fake fur lined hood. I had thought that the coat he was wearing was too thin for winter, and he told me it was getting too small for him and showed me one place where it was going bad, as if he needed to convince me that he really needed this sidewalk find.
When we paid for it at the register, I asked him if he wanted to wear it then and he said, “Yes”, so I had the lady cut off the tags and put his old coat in the store bag.
I was pleased to see his happy face more than once after putting on that coat. He smiles enough, usually, but this was a different look of happiness. I was so glad that such a simple purchase cold make him so happy. :) He really is an easy kid to please, but he never says what he really, really needs!
From there, I took him to Shibuya. It is a big shopping, “play” area just three stops from where we were on the train. I had hoped it would be the same atmosphere as usual, with the intersection in front of the station very crowded and the whole area full of young people (teenagers to 20-somethings, mostly). However, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as usual and there were actually many families there! I didn’t mind that the sidewalks and pedestrian street weren’t as crowded as usual, but I had hoped that the huge “scramble” intersection would be like always so Taishi could get a sense of that. Maybe another time, LOL!
I took him to a huge store called Tokyu Hands that sells just about anything you could imagine, and he was happy to see all of the school stuff they had, such as erasers that looked like miniature sushi. He bought a couple things and looked around a lot, and then we had supper at Wendy’s. I was surprised the waiting line wasn’t too long, but it is kind of off the beaten path, as Shibuya goes, so a lot of people who would normally have lined up for their last chance to eat there before they “leave” Japan undoubtedly didn’t even know it was there. Lucky again!
From there, we went on back to Kashiwa. We had kind of thought about staying one more night there before going back to Mito, maybe even heading into Tokyo during the day for whatever sightseeing Taishi wanted to do (before he had to get back for his Wednesday night b-ball practice), but I knew Taishi had had enough of the big city for a while, LOL. I was looking forward to getting back to my normal winter vacation routine, too, and enjoying the last few days before school started again, so we got our stuff at my apartment and headed back to Mito. I told him we would get seats on a “green car” since there would be so many people on the regular “cars” that we would have to stand for quite a while before seats opened up. He said, “Cool”, so I was happy he could enjoy a new experience like that.
We got back home and he enjoyed reading one of the basketball magazines we bought before finally I had to get him to take his shower and go to bed at around 11:30. He was glad to show off his new coat to his mom, too. :)
Okay, that catches us up with the b-ball tournament and all the accompanyig side trips in Tokyo. Maybe next time I can write about our Christmas finally!
Okay, so I finally upped all the blog entries I have written since February. I really need to make a New Year’s resolution to do those on a regular basis.
So, today I will try to write about this past weekend and take it from there.
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Sunday, Taishi and I went to the batting center for the first time in a long time. I was kind of surprised that he took his bat, because he didn’t used to, I thought. They have bats there, and I think he usually used one of their bats.Also, when he was carrying it it looked small! He’s grown so much this year.
Oh, we had decided to go to the annual, winter break, all-Japan high school basketball tournament on Dec. 28 and 29 in Tokyo, and I got info on how to get tickets from the basketball association’s website. We can get them from several different convenience stores, so I wrote down the required code numbers for a couple of them.
When I saw one of them by the side of the road on the way to the batting center, we went in. The first place we went in, we couldn’t see on the machines in the store a “path” that would lead to getting the tickets, at least not from the top menu. Perhaps instead of using the machine you just had to go to the register and they would take care of it for you for those kinds of tickets, but they are always busy so I didn’t want to bother them if possible. We decided to try later if we saw one of the other convenience store chain’s shops.
We did, just before we got to the batting center location. This place had a machine which we could get the tickets from. It was all really fairly easy. Even I could understand the Japanese, LOL.
Actually, we got pieces of paper that we had to take up to the register to pay, after which we got the tickets, but it didn’t take much time.
I had looked at some blogs that had posts about last year’s tournament, with pictures posted even, so I could see that it is pretty crowded there. The first day we are going (there are three days or so of preliminaries before that), there are a couple girls’ games, for 3rd place and the championship, and then the two boys’ semi-finals. We’ll have to go early both days, probably, to make sure we get good seats. Heck, just to make sure we get ANY seat, maybe; the seats are not reserved, and I have a feeling they don’t limit the number of tickets sold to the number of seats, because lots of people probably just go to their team’s games and leave. When all the seats are full, they probably just expect people to walk around the concourses or something, wherever they can get a view from. We’ll have to play it by ear as to whether we can leave our seats at various times, leaving our jackets or something, to come back later to the same places.
Okay, so we got our tickets and went on to the batting center. We only had one game left on our prepaid card that we used the last time we went, whenver that was. We got another card, for four games (about $8), and proceeded to the batting cages. I think Taishi wanted to do the 80 km machine, but it was being used, so he settled for the 90km one. He actually did pretty well! As he said later, he did better than when he played baseball, LOL. I told him that the bat was probably too big for him back then, and that now he had finally grown into it.
I took a couple turns myself, using one of the batting center’s bats that was a little longer than Taishi’s. (He switched to the same bat later.) I didn’t do as well as him the first time, but the second time I did a little better (than I had the first time).
He also tried the basketball game a couple times. He did really well! The machine feeds you twelve balls, one at a time, and you shoot at five hoops. It’s made very difficult by the fact that the hoops are smaller than regulation and made with thick black plastic. Also, they have a net ceiling, and a couple of times when Taishi was trying to shoot at the three farthest goals, his shots hit the net ceiling and deflected downward before they made their destination. I didn’t know, but the machine counts up to two “makes” for each basket, so he shot at the two closest baskets until he had made four shots. Both games he played, he managed to make six shots. That qualified him for two free games, but unfortunately he can only get one free-game coupon each day. (He kept the other paper so he can redeem it next time we go.)
The good thing is, his shot looked very good, even in such an artificial and difficult situation. Very smooth and effortless, even standing more or less still.
________________________________________
After the batting center, we went to the Book-Off used CD place. I found a couple CDs. One is of one of the “Monty Python” actors, Eric Idle, performing a lot of songs from the show. If you watched the show regularly, you know how silly they were. Songs like “Every Sperm is Sacred”, haha. It was a British comedy show that we kids in high school totally worshipped, LOL. I bought it halfway because I know at least one and probably more of my co-workers will like to listen to it.
I also bought a best hits album, The Goo Goo Dolls. I didn’t have any of their CDs until a few days ago, but I liked the performance I saw of one of their guitarists after 9/11, when there was the big charity music telethon on TV. The Goo Goo Dolls guy played guitar while the singer from Limp Bizkit, Fred Durst, performed a cover of a Pink Floyd song, “Wish You Were Here.” It’s one of my all-time favorite performances. I just about tear up every time I see it, cause it brings me right back to how the whole country felt right after the terrorist attacks.
Well, I don’t know that I have even listened to all of the CD I bought last week, but I kind of know the style of music that Goo Goo Dolls played from about 1995 to 2005 or so, so I know I won’t be disappointed in the Greatest Hits CD.
Actually, I’m listening to that first CD I bought of theirs right now as I type this. Well, listening to my iPod, which I put the CD on.
________________________________________
I just read that Wendy’s is pulling out of Japan. Major bummer! That means that the only two American chains left are the powerhouse McDonald’s, and Burger King, which only has about 70 shops in the whole country. I had grown to like Wendy’s a lot here. Better burgers than McDonald’s by a long shot, and also good chili and more consistently good fries than McDonald’s. There is a Wendy’s fairly close to work that I went to a lot in the Spring/Summer term, when I had a long “break” between English prep classes in the morning and my one college class. I just went there the other day, in fact, after the morning “graduation” ceremony we had and before the afternoon one. (For our English prep program.) They are only going to be here in Japan until the end of this year ... so I guess that means Dec. 31 and not before. I’ll make sure to take Taishi there when we go to Tokyo for the winter b-ball tournament. We used to have a Wendy’s in Mito, actually not far from our neighborhood, but it only lasted about 6 months for some reason. We always regretted not patronizing that one more. Not that that would have made a difference in it closing or anything.
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Had a couple strange incidents yesterday. First, on the train in the morning, I was sitting on a little 2-person side bench seat, my backpack next to me. Lots of people sit like that, taking up the “whole” (little) bench, so I knew I wasn’t being rude or anything. There was a woman sitting across from me, sitting in such a way that it was taking up the whole bench. Anyway, I was reading a baseball book I have had for a long time but have never managed to read all of, when after a while I noticed a large presence standing kind of in front of me, facing me.
“Excuse me”, I heard the man say. In English.
I looked up and, immediately realizing that the guy and me sitting together on that small bench would be more uncomfortable for both of us than either of us standing up alone. Or both of us for that matter, I should say. Why did he have to pick my seat? Why not the old lady sitting opposite me, who would not take up nearly as much space? Also, he didn’t say anything after his “Excuse me.”
(Counting inside head, "One, two, three, four, .... Don't leave me hanging like this!")
Okay, what, buddy?
So, that’s exactly what I said! In Japanese, though! (Well, minus the "Okay" and "buddy" parts, LOL.)
His English skill must not have extended any past “Excuse me” and such useful one-liners, because when I said “What” in Japanese, he said, in Japanese, “May I sit here?”
