The first thing I noticed after graduating from college was that I had no homework! However, my body has been in grind mode for so long, that when I get home at 4:30, I'm completely bored. The summer leading up to Japan I watched lots and lots of movies. Now, I am without Netflix and it takes about a week to download a movie. What am I to do?
Tues - Karate with four other JETs: Elina, Vaughn, Justin and Emily. The teacher is about 55 and completely hardcore. He speaks little English, but enough to get points across. Plus, with our JET powers combined, we can usually figure out what he means. Practice is an hour and a half, and I sweat about a gallon. Workout = intense.
Thurs - Calligraphy and Chinese lessons. There is a Chinese lady who takes karate with us, and she mentioned that she gives Chinese lessons once a week. So me and another JET show up and we do an informal Chinese/ Japanese/ English lesson. Since English is her third language, I use it for more of a Japanese class. I'm not putting that much effort into the Chinese, but the other guy is.
Half way through Chinese, I go to calligraphy lessons, which is in the same building. Justin, the other JET, then spends the time I'm away learning kanji from the Chinese lady, since he's a noob. Calligraphy is awesome and very difficult. Calligraphy has always been in that 'I don't get it' category. Other activities have been art and golf. I've found that I 'get' something as soon as I attempt it myself. That's when you learn to respect pros.
Fri - Karate again. Another 1.5 hours of sweat
There's a youth sports group here in Ogimi, and when I first moved here, I met a few of the members. They all asked, "Do you play basketball? Do you play baseball? Do you play soccer?" I said I did and thought I felt an encouragement to join. A few weeks ago, I asked a girl at the village office to find out when practices were. I asked her cause she knows everyone and speaks really good English. She said basketball hasn't started yet, but that there were baseball and soccer practices. Since baseball is lame, I asked to join the soccer practices.
She came back with a flat 'no'. I have been shamed.
The reason for not being allowed to play soccer is that the 'leader' is really serious. So serious that they play games every now and then against other villages. So serious that they practice once a week. So serious that the leader, apparently, tried to go Pro. That's why he now lives in the Middle-Of-Nowhere, Okinawa.
I don't get it. If they were worried that I sucked, ask me to come try out. I'd be okay with not making the cut. What is the real reason? I think they don't want to attempt to communicate with me. They probably know I won't understand everything being said. When I think of the communication barrier, assuming I'm right, I can almost understand their position. But then I think, 'What if this happened in Florida?'. What if I had a group of friends that played soccer, then one of them mentions a friend Pedro that wants to join, but he doesn't speak English?
He would be more than welcome to play.
Putting the 大 in 大宜味.
Friday, November 02, 2007
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3 comments:
Dang, are you learning karate from one of those awsome masters of the Okinawan people? That would be tight. That sucks that dude isn't letting you play soccer. You should just show up and show him you are probably twice his size! Oh well, basketball maybe? You might do good there, packing all the shots for the -1 foot Japanese guys.
Yea, I think I have 'approval' to play basketball when it starts up cause they're less 'serious'. That should be fun.
I knew a guy in Chicago that held practices for an *intramural flag football team*! There's a certain type of man out there you just can't deal with sometimes; I like to call them sad.
Level up to blue belt and then kick the ball into space.
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