I said, in Japanese, “Oh ... yeah, it’s okay” and picked up my backpack and put it on the floor.
Man, we were cramped! This guy was bigger than me! Dressed like a businessman, probably mid-30s, fashionable glasses. Probably thought he would impress a bunch of strangers with his bravado in asking a foreigner to relinquish part of his 2-person bench, haha. Little did he know I would answer his deadend English one-liner in Japanese.
We had to share that bench for about 20 minutes, until I got off at my stop. I think next time that happens, I’ll stand up after a while of the discomfort and just stand in front of the other guy. That should make them realize their foolishness in wanting to squeeze two big people into one of those little benches, haha.
________________________________________
The next weird incident was at the coffee shop. The one I usually go to. My favorite seat was open, but there was a tray on it and four guys sitting at the next two tables, which they had pushed together. I asked them if anyone was sitting there, and one of them picked up the tray and put it on the table behind him. Kind of rude; most people take the tray back to the shelves where all the customers eventually have to bus their trays/plates/glasses. I went on to order my drink/food and came back and sat down. It wasn’t long before I realized that three of the guys were together and one was doing all the talking to the fourth guy, who was not saying a word but was just nodding his head occasionally or saying “Mmm-mmm”. The guy doing the talking was about 40 to 45, dressed in a really nice suit, really nice, fashionable glasses, watch, etc. The guy in his “group” sitting next to me was in black leather pants, black leather driver’s cap (turned backwards), totally casual but expensive casual. About 50 or so. The third guy in the group was big as a bodyguard and seemed to be one, as he never said a word and, in fact, had his eyes closed 99% of the time.
The whole situation was creepy. The guy getting talked to was about 45 – 50, in a nice shirt and tie but with a baseball style jacket, not a suit jacket. (Typical middle-class to lower-middle class dress in Japan.) They finally left after quite a while. I put on my earphones and listened to my iPod about halfway through the time they were there because I really didn’t want to be trying to figure out what it was all about. It obviously wasn’t good, but none of the other customers seemed put off by it. I think they were just trying to ignore it, like me.
So, today I will try to write about this past weekend and take it from there.
________________________________________
Sunday, Taishi and I went to the batting center for the first time in a long time. I was kind of surprised that he took his bat, because he didn’t used to, I thought. They have bats there, and I think he usually used one of their bats.Also, when he was carrying it it looked small! He’s grown so much this year.
Oh, we had decided to go to the annual, winter break, all-Japan high school basketball tournament on Dec. 28 and 29 in Tokyo, and I got info on how to get tickets from the basketball association’s website. We can get them from several different convenience stores, so I wrote down the required code numbers for a couple of them.
When I saw one of them by the side of the road on the way to the batting center, we went in. The first place we went in, we couldn’t see on the machines in the store a “path” that would lead to getting the tickets, at least not from the top menu. Perhaps instead of using the machine you just had to go to the register and they would take care of it for you for those kinds of tickets, but they are always busy so I didn’t want to bother them if possible. We decided to try later if we saw one of the other convenience store chain’s shops.
We did, just before we got to the batting center location. This place had a machine which we could get the tickets from. It was all really fairly easy. Even I could understand the Japanese, LOL.
Actually, we got pieces of paper that we had to take up to the register to pay, after which we got the tickets, but it didn’t take much time.
I had looked at some blogs that had posts about last year’s tournament, with pictures posted even, so I could see that it is pretty crowded there. The first day we are going (there are three days or so of preliminaries before that), there are a couple girls’ games, for 3rd place and the championship, and then the two boys’ semi-finals. We’ll have to go early both days, probably, to make sure we get good seats. Heck, just to make sure we get ANY seat, maybe; the seats are not reserved, and I have a feeling they don’t limit the number of tickets sold to the number of seats, because lots of people probably just go to their team’s games and leave. When all the seats are full, they probably just expect people to walk around the concourses or something, wherever they can get a view from. We’ll have to play it by ear as to whether we can leave our seats at various times, leaving our jackets or something, to come back later to the same places.
Okay, so we got our tickets and went on to the batting center. We only had one game left on our prepaid card that we used the last time we went, whenver that was. We got another card, for four games (about $8), and proceeded to the batting cages. I think Taishi wanted to do the 80 km machine, but it was being used, so he settled for the 90km one. He actually did pretty well! As he said later, he did better than when he played baseball, LOL. I told him that the bat was probably too big for him back then, and that now he had finally grown into it.
I took a couple turns myself, using one of the batting center’s bats that was a little longer than Taishi’s. (He switched to the same bat later.) I didn’t do as well as him the first time, but the second time I did a little better (than I had the first time).
He also tried the basketball game a couple times. He did really well! The machine feeds you twelve balls, one at a time, and you shoot at five hoops. It’s made very difficult by the fact that the hoops are smaller than regulation and made with thick black plastic. Also, they have a net ceiling, and a couple of times when Taishi was trying to shoot at the three farthest goals, his shots hit the net ceiling and deflected downward before they made their destination. I didn’t know, but the machine counts up to two “makes” for each basket, so he shot at the two closest baskets until he had made four shots. Both games he played, he managed to make six shots. That qualified him for two free games, but unfortunately he can only get one free-game coupon each day. (He kept the other paper so he can redeem it next time we go.)
The good thing is, his shot looked very good, even in such an artificial and difficult situation. Very smooth and effortless, even standing more or less still.
________________________________________
After the batting center, we went to the Book-Off used CD place. I found a couple CDs. One is of one of the “Monty Python” actors, Eric Idle, performing a lot of songs from the show. If you watched the show regularly, you know how silly they were. Songs like “Every Sperm is Sacred”, haha. It was a British comedy show that we kids in high school totally worshipped, LOL. I bought it halfway because I know at least one and probably more of my co-workers will like to listen to it.
I also bought a best hits album, The Goo Goo Dolls. I didn’t have any of their CDs until a few days ago, but I liked the performance I saw of one of their guitarists after 9/11, when there was the big charity music telethon on TV. The Goo Goo Dolls guy played guitar while the singer from Limp Bizkit, Fred Durst, performed a cover of a Pink Floyd song, “Wish You Were Here.” It’s one of my all-time favorite performances. I just about tear up every time I see it, cause it brings me right back to how the whole country felt right after the terrorist attacks.
Well, I don’t know that I have even listened to all of the CD I bought last week, but I kind of know the style of music that Goo Goo Dolls played from about 1995 to 2005 or so, so I know I won’t be disappointed in the Greatest Hits CD.
Actually, I’m listening to that first CD I bought of theirs right now as I type this. Well, listening to my iPod, which I put the CD on.
________________________________________
I just read that Wendy’s is pulling out of Japan. Major bummer! That means that the only two American chains left are the powerhouse McDonald’s, and Burger King, which only has about 70 shops in the whole country. I had grown to like Wendy’s a lot here. Better burgers than McDonald’s by a long shot, and also good chili and more consistently good fries than McDonald’s. There is a Wendy’s fairly close to work that I went to a lot in the Spring/Summer term, when I had a long “break” between English prep classes in the morning and my one college class. I just went there the other day, in fact, after the morning “graduation” ceremony we had and before the afternoon one. (For our English prep program.) They are only going to be here in Japan until the end of this year ... so I guess that means Dec. 31 and not before. I’ll make sure to take Taishi there when we go to Tokyo for the winter b-ball tournament. We used to have a Wendy’s in Mito, actually not far from our neighborhood, but it only lasted about 6 months for some reason. We always regretted not patronizing that one more. Not that that would have made a difference in it closing or anything.
________________________________________
Had a couple strange incidents yesterday. First, on the train in the morning, I was sitting on a little 2-person side bench seat, my backpack next to me. Lots of people sit like that, taking up the “whole” (little) bench, so I knew I wasn’t being rude or anything. There was a woman sitting across from me, sitting in such a way that it was taking up the whole bench. Anyway, I was reading a baseball book I have had for a long time but have never managed to read all of, when after a while I noticed a large presence standing kind of in front of me, facing me.
“Excuse me”, I heard the man say. In English.
I looked up and, immediately realizing that the guy and me sitting together on that small bench would be more uncomfortable for both of us than either of us standing up alone. Or both of us for that matter, I should say. Why did he have to pick my seat? Why not the old lady sitting opposite me, who would not take up nearly as much space? Also, he didn’t say anything after his “Excuse me.”
(Counting inside head, "One, two, three, four, .... Don't leave me hanging like this!")
Okay, what, buddy?
So, that’s exactly what I said! In Japanese, though! (Well, minus the "Okay" and "buddy" parts, LOL.)
His English skill must not have extended any past “Excuse me” and such useful one-liners, because when I said “What” in Japanese, he said, in Japanese, “May I sit here?”
I said, in Japanese, “Oh ... yeah, it’s okay” and picked up my backpack and put it on the floor.
Man, we were cramped! This guy was bigger than me! Dressed like a businessman, probably mid-30s, fashionable glasses. Probably thought he would impress a bunch of strangers with his bravado in asking a foreigner to relinquish part of his 2-person bench, haha. Little did he know I would answer his deadend English one-liner in Japanese.
We had to share that bench for about 20 minutes, until I got off at my stop. I think next time that happens, I’ll stand up after a while of the discomfort and just stand in front of the other guy. That should make them realize their foolishness in wanting to squeeze two big people into one of those little benches, haha.
________________________________________
The next weird incident was at the coffee shop. The one I usually go to. My favorite seat was open, but there was a tray on it and four guys sitting at the next two tables, which they had pushed together. I asked them if anyone was sitting there, and one of them picked up the tray and put it on the table behind him. Kind of rude; most people take the tray back to the shelves where all the customers eventually have to bus their trays/plates/glasses. I went on to order my drink/food and came back and sat down. It wasn’t long before I realized that three of the guys were together and one was doing all the talking to the fourth guy, who was not saying a word but was just nodding his head occasionally or saying “Mmm-mmm”. The guy doing the talking was about 40 to 45, dressed in a really nice suit, really nice, fashionable glasses, watch, etc. The guy in his “group” sitting next to me was in black leather pants, black leather driver’s cap (turned backwards), totally casual but expensive casual. About 50 or so. The third guy in the group was big as a bodyguard and seemed to be one, as he never said a word and, in fact, had his eyes closed 99% of the time.
The whole situation was creepy. The guy getting talked to was about 45 – 50, in a nice shirt and tie but with a baseball style jacket, not a suit jacket. (Typical middle-class to lower-middle class dress in Japan.) They finally left after quite a while. I put on my earphones and listened to my iPod about halfway through the time they were there because I really didn’t want to be trying to figure out what it was all about. It obviously wasn’t good, but none of the other customers seemed put off by it. I think they were just trying to ignore it, like me.
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Part-Time Tuba Player Taishi pitched in to help his school's band this one year. Actually, just for a few months before their sports day, I believe, when they needed help. |
This pic is a portal to the 80 or so 5th grade pics in the gallery, so click on it to go there and navigate around.
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Almost There! I had upped Taishi's fourth grade pics to the galleries, but forgot to post one here as a portal to those pages in the scrapbook. There are about 74 pics from this year (4th grade) there, so just click on this one to go there and navigate the galley. Hope you enjoy. |
Hi everyone! (Or maybe just "Hi, One!")
Go down to Feb. 1 and work up if you want to read this year's (ooh, that was embarrassing to write) posts in time order.
Go down to Feb. 1 and work up if you want to read this year's (ooh, that was embarrassing to write) posts in time order.
School finished two days ago. Meaning the last real work day, period, of the year. What a nice feeling! It’s a hard school to work at, but the breaks are really nice. And with the work being so hard, I have learned how to really appreciate the longish breaks!
I just looked at the two previous blog entries I wrote to see where I left off. The last one was just as Taishi was being selected to play in the All-Star games for the prefecture. Or so I thought.
As it turned out, he was only selected to TRY OUT for the team! Yeah, just a little different, huh? :)
About 30 boys were selected to try out for the 15 spots. I think four were 1st year students, the other 26 were 2nd year students. The tryouts were a Saturday and Sunday, from 9 to 5. After the first day, Taishi had blisters on his feet and was wiped out. I hadn’t seen him this tired in a long time, if ever. I really doubted that he could make the team, if he had to go through a whole other day of whatever he had just gone through, plus being still only a 1st year student.
I took him to the second day of tryouts and picked him up about 5. Oh, I actually got there an hour and a half early, or so, and watched them scrimmage until the end. Wow! It was really a fast pace! They had made three teams of five boys, so at any one time one team was resting up for the next “round”.
I thought Taishi wa playing great, but he wasn’t as big and strong as a couple other centers, who were 2nd year students. He was a little more athletic, though, and could run the court better, even handling the ball as it was passed to him around midcourt, so I figured the selections of centers would depend a lot on what kind of players the coaches wanted.
They were to tell the kids by Thursday if they had made it or not. But they didn’t ...
The next weekend, I think on the Sunday, he had regular practice at his school. His coach told him then that he had been picked! Funny thing, though, is Taishi didn’t tell me! Guess he was waiting for the official letter of invitation that would arrive at his school. I found out later from Kana; he was in the living room and I was doing something on the computer in the room next to there when she told me. She kind of said it in a soft voice, so I guess she didn’t want him to know she was telling me, but I immediately opened up the sliding door to the living room and congratulated him. I was very proud of him, knowing how hard he had played during the tryouts.
The letter arrived at his school and his principal approved his acceptance of the invitation. Of course, right? Well, it got interesting after that ...
________________________________________
As it turned out, the day of the All-Star games (there were five teams representing different parts of the prefecture), his school had an day of Open Classes scheduled for parents to observe “classes”. And his principal was being a real hardass about it, saying at first that Taishi couldn’t participate in the All-Star games. Only after his coach, his homeroom teacher, and the All-Star team coaches practically begged did he allow Taishi to take part in the morning game. But not the afternoon game ... He insisted that Taishi would have to leave the prefectural gym and come to school for the afternoon “class”.
Having worked in junior high schools and high schools here before, I knew the principal was just flaunting his power. I would hope that it was just that, and that it had nothing to do with Taishi being half-Japanese and not full ...
Taishi had mentally/emotionally accepted that the decision was irreversible, so I kind of accepted it myself, even though I knew it was total b.s. His whole team at his school had had to give up three whole days of regular classes in order to participate in the “New Player” tournament just a few weeks ago; how could it be justified to withhold Taishi from full participation in the All-Star day, making hime come back to school for the “Show Off” classes for parents to see?!
I got angrier and angrier the more I thought about it. Taishi’s All-Star teammates had told him to rush right back after the afternoon class to the prefectural gym for the ending ceremony. (The team had practices on the weekends before the big day.) So, we were planning to do that. About a week before, I thought I couldn’t just sit there and take it, though; if it were a Japanese dad, he would be asking the principal to reconsider. Not being able to go to talk with the principal during a weekday, since I work so far away, I thought about writing a letter. In English, since I wanted to make sure I was polite and I don’t really have the Japanese writing skills to do that yet, to the extent necessary in this kind of situation.
Oh, the main reason I felt compelled to do something was because, looking at the school’s website, I read that the school’s motto was about helping EACH student INDIVIDUALLY with attaining their dreams and aspirations! How more applicable of a case could you get than Taishi’s acceptance to the All-Star team!
I wrote the letter the night before the last possible chance to mail it in time for the principal to change his mind. I printed out address labels and got an envelope ready and put it all in a file folder, which I put in my backpack and took to school.
I wrote about the school motto, while of course thanking the principal for all the work he was doing for all the students’ education. I pointed out that Taishi had worked really hard just to make the team, and that he was proud not just for himself, but for the chance to represent his school. Actually, probably more of the latter. I said I would like a chance to talk with the principal and homeroom teacher after my school’s term had finished to confirm that my son’s educational needs were being met by his school. It would be after the All-Star games, and thus too late to change the principal’s mind, but as Taishi’s dad I really thought I should involve myself at that point. Taishi has done a lot for the school, some things that he didn’t really want to do, such as the cross-country running team and student council. If anyone deserved to be released from the day of Open Classes, it was him.
Well, as it turned out, I didn’t mail the letter. I just figured it was one of those things that couldn’t be helped, and that I could be doing more damage to Taishi’s future playing basketball at his school and otherwise than was worth the risk. I did plan to let the principal know of my displeasure, at some point, though.
I was trying to think on the positive side, and looking forward to seeing the games in person, since I had been unable to attend the “New Player” tournament games.
________________________________________
Then, the day after I had planned to mail the letter but didn’t, there was an incredible development.
Kana called me and told me that Taishi’s grade chief (the teacher in charge of all the 1st year students/classes) had told Kana that Taishi should just not come back to school for the afternoon Open Class! She said that this was the principal’s last year and that she would talk to him about it later. (She is a P.E. teacher and former judo player on Japan’s national team, so you know she has some power!)
What a great turn for the better. I somehow knew I shouldn’t mail the letter that I had written, that I should just trust that things in the long run would work out. Little did I know that even things in the short run would be better!
________________________________________
The day of the All-Star games came. Taishi didn’t get to play much, being the only first year player on his team and, frankly, not deserving much playing time, but he was the first player to come off the bench in the first game, so that surprised me and told me something of what his coach thought of him. Kana had told me that the coach was looking forward to showing Taishi off to the other All-Star teams’ coaches, because they get together to select the All-Prefecture team (like our All-State in American sports), and his coach thinks Taishi has a good chance to be selected for that next year.
When he did play in the first game, Taishi did fairly well. Scored four points, had a rebound or two, held his own on defense except for one lapse. In the second game, though, he seemed sleepy or something and made a lot of mistakes when he came off the bench. Maybe he just isn’t used to having to playing so little and had trouble getting warmed up. I told him later it was a shame he couldn’t play more to get warmed up, because I’m sure he would have made some good plays, too. He said he was sad he hadn’t had a chance in either game to show his inside moves.
Well, next year he’s almost a lock to make the team, if not start, so I’m sure he will have more playing time then. I was proud of him. Oh, and the team won both games, doubling the score of both of their opponents! I complimented one of his teammates after the second game when I ran into him and some of the others outside the gym. (Taishi wasn’t there or else I probably wouldn’t have said anything, knowing he might be embarrassed, LOL.)
Oh, right! I had decided it was time to buy a new video camera a few days before, since the price for high-def cameras has finally come down to a reasonable figure. I got one with 32 GB of flash memory and a slot for using an SD card, like is used for digital cameras. No more tapes! That will save a lot of money in itself.
I videoed both of the All-Star games his team played. I was quite happy with the video quality, even looking on the little monitor on the camera. However, during a break in the second game I was trying to fast forward through one of the first game’s clips, looking for Taishi’s good jump shot, when the whole camera froze up! Even when I switched the power off, the same still image stayed on the monitor and it didn’t turn off. Nothing worked. So, I knew I had to take the battery out and that would “kill” it, and then put the battery back in. That worked, but later when I transferred the video to my laptop, I noticed I was missing the entire fourth quarter of the first game! So, either that was the clip I was watching and fast forwarding through when the camera froze, or I had simply forgotten to push the “record” button when that quarter started.
Bummer ... ;(
I had Kana ask one of the other kid’s mother for a copy of the video she took, so hopefully we can get it and maybe I can even export just the part I am missing and put it into my footage before I make DVDs.
Well, again, he didn’t get to play much; as far as that goes, it was really just an appetizer for next year, so I don’t think Taishi minded too much that we (thought we had) lost the video of his good play.
________________________________________
I was reminded of what it is like to be a JHS student after the second game. The last game of the day was being played (there was no championship format), and I was watching by myself from a railing that circled the whole gym. Taishi was sitting with his teammates in another section. I thought it would be nice to get all of their names, schools, and uniform numbers to possibly put on the video in the opening part, so I took a pen and paper over to him. You could tell when he asked them, he was very much feeling like it was an imposition for him, the “freshman” to be asking the upperclassmen to do that. I immediately felt bad about it, but he didn’t mind, and the other kids didn’t, really, either. I think they actually thought it was kind of cool to be interacting with a foreigner, LOL! Well, I will have to remember the seniority thing in the future when I’m around Taishi’s seniors. It’s different within his school, at least on the basketball team, because he is big and good. (There is only one 2nd year player who starts, let alone takes basketball even halfway seriously).
I just looked at the two previous blog entries I wrote to see where I left off. The last one was just as Taishi was being selected to play in the All-Star games for the prefecture. Or so I thought.
As it turned out, he was only selected to TRY OUT for the team! Yeah, just a little different, huh? :)
About 30 boys were selected to try out for the 15 spots. I think four were 1st year students, the other 26 were 2nd year students. The tryouts were a Saturday and Sunday, from 9 to 5. After the first day, Taishi had blisters on his feet and was wiped out. I hadn’t seen him this tired in a long time, if ever. I really doubted that he could make the team, if he had to go through a whole other day of whatever he had just gone through, plus being still only a 1st year student.
I took him to the second day of tryouts and picked him up about 5. Oh, I actually got there an hour and a half early, or so, and watched them scrimmage until the end. Wow! It was really a fast pace! They had made three teams of five boys, so at any one time one team was resting up for the next “round”.
I thought Taishi wa playing great, but he wasn’t as big and strong as a couple other centers, who were 2nd year students. He was a little more athletic, though, and could run the court better, even handling the ball as it was passed to him around midcourt, so I figured the selections of centers would depend a lot on what kind of players the coaches wanted.
They were to tell the kids by Thursday if they had made it or not. But they didn’t ...
The next weekend, I think on the Sunday, he had regular practice at his school. His coach told him then that he had been picked! Funny thing, though, is Taishi didn’t tell me! Guess he was waiting for the official letter of invitation that would arrive at his school. I found out later from Kana; he was in the living room and I was doing something on the computer in the room next to there when she told me. She kind of said it in a soft voice, so I guess she didn’t want him to know she was telling me, but I immediately opened up the sliding door to the living room and congratulated him. I was very proud of him, knowing how hard he had played during the tryouts.
The letter arrived at his school and his principal approved his acceptance of the invitation. Of course, right? Well, it got interesting after that ...
________________________________________
As it turned out, the day of the All-Star games (there were five teams representing different parts of the prefecture), his school had an day of Open Classes scheduled for parents to observe “classes”. And his principal was being a real hardass about it, saying at first that Taishi couldn’t participate in the All-Star games. Only after his coach, his homeroom teacher, and the All-Star team coaches practically begged did he allow Taishi to take part in the morning game. But not the afternoon game ... He insisted that Taishi would have to leave the prefectural gym and come to school for the afternoon “class”.
Having worked in junior high schools and high schools here before, I knew the principal was just flaunting his power. I would hope that it was just that, and that it had nothing to do with Taishi being half-Japanese and not full ...
Taishi had mentally/emotionally accepted that the decision was irreversible, so I kind of accepted it myself, even though I knew it was total b.s. His whole team at his school had had to give up three whole days of regular classes in order to participate in the “New Player” tournament just a few weeks ago; how could it be justified to withhold Taishi from full participation in the All-Star day, making hime come back to school for the “Show Off” classes for parents to see?!
I got angrier and angrier the more I thought about it. Taishi’s All-Star teammates had told him to rush right back after the afternoon class to the prefectural gym for the ending ceremony. (The team had practices on the weekends before the big day.) So, we were planning to do that. About a week before, I thought I couldn’t just sit there and take it, though; if it were a Japanese dad, he would be asking the principal to reconsider. Not being able to go to talk with the principal during a weekday, since I work so far away, I thought about writing a letter. In English, since I wanted to make sure I was polite and I don’t really have the Japanese writing skills to do that yet, to the extent necessary in this kind of situation.
Oh, the main reason I felt compelled to do something was because, looking at the school’s website, I read that the school’s motto was about helping EACH student INDIVIDUALLY with attaining their dreams and aspirations! How more applicable of a case could you get than Taishi’s acceptance to the All-Star team!
I wrote the letter the night before the last possible chance to mail it in time for the principal to change his mind. I printed out address labels and got an envelope ready and put it all in a file folder, which I put in my backpack and took to school.
I wrote about the school motto, while of course thanking the principal for all the work he was doing for all the students’ education. I pointed out that Taishi had worked really hard just to make the team, and that he was proud not just for himself, but for the chance to represent his school. Actually, probably more of the latter. I said I would like a chance to talk with the principal and homeroom teacher after my school’s term had finished to confirm that my son’s educational needs were being met by his school. It would be after the All-Star games, and thus too late to change the principal’s mind, but as Taishi’s dad I really thought I should involve myself at that point. Taishi has done a lot for the school, some things that he didn’t really want to do, such as the cross-country running team and student council. If anyone deserved to be released from the day of Open Classes, it was him.
Well, as it turned out, I didn’t mail the letter. I just figured it was one of those things that couldn’t be helped, and that I could be doing more damage to Taishi’s future playing basketball at his school and otherwise than was worth the risk. I did plan to let the principal know of my displeasure, at some point, though.
I was trying to think on the positive side, and looking forward to seeing the games in person, since I had been unable to attend the “New Player” tournament games.
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Then, the day after I had planned to mail the letter but didn’t, there was an incredible development.
Kana called me and told me that Taishi’s grade chief (the teacher in charge of all the 1st year students/classes) had told Kana that Taishi should just not come back to school for the afternoon Open Class! She said that this was the principal’s last year and that she would talk to him about it later. (She is a P.E. teacher and former judo player on Japan’s national team, so you know she has some power!)
What a great turn for the better. I somehow knew I shouldn’t mail the letter that I had written, that I should just trust that things in the long run would work out. Little did I know that even things in the short run would be better!
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The day of the All-Star games came. Taishi didn’t get to play much, being the only first year player on his team and, frankly, not deserving much playing time, but he was the first player to come off the bench in the first game, so that surprised me and told me something of what his coach thought of him. Kana had told me that the coach was looking forward to showing Taishi off to the other All-Star teams’ coaches, because they get together to select the All-Prefecture team (like our All-State in American sports), and his coach thinks Taishi has a good chance to be selected for that next year.
When he did play in the first game, Taishi did fairly well. Scored four points, had a rebound or two, held his own on defense except for one lapse. In the second game, though, he seemed sleepy or something and made a lot of mistakes when he came off the bench. Maybe he just isn’t used to having to playing so little and had trouble getting warmed up. I told him later it was a shame he couldn’t play more to get warmed up, because I’m sure he would have made some good plays, too. He said he was sad he hadn’t had a chance in either game to show his inside moves.
Well, next year he’s almost a lock to make the team, if not start, so I’m sure he will have more playing time then. I was proud of him. Oh, and the team won both games, doubling the score of both of their opponents! I complimented one of his teammates after the second game when I ran into him and some of the others outside the gym. (Taishi wasn’t there or else I probably wouldn’t have said anything, knowing he might be embarrassed, LOL.)
Oh, right! I had decided it was time to buy a new video camera a few days before, since the price for high-def cameras has finally come down to a reasonable figure. I got one with 32 GB of flash memory and a slot for using an SD card, like is used for digital cameras. No more tapes! That will save a lot of money in itself.
I videoed both of the All-Star games his team played. I was quite happy with the video quality, even looking on the little monitor on the camera. However, during a break in the second game I was trying to fast forward through one of the first game’s clips, looking for Taishi’s good jump shot, when the whole camera froze up! Even when I switched the power off, the same still image stayed on the monitor and it didn’t turn off. Nothing worked. So, I knew I had to take the battery out and that would “kill” it, and then put the battery back in. That worked, but later when I transferred the video to my laptop, I noticed I was missing the entire fourth quarter of the first game! So, either that was the clip I was watching and fast forwarding through when the camera froze, or I had simply forgotten to push the “record” button when that quarter started.
Bummer ... ;(
I had Kana ask one of the other kid’s mother for a copy of the video she took, so hopefully we can get it and maybe I can even export just the part I am missing and put it into my footage before I make DVDs.
Well, again, he didn’t get to play much; as far as that goes, it was really just an appetizer for next year, so I don’t think Taishi minded too much that we (thought we had) lost the video of his good play.
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I was reminded of what it is like to be a JHS student after the second game. The last game of the day was being played (there was no championship format), and I was watching by myself from a railing that circled the whole gym. Taishi was sitting with his teammates in another section. I thought it would be nice to get all of their names, schools, and uniform numbers to possibly put on the video in the opening part, so I took a pen and paper over to him. You could tell when he asked them, he was very much feeling like it was an imposition for him, the “freshman” to be asking the upperclassmen to do that. I immediately felt bad about it, but he didn’t mind, and the other kids didn’t, really, either. I think they actually thought it was kind of cool to be interacting with a foreigner, LOL! Well, I will have to remember the seniority thing in the future when I’m around Taishi’s seniors. It’s different within his school, at least on the basketball team, because he is big and good. (There is only one 2nd year player who starts, let alone takes basketball even halfway seriously).
Yesterday was the day of my school’s annual festival, as it were. (Every Japanese school has a festival, which in Japanese they usually call Culture Festival, no matter what they actually do there.)
My school’s is kind of unique, though. as is most things about my school. The festival is held at a nearby “live house”. (A “live house” is a place where small-scale live concerts are held. I think this place lets us use the place for free, quite a savings, so we don’t mind too much that it is just a little crowded for us there.)
One nice thing about it is it doesn’t start until 1 p.m., so I can sleep a little later. I got there about 12:40, bought a sandwich and pastry at the convenience store above the live house, which is in the basement, and sat outside talking with some students there. It was a nice day, perfect for being outside, so I didn’t mind having to eat out there.
About 1, someone came outside and announced that the performances were about to start. We all went downstairs and I sought out a position in the back of the crowded room. There is a stage, which actually takes up quite a bit of space, relative to the total space down there. It is elevated about one and a half feet. The audience area is just smooth concrete floor. There are a few chairs scattered here and there against the side and back wall, but I only sat down for about ten minutes during the intermission later.
Let’s see, performances ... Well, the acoustic guitar club performed, as they did last year. In fact, I think they did the same song, “Country Roads”, as well as a Carpenters’ song (that I think they also did last year ... I guess they have new members every year and those are considered easy and popular songs for beginners.) My boss performed again, this time with one of the two guys in the office who play guitar, and a female student who is very talented and also performed last year. They performed “Hotel California” and one other song that escapes me now. I took video, but probably not both songs, so I can’t say for sure that the video will be any help with remembering, LOL. I tried to take video of every group and person that performed, but later in the afternoon I took a break when a Japanese male student did a comedy routine, thinking it would just be standup and he would be so nervous and possibly falling apart, but he actually did a very funny routine of two knights performing a kind of sword play fight. I wish I had taken video of him, too. Oh, well, lesson learned. As it was, I got everyone else, but just barely, as my small battery ran all the way down and I was also running short of tape.
Okay, back to the performnaces. There was also a “Tattoo Fashion Show”. When I saw that listed on the program, I imagined a line of students showing off the tattoos on their arms or whereever, but it ended up being two girls kind of dancing around on stage one by one, with both real tattoos and, mostly, artwork drawn on their bodies to resemble tattoos. One of the girls I have taught every semester since I started; she’s a real sweetheart but doesn’t have the TOEFL score necessary for being admitted to the college classes yet, so she is stuck in the top-most English prep class again this term. (We have a TOEFL day tomorrow, so I really, really hope she can get the few points she didn’t quite get last time.)
Other people. One guy, a Singaporan (?)-Canadian guy who I taught in the college class I had last term, did a short martial arts routine with some kind of small, metal batons I had never seen before. It was kind of startling when, while he was moving about the stage and flicking his hands/batons around at what seemed like the speed of light, he accidently hit a mike stand!
Others ... The dance club performed. Kind of a cross between a dance club and a cheerleading club. Only one guy, a former student of mine who is quite stiff in class, so it has been a surprise to see him performing with all those girls in the way they dance. (Kind of hip-hop style, I guess you would say.) A pair of Indian-American girls in the college performed Indian style dance. (Indian as in India). They were great! They did three songs of different styles. I was probably more psyched to see them because I had just seen “Slumdog Millionaire” a couple weeks ago and fell in love with the soundtrack, which I luckily picked up at a Book-Off for about 500 yen ($5). I talked to one of them later, telling her how great her dance was, and she told me she had never danced before practicing for this festival! The other girl has danced for many years, she said. I thought she did pretty well for herself.
Our music teacher (well, this was his first term, and, since we don’t offer music classes every term (and won’t next term ...), he won’t be back until who knows when), did three songs at the piano, three jazz songs. That is his real, well, main “gig”, at one particular hotel mainly . We are lucky to have him! He is a Julliard grad. He was the only one to get an encore all day, and my boss said it was the first encore in the history of the school’s festival. He really deserved it. For his encore, he did a Michael Jackson song, since MJ just passed away.
Others ... one male Japanese student (English prep, not in the college part yet) performed acoustic guitar solo. He used to write in his journal about how much he practiced, so it’s no wonder his English skills haven’t really improved that much, but he made a mistake about halfway through his performance and stopped, said, “I made a mistake” in Japanese, and then picked up where he stopped off. His style of playing was really different, especially the way he used his right, strumming hand. I’ll have to ask my boss about that, how hard it was or if he ( my boss) has even tried it before. The effect was quite nice. I was actually surprised ot see him perform on acoustic, because I always imagined he only played electric, since he had mentioned electric before and had done a few small concerts with a group of his friends.
One girl from Alabama did a solo dance routine, kind of hip-hop style, also, I guess, but with some somersaults and stuff thrown in. She’s kind of chubby, so it was surprising to see her do that! She’s a real sweetheart, too. We are really lucky to get some swell American kids in our school for two or three terms, on exchange programs.
Maybe I’ll think of some others later. At the very end, we all took a group picture (yes, even we who had done nothing but applaud the performances of others were asked to stand in the pic!). We also sang “We Are The World” together, as the lyrics and original video (you know, with Lionel Ritchie, Cyndi Lauper, etc.) were projected on a screen. That was a nice touch to end it all with.
My school’s is kind of unique, though. as is most things about my school. The festival is held at a nearby “live house”. (A “live house” is a place where small-scale live concerts are held. I think this place lets us use the place for free, quite a savings, so we don’t mind too much that it is just a little crowded for us there.)
One nice thing about it is it doesn’t start until 1 p.m., so I can sleep a little later. I got there about 12:40, bought a sandwich and pastry at the convenience store above the live house, which is in the basement, and sat outside talking with some students there. It was a nice day, perfect for being outside, so I didn’t mind having to eat out there.
About 1, someone came outside and announced that the performances were about to start. We all went downstairs and I sought out a position in the back of the crowded room. There is a stage, which actually takes up quite a bit of space, relative to the total space down there. It is elevated about one and a half feet. The audience area is just smooth concrete floor. There are a few chairs scattered here and there against the side and back wall, but I only sat down for about ten minutes during the intermission later.
Let’s see, performances ... Well, the acoustic guitar club performed, as they did last year. In fact, I think they did the same song, “Country Roads”, as well as a Carpenters’ song (that I think they also did last year ... I guess they have new members every year and those are considered easy and popular songs for beginners.) My boss performed again, this time with one of the two guys in the office who play guitar, and a female student who is very talented and also performed last year. They performed “Hotel California” and one other song that escapes me now. I took video, but probably not both songs, so I can’t say for sure that the video will be any help with remembering, LOL. I tried to take video of every group and person that performed, but later in the afternoon I took a break when a Japanese male student did a comedy routine, thinking it would just be standup and he would be so nervous and possibly falling apart, but he actually did a very funny routine of two knights performing a kind of sword play fight. I wish I had taken video of him, too. Oh, well, lesson learned. As it was, I got everyone else, but just barely, as my small battery ran all the way down and I was also running short of tape.
Okay, back to the performnaces. There was also a “Tattoo Fashion Show”. When I saw that listed on the program, I imagined a line of students showing off the tattoos on their arms or whereever, but it ended up being two girls kind of dancing around on stage one by one, with both real tattoos and, mostly, artwork drawn on their bodies to resemble tattoos. One of the girls I have taught every semester since I started; she’s a real sweetheart but doesn’t have the TOEFL score necessary for being admitted to the college classes yet, so she is stuck in the top-most English prep class again this term. (We have a TOEFL day tomorrow, so I really, really hope she can get the few points she didn’t quite get last time.)
Other people. One guy, a Singaporan (?)-Canadian guy who I taught in the college class I had last term, did a short martial arts routine with some kind of small, metal batons I had never seen before. It was kind of startling when, while he was moving about the stage and flicking his hands/batons around at what seemed like the speed of light, he accidently hit a mike stand!
Others ... The dance club performed. Kind of a cross between a dance club and a cheerleading club. Only one guy, a former student of mine who is quite stiff in class, so it has been a surprise to see him performing with all those girls in the way they dance. (Kind of hip-hop style, I guess you would say.) A pair of Indian-American girls in the college performed Indian style dance. (Indian as in India). They were great! They did three songs of different styles. I was probably more psyched to see them because I had just seen “Slumdog Millionaire” a couple weeks ago and fell in love with the soundtrack, which I luckily picked up at a Book-Off for about 500 yen ($5). I talked to one of them later, telling her how great her dance was, and she told me she had never danced before practicing for this festival! The other girl has danced for many years, she said. I thought she did pretty well for herself.
Our music teacher (well, this was his first term, and, since we don’t offer music classes every term (and won’t next term ...), he won’t be back until who knows when), did three songs at the piano, three jazz songs. That is his real, well, main “gig”, at one particular hotel mainly . We are lucky to have him! He is a Julliard grad. He was the only one to get an encore all day, and my boss said it was the first encore in the history of the school’s festival. He really deserved it. For his encore, he did a Michael Jackson song, since MJ just passed away.
Others ... one male Japanese student (English prep, not in the college part yet) performed acoustic guitar solo. He used to write in his journal about how much he practiced, so it’s no wonder his English skills haven’t really improved that much, but he made a mistake about halfway through his performance and stopped, said, “I made a mistake” in Japanese, and then picked up where he stopped off. His style of playing was really different, especially the way he used his right, strumming hand. I’ll have to ask my boss about that, how hard it was or if he ( my boss) has even tried it before. The effect was quite nice. I was actually surprised ot see him perform on acoustic, because I always imagined he only played electric, since he had mentioned electric before and had done a few small concerts with a group of his friends.
One girl from Alabama did a solo dance routine, kind of hip-hop style, also, I guess, but with some somersaults and stuff thrown in. She’s kind of chubby, so it was surprising to see her do that! She’s a real sweetheart, too. We are really lucky to get some swell American kids in our school for two or three terms, on exchange programs.
Maybe I’ll think of some others later. At the very end, we all took a group picture (yes, even we who had done nothing but applaud the performances of others were asked to stand in the pic!). We also sang “We Are The World” together, as the lyrics and original video (you know, with Lionel Ritchie, Cyndi Lauper, etc.) were projected on a screen. That was a nice touch to end it all with.
Long time no write again. I should get back in the habit of writing about something pretty much every day. The problem is, after work (meaning, leaving school), I still have “work” to do, and between that and reading the newspaper at a coffee shop, I’m ready to go home, And at home I don’t really feel like doing work or writing for my blog. Just one of those place and time things.
So, you must suspect that I wanted to write about something, right? Right! And of course, when I want to write about something, it’s usually about Taishi or about something funny I saw or a complaint about Japan. haha.
This time, Taishi again. A couple weeks ago, he had some practice games. It was nice for me to see him play for the first time as a junior high player. There were two other teams. Originally, the games were scheduled to be played at another school, but there was a flu outbreak there, so in addition to not being able to have the games there, that team could not participate, either. So, each team ended up being able to play 4 games instead of 3. The girls had practice games, too, on the other court within the same gym.
Anyway, I got to see three of Taishi’s four games. They went 2 and 2. He played very well. I was just thinking this morning, I was actually moved by how well he played! His team has been very weak in the recent past, at least until Taishi and the new 1st year kids came. (The 3rd year players have already “retired” to concentrate on high school entrance exams.) Of the starters, there is only one 2nd year player, plus Taishi and three other 1st years.
There were a few other players on the other teams as tall as he, 2nd year players, but nobody as good as him. He’s far from perfect, but he is well-rounded, playing much more solid defense than he did in mini-basketball, making fewer mistakes even when double- and triple-teamed (the coach of one of the opposing teams kept hollering out his number when he got the ball, cueing his players to practically surround him LOL), and hustling better.
So, this week there was a “New Player” tournament held for the Mito City area. It’s called that because it is the first official tournament for the 1st and 2nd years without the 3rd years. Being held on weekdays, I couldn’t attend, but I talked to Taishi every day about his games. He didn’t want to tell me much, probably not wanting to brag, but I could kind of get an estimate of the score and I would ask him what was his strong point for each game.
They won the two games their first day, advancing. They lost the third and won the fourth, so, out of the 18 teams in the bracket, they played on the third day for 5th place, and won. What Taishi wasn’t telling me was that he got his lip busted by a player in one of the games they won. Kana told me after she picked me up at the station. She said the other team had gotten two unsportsmanlike conducts, including the one where he got his lip busted. She didn’t tell me that at first, but said the lip wouldn’t stop bleeding for four minutes and they couldn’t continue the game until then. Only when I asked if it had been an accident or on purpose did she tell me the unsportsmanlike conduct part. I asked if the other coach had apologized, and she said she didn’t think so. I figured if it had been an isolated incident, kind of a one player going rogue thing, maybe no apology necessary, but TWO unsportsmanlike conducts?! No apology? Seems like the coach might have been behind the rough play, to me. Taishi’s team did win the game, so that is the best revenge. :) I didn’t know it was a close game until I saw the bracket sheet later at home: 57-54!
I hate to see that happen, of course, but it might Taishi play even tougher. He could play a lot tougher and not get called for even regular fouls. He’s strong enough to have his way in the paint, has good footwork and balance. I know his coaches are telling him the same thing; maybe having his lip busted will be the final straw, LOL.
The top 6 teams from the Mito tournament go on to the central Ibaraki tournament in the middle of the month. Unfortunately, that will be held on weekdays, too. I was thinking maybe they schedule it that way so not many dads can go and yell at their kids! (Or the refs?) Probably not a bad idea. Still, if it were a regular school day, I might try to get my boss to give me a day off, but that is the day before and of our first mid-term tests, so I can’t miss any school then.
More good basketball news. Taishi was picked up for the Central Ibaraki all-star team! Kana told me that last night, too; he still hasn’t mentioned it, LOL. Don’t know how many players are on it, but surely only about 15, and he might well be the only 1st year player. I hope I can see those games; they will play against the three other all-star teams in the prefecture sometime later this month or next month. They’ll have some practices on weekend days before, so I should be able to see some of those.
Oh, about the busted lip. I didn’t mention anything to Taishi last night and he didn’t say anything to me. I figured he didn’t want it made into a big deal. Will probably mention it today just to let him know I had noticed.
Got to see his jersey last night. The school hadn’t bought new jerseys for 6 years, so they got some right before the tournament. Looks so big! Especially wide! His is #9. I need to get some pics of it. I wonder if they ordered his especialy for his size, cause I can’t imagine most players being able to even halfway fill it out. It looked like it would fall off of his shoulders as it were, when I saw on the hanger last night. Guess they are figuring he still has some growing to do. Of course, it’s not like they will stop using the jerseys after he’s finished. (Not if they used the previous ones for 6 years, right?) So, they will be ready for any more big kids who come along in the three or four years after Taishi.
No practice today, so I don’t know what we will do. Maybe see if Taishi wants to go take pictures somewhere. It is lovely weather, about 72 degrees and sunny.
So, you must suspect that I wanted to write about something, right? Right! And of course, when I want to write about something, it’s usually about Taishi or about something funny I saw or a complaint about Japan. haha.
This time, Taishi again. A couple weeks ago, he had some practice games. It was nice for me to see him play for the first time as a junior high player. There were two other teams. Originally, the games were scheduled to be played at another school, but there was a flu outbreak there, so in addition to not being able to have the games there, that team could not participate, either. So, each team ended up being able to play 4 games instead of 3. The girls had practice games, too, on the other court within the same gym.
Anyway, I got to see three of Taishi’s four games. They went 2 and 2. He played very well. I was just thinking this morning, I was actually moved by how well he played! His team has been very weak in the recent past, at least until Taishi and the new 1st year kids came. (The 3rd year players have already “retired” to concentrate on high school entrance exams.) Of the starters, there is only one 2nd year player, plus Taishi and three other 1st years.
There were a few other players on the other teams as tall as he, 2nd year players, but nobody as good as him. He’s far from perfect, but he is well-rounded, playing much more solid defense than he did in mini-basketball, making fewer mistakes even when double- and triple-teamed (the coach of one of the opposing teams kept hollering out his number when he got the ball, cueing his players to practically surround him LOL), and hustling better.
So, this week there was a “New Player” tournament held for the Mito City area. It’s called that because it is the first official tournament for the 1st and 2nd years without the 3rd years. Being held on weekdays, I couldn’t attend, but I talked to Taishi every day about his games. He didn’t want to tell me much, probably not wanting to brag, but I could kind of get an estimate of the score and I would ask him what was his strong point for each game.
They won the two games their first day, advancing. They lost the third and won the fourth, so, out of the 18 teams in the bracket, they played on the third day for 5th place, and won. What Taishi wasn’t telling me was that he got his lip busted by a player in one of the games they won. Kana told me after she picked me up at the station. She said the other team had gotten two unsportsmanlike conducts, including the one where he got his lip busted. She didn’t tell me that at first, but said the lip wouldn’t stop bleeding for four minutes and they couldn’t continue the game until then. Only when I asked if it had been an accident or on purpose did she tell me the unsportsmanlike conduct part. I asked if the other coach had apologized, and she said she didn’t think so. I figured if it had been an isolated incident, kind of a one player going rogue thing, maybe no apology necessary, but TWO unsportsmanlike conducts?! No apology? Seems like the coach might have been behind the rough play, to me. Taishi’s team did win the game, so that is the best revenge. :) I didn’t know it was a close game until I saw the bracket sheet later at home: 57-54!
I hate to see that happen, of course, but it might Taishi play even tougher. He could play a lot tougher and not get called for even regular fouls. He’s strong enough to have his way in the paint, has good footwork and balance. I know his coaches are telling him the same thing; maybe having his lip busted will be the final straw, LOL.
The top 6 teams from the Mito tournament go on to the central Ibaraki tournament in the middle of the month. Unfortunately, that will be held on weekdays, too. I was thinking maybe they schedule it that way so not many dads can go and yell at their kids! (Or the refs?) Probably not a bad idea. Still, if it were a regular school day, I might try to get my boss to give me a day off, but that is the day before and of our first mid-term tests, so I can’t miss any school then.
More good basketball news. Taishi was picked up for the Central Ibaraki all-star team! Kana told me that last night, too; he still hasn’t mentioned it, LOL. Don’t know how many players are on it, but surely only about 15, and he might well be the only 1st year player. I hope I can see those games; they will play against the three other all-star teams in the prefecture sometime later this month or next month. They’ll have some practices on weekend days before, so I should be able to see some of those.
Oh, about the busted lip. I didn’t mention anything to Taishi last night and he didn’t say anything to me. I figured he didn’t want it made into a big deal. Will probably mention it today just to let him know I had noticed.
Got to see his jersey last night. The school hadn’t bought new jerseys for 6 years, so they got some right before the tournament. Looks so big! Especially wide! His is #9. I need to get some pics of it. I wonder if they ordered his especialy for his size, cause I can’t imagine most players being able to even halfway fill it out. It looked like it would fall off of his shoulders as it were, when I saw on the hanger last night. Guess they are figuring he still has some growing to do. Of course, it’s not like they will stop using the jerseys after he’s finished. (Not if they used the previous ones for 6 years, right?) So, they will be ready for any more big kids who come along in the three or four years after Taishi.
No practice today, so I don’t know what we will do. Maybe see if Taishi wants to go take pictures somewhere. It is lovely weather, about 72 degrees and sunny.
I could have sworn that I wrote something for the blog recently ... I guess not, cause I just checked by doing a search and the most recent entry is about three and a half months ago.
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Taishi and I are going back to the states on Aug. 10 for about two and a half weeks. At first, we were having a hard time getting decent tickets. The agency told us at first that there were no direct flight tickets left to Dallas, and that we would have to transfer through San Francisco or somewhere like that, taking as much as 9 hours extra in the process. Oh, and the price was going to be a little more than the highest I had expected.
So I held off, after checking wih an online ticket broker and not finding much better. (I found a little cheaper, but still not a direct flight. Interestingly, the cheaper tickets were on a Korean airline; I have never been quoted prices on a Korean airline by the Japanese agency. I wonder if they just don’t sell them, as a matter of policy.)
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Taishi and I are going back to the states on Aug. 10 for about two and a half weeks. At first, we were having a hard time getting decent tickets. The agency told us at first that there were no direct flight tickets left to Dallas, and that we would have to transfer through San Francisco or somewhere like that, taking as much as 9 hours extra in the process. Oh, and the price was going to be a little more than the highest I had expected.
So I held off, after checking wih an online ticket broker and not finding much better. (I found a little cheaper, but still not a direct flight. Interestingly, the cheaper tickets were on a Korean airline; I have never been quoted prices on a Korean airline by the Japanese agency. I wonder if they just don’t sell them, as a matter of policy.)
Again, haven’t written in so, so long. Not really any time on weekdays to think about it. Well, maybe there is, but I have a routine I follow, without really meaning to or thinking about it, and writing a blog entry is not one of the things in the routine, at this point anyway.
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Had the welcome party for the new students Friday. I started feeling a little sick on Wednesday, the usual sequence of first the throat feeling a little scratchy, then a slightly runny nose the next day. Thursdya night I didn’t sleep well, but slept enough. Had to use a few tissues to soak up the drainage from my nose after I laid down at first. (Funny how we don’t really talk about things like that, though it surely must be something that everyone does, has to do, when they have a runny nose! The alternative is to have a completely wet pillow when you wake up, at least the part under your nose, LOL.
Okay, so I get through Friday okay, even my college class at the end of the day. Class ended at 6:15 p.m., and the party started at 7 at Shakey’s Pizza, so there was a good amount of time to kill until then. Perfect for making sure I had all the stuff in my bag I would want to grade over the weekend and stuff like that, chat with other teachers in the staff room, and then leave. I had heard one of the bosses tell my boss that he would go to the British pub (like) place fairly close to our school, that night, but my boss told him we had the party, but that he might drop by. So, when my boss kind of slipped out at about 6:20 or so, I thought he was headed over there, and I thought I might try to go myself if I had enough time to enjoy a beer. (I thought that beer had been served at last year’s welcome party to those over 20, so I didn’t think it would be bad for me to enjoy one on the way there.)
I left at about 6:40 or so, and when I got to the pub I saw one of our teachers and the other boss guy (not my boss) outside. They have about three little tables they put outside when the weather is not threatening. Actually, I had went there for a coffee break betwen my last English class and my late afternoon college class, and it had been nice outside. Unfortunately, the streeside there is uneven, and all the tables tilt toward the pub, LOL. It was nice in the evening, too, not too cool, not too warm. We (all three of us, agreed that it would be okay for the two of us teachers to not go to the party right away; in fact, the boss guy made a point that it was really for the students and we teachers only needed to make an appearance. I think he was trying to convince us not to og at all, just kind of hinting towards it, probably because he didn’t want to be alone there after we left.
They were drinking full pints of beer, but I thought I just had time for a half pint before the other teacher and I should probably leave, so that’s what I had. Even though I had a slight cold, it tasted pretty good! My appetite has been normal, for the most part.
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Among the topics at the pub had been a student or two. Teachers can’t help but do that kind of thing! It’s what we have in common. Well, on the way from the pub to Shakey’s, about a five minute walk, the other teacher continued talking about one of the students. I was starting to think it wasn’t a good idea to continue like that, especially once we go out on one of the main streets around there, but I let him continue because he is older than I and has been teaching there a number of years. However, once we got on THE main street, in the flow of people going about their way on a typical Friday, he mentioned the student’s name, first name and last name for some reason, and I slapped him on the back and said, “Hey, we had better stop this because we have no idea what students might be around here!” He chuckled in acknowledgement and agreed. It was past 7, so all the students should have ben there, but I wasn’t sure that there were no late ones, so I thought it was better to be safe than sorry.
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The party was a lot of fun. Last year, it being my first one, I wasn’t sure what to expect or how to behave, but this year I could totally relax. When we got there, there were some students waiting at the entrance just to get in. We had to sign in, and they were running out of tables/chairs, apparently. The person in front of me and I somehow were guided to vacant chairs, and later as other late teachers came in and had to go immediately to the food line, they teased me about being able to sit down right away, LOL.
I was sat at a table with students I taught last year and, some of them, this year, too. It’s a real funloving group, the kind that, if the situation were different, I’m sure I would enjoy partying with anyway.
Two of the girls took it upon themselves to play waitress, going to the food line and bringing back plate after plate of pizza, chicken, pasta, etc. They finally sat down themselves and enjoyed eating. I ate a lot, because last year it seemed that the flow of food had stopped after a while and I think I was left with a slightly hungry feeling after the party. I was sitting at the end of the table away from the wall, so I was able to go get a plate of food myself. Not JUST for myself, LOL, for everyone, but I made sure to get some pizza that I myself would like.
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The party was uneventful, but at some point one of the girls who had played waitress showed me a kind of slideshow on her digital camera, made up of dozens of pictures she had taken of one of the boys after another boy in the class had applied makeup to him. At first, the pictures were just of him, but later the makeup artist appeared in the pics and the two of them were in ... how can I say this ... slightly embarrassing poses. I wasn’t embarrassed to see them, cause I knew they would only go SO far, having been taken in the classroom (I gues after school.)
The boy who had been made up had written in his journal to me last week that he had kind of been approached about doing some kind of work in the entertainment field, so I thought maybe this was a part of his preparation.
There was a bingo game at the party. Nobody from our table won anything, so towards the end I said, “Oh, maybe it’s my fault! I’ll move away and maybe someone will win then.”
I got up and stood by a nearby wall, and wouldn’t you know it, just two numbers later, I got a bingo! I went to the prize table but, lo and behold, they didn’t have enough prizes, so I volunteered to sit down. (I figured they would probably have the people play paper/scissors/rock, and I don’t like that because I can’t play as fast as Japanese students, so I was happy to just sit down.)
After that, I moved around a few tables and talked to other students. One girl, whom I had taught in English clases but who is now in college classes, had a tattoo on her arm. I wouldn’t normally point it out; there are more than a few girls who have tattoos at our school. However, she had given a speech in my class about tattoos, and said at the time she was thinking about getting one but was weighing the pros and cons. They are kind of taboo in Japan, except for the yakuza gangster kind, for hom it is a kind of brand almost. More and more young people are getting them these days, though. Her tattoo on the top of her foreamr is some kind of design from the “Joker” movie that came out in the Batman series, the Joker’s mouth with a zipper on each side that wraps all the way around her arm. She showed me that she has two Roman numerals, one on each of side by side fingers, representing her birthday, and, finally, she showed me the remnants of a smiley face that she decided to put on the tip of one of her index fingers. I say remnants because, I guess it is wearing off. It almost seeeemed like an afterthought, the way she showed me it, so I wouldn’t doubt that the tattoo artist had thrown it in for free.
She is a real sweetheart, always the nicest of manners. A little big, but she said she was bullied when she was younger and gave that as a reason for likeing a hard metal band. I just want her to be happy, but I hope she doesn’t go on some kind of tattoo and piercing binge, thining that they will make her feel better. (She seems to feel good about life, so I don’t know why she would want to do that, anyway.)
I made my way around the room one last time before leaving about 15 minutes before the party was schedled to end anyway. I had thought that I might stop somewhere for a drink or two on my way home (no alcohol was served at this year’s party, after all.), but when I got to my station I realized that I didn’t feel like drinking, because of the effects of my cold. No sense in spending the time and money if you can’t truly enjoy it. Better to wait until I am over the cold, so I can really enjoy the time.
It’s a good thing I didn’t stop somewhere, because I ended up sleeping terrible that night. Had trouble going to sleep, and then I woke up at about 4:30. Tried to sleep again, but finally got up at 5:30 for good. It’s nice to wake up that early on the weekend from time to time, but not when you are sick and need more sleep!
________________________________________
Had the welcome party for the new students Friday. I started feeling a little sick on Wednesday, the usual sequence of first the throat feeling a little scratchy, then a slightly runny nose the next day. Thursdya night I didn’t sleep well, but slept enough. Had to use a few tissues to soak up the drainage from my nose after I laid down at first. (Funny how we don’t really talk about things like that, though it surely must be something that everyone does, has to do, when they have a runny nose! The alternative is to have a completely wet pillow when you wake up, at least the part under your nose, LOL.
Okay, so I get through Friday okay, even my college class at the end of the day. Class ended at 6:15 p.m., and the party started at 7 at Shakey’s Pizza, so there was a good amount of time to kill until then. Perfect for making sure I had all the stuff in my bag I would want to grade over the weekend and stuff like that, chat with other teachers in the staff room, and then leave. I had heard one of the bosses tell my boss that he would go to the British pub (like) place fairly close to our school, that night, but my boss told him we had the party, but that he might drop by. So, when my boss kind of slipped out at about 6:20 or so, I thought he was headed over there, and I thought I might try to go myself if I had enough time to enjoy a beer. (I thought that beer had been served at last year’s welcome party to those over 20, so I didn’t think it would be bad for me to enjoy one on the way there.)
I left at about 6:40 or so, and when I got to the pub I saw one of our teachers and the other boss guy (not my boss) outside. They have about three little tables they put outside when the weather is not threatening. Actually, I had went there for a coffee break betwen my last English class and my late afternoon college class, and it had been nice outside. Unfortunately, the streeside there is uneven, and all the tables tilt toward the pub, LOL. It was nice in the evening, too, not too cool, not too warm. We (all three of us, agreed that it would be okay for the two of us teachers to not go to the party right away; in fact, the boss guy made a point that it was really for the students and we teachers only needed to make an appearance. I think he was trying to convince us not to og at all, just kind of hinting towards it, probably because he didn’t want to be alone there after we left.
They were drinking full pints of beer, but I thought I just had time for a half pint before the other teacher and I should probably leave, so that’s what I had. Even though I had a slight cold, it tasted pretty good! My appetite has been normal, for the most part.
________________________________________
Among the topics at the pub had been a student or two. Teachers can’t help but do that kind of thing! It’s what we have in common. Well, on the way from the pub to Shakey’s, about a five minute walk, the other teacher continued talking about one of the students. I was starting to think it wasn’t a good idea to continue like that, especially once we go out on one of the main streets around there, but I let him continue because he is older than I and has been teaching there a number of years. However, once we got on THE main street, in the flow of people going about their way on a typical Friday, he mentioned the student’s name, first name and last name for some reason, and I slapped him on the back and said, “Hey, we had better stop this because we have no idea what students might be around here!” He chuckled in acknowledgement and agreed. It was past 7, so all the students should have ben there, but I wasn’t sure that there were no late ones, so I thought it was better to be safe than sorry.
________________________________________
The party was a lot of fun. Last year, it being my first one, I wasn’t sure what to expect or how to behave, but this year I could totally relax. When we got there, there were some students waiting at the entrance just to get in. We had to sign in, and they were running out of tables/chairs, apparently. The person in front of me and I somehow were guided to vacant chairs, and later as other late teachers came in and had to go immediately to the food line, they teased me about being able to sit down right away, LOL.
I was sat at a table with students I taught last year and, some of them, this year, too. It’s a real funloving group, the kind that, if the situation were different, I’m sure I would enjoy partying with anyway.
Two of the girls took it upon themselves to play waitress, going to the food line and bringing back plate after plate of pizza, chicken, pasta, etc. They finally sat down themselves and enjoyed eating. I ate a lot, because last year it seemed that the flow of food had stopped after a while and I think I was left with a slightly hungry feeling after the party. I was sitting at the end of the table away from the wall, so I was able to go get a plate of food myself. Not JUST for myself, LOL, for everyone, but I made sure to get some pizza that I myself would like.
________________________________________
The party was uneventful, but at some point one of the girls who had played waitress showed me a kind of slideshow on her digital camera, made up of dozens of pictures she had taken of one of the boys after another boy in the class had applied makeup to him. At first, the pictures were just of him, but later the makeup artist appeared in the pics and the two of them were in ... how can I say this ... slightly embarrassing poses. I wasn’t embarrassed to see them, cause I knew they would only go SO far, having been taken in the classroom (I gues after school.)
The boy who had been made up had written in his journal to me last week that he had kind of been approached about doing some kind of work in the entertainment field, so I thought maybe this was a part of his preparation.
There was a bingo game at the party. Nobody from our table won anything, so towards the end I said, “Oh, maybe it’s my fault! I’ll move away and maybe someone will win then.”
I got up and stood by a nearby wall, and wouldn’t you know it, just two numbers later, I got a bingo! I went to the prize table but, lo and behold, they didn’t have enough prizes, so I volunteered to sit down. (I figured they would probably have the people play paper/scissors/rock, and I don’t like that because I can’t play as fast as Japanese students, so I was happy to just sit down.)
After that, I moved around a few tables and talked to other students. One girl, whom I had taught in English clases but who is now in college classes, had a tattoo on her arm. I wouldn’t normally point it out; there are more than a few girls who have tattoos at our school. However, she had given a speech in my class about tattoos, and said at the time she was thinking about getting one but was weighing the pros and cons. They are kind of taboo in Japan, except for the yakuza gangster kind, for hom it is a kind of brand almost. More and more young people are getting them these days, though. Her tattoo on the top of her foreamr is some kind of design from the “Joker” movie that came out in the Batman series, the Joker’s mouth with a zipper on each side that wraps all the way around her arm. She showed me that she has two Roman numerals, one on each of side by side fingers, representing her birthday, and, finally, she showed me the remnants of a smiley face that she decided to put on the tip of one of her index fingers. I say remnants because, I guess it is wearing off. It almost seeeemed like an afterthought, the way she showed me it, so I wouldn’t doubt that the tattoo artist had thrown it in for free.
She is a real sweetheart, always the nicest of manners. A little big, but she said she was bullied when she was younger and gave that as a reason for likeing a hard metal band. I just want her to be happy, but I hope she doesn’t go on some kind of tattoo and piercing binge, thining that they will make her feel better. (She seems to feel good about life, so I don’t know why she would want to do that, anyway.)
I made my way around the room one last time before leaving about 15 minutes before the party was schedled to end anyway. I had thought that I might stop somewhere for a drink or two on my way home (no alcohol was served at this year’s party, after all.), but when I got to my station I realized that I didn’t feel like drinking, because of the effects of my cold. No sense in spending the time and money if you can’t truly enjoy it. Better to wait until I am over the cold, so I can really enjoy the time.
It’s a good thing I didn’t stop somewhere, because I ended up sleeping terrible that night. Had trouble going to sleep, and then I woke up at about 4:30. Tried to sleep again, but finally got up at 5:30 for good. It’s nice to wake up that early on the weekend from time to time, but not when you are sick and need more sleep!
