In nine short hours I will begin a 14 day trip from Sendai to Osaka to Tokyo. My friend Frank and I will wake up at 6:00am and board the first of 8 different trains on an epic 17 hour journey to Osaka. My goal is to learn the entire Hirgana alphabet while on the train. As this is not likely to happen, I would be content with just learning half.
I plan on taking lots of pictures and videos to chronicle this journey so I dumped the contents of my memory card onto my laptop to free up space. I found a few hidden gems, such as some video that Rachel took of my band's last show before I left for Japan.
I hope to be posting next on Saturday when I arrive in Tokyo. Once there I will be staying with one of my friends from training and he might be kind enough to let me use his internet while he is at work. Apparently he is a big snorer so I brought earplugs. Gotta stay prepared. Until then, here is some Laden Swallow goodness...
Monday, December 22, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Josh finds anti-sports people boring, untrustworthy.
Last weekend I went to Fukuoka (4 hours away, and about the size of Toronto...I think) for my work Christmas party. As I have never met most of these people, and the ones I do know I have only seen once or twice, the first part of the party was a generally awkward exchange of general information. However, I figured that as the night moved on people would open up more and the potential for an interesting conversation would greatly increase.
Or so I thought.
After going up for my third helping of the fried potatoes, I found myself sitting next to a hipster guy in a scarf who was inhaling from a slim cigarette. He looked like he was trying very hard to channel David Niven, albeit with varying degrees of success. As we had spoken before I knew where he was originally from, and I asked him a simple question about his city's NBA team. He took a drag from his slim stick of cancer, looked down his nose at me, and said something to the effect that he felt sports were beneath him. In fact, his expression also said that I must be the silliest person in the world to even ask him such a question.
It was then that I decided I did not like Mr. Hipster David Niven.
While the men at the party were altogether underwhelming in their sports knowledge, the women more than eager to discuss their favorite teams. I met a girl from New York, and as I always do when I meet a New Yorker, I asked her if she was for the Yankees or the Mets.
She said the Yankees.
This is generally not a good sign. I hate the Yankees with every fiber of my being. One more question would seal the deal.
"Who is your favorite player?" I ask. If she says Jeter there is no possible way we can be friends.
She excitedly answered, "Well I don't like Jeter," and then made a face to let me know that either she really didn't like Jeter or had swallowed some bad shellfish earlier in the night. Good sign. She continued, "And A-Rod sucks. He is soooo overated, he never comes through in the clutch. I like Robinson Cano."
Wow. Aside from being a Yankee fan this girl is perfect. She hates A-Rod and for some reason doesn't like Jeter. However, she is in fact a Yankee fan, so I try and avoid talking to her for the rest of the night.
Finally, I sat down opposite a girl and found out that she had graduated from Loyola Marymount. Immediately I was excited. Now granted, she was probably three years old when Hank Gathers became the second person ever to lead the nation is both scoring and rebounding, averaging 32.7 and 13.7 respectively. (OK, I looked that up. But I did know that he led the nation in both, so put that in your pipe and smoke it) I am sure everyone reading this blog already knows the story of Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble, because you are all both interesting and trustworthy. However, in case you forgot, I will refresh your memory. One game before the NCAA tournament, Hank Gathers died on the court because of a heart problem (actually immediately after throwing down a hard core ally-oop dunk. The guy was a stud) Best friend and teammate since high school, Bo Kimble would then lead the Cinderella squad all the way to the Elite Eight, where they would fall to the eventual champion UNLV. Kimble did this all while shooting his free throws left handed when he first got to the line. He was a notoriously bad free throw shooter, but he never missed a left handed free throw the entire tournament. Probably my favorite college sports moment ever.
Anyways, when I asked her about Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble, she got very excited and we had a very nice conversation on the topic. So I guess there are sports fans in Japan, you just have to look really hard. So I will continue to search on, and I am sure it will be worth it.
Or so I thought.
After going up for my third helping of the fried potatoes, I found myself sitting next to a hipster guy in a scarf who was inhaling from a slim cigarette. He looked like he was trying very hard to channel David Niven, albeit with varying degrees of success. As we had spoken before I knew where he was originally from, and I asked him a simple question about his city's NBA team. He took a drag from his slim stick of cancer, looked down his nose at me, and said something to the effect that he felt sports were beneath him. In fact, his expression also said that I must be the silliest person in the world to even ask him such a question.
It was then that I decided I did not like Mr. Hipster David Niven.
While the men at the party were altogether underwhelming in their sports knowledge, the women more than eager to discuss their favorite teams. I met a girl from New York, and as I always do when I meet a New Yorker, I asked her if she was for the Yankees or the Mets.
She said the Yankees.
This is generally not a good sign. I hate the Yankees with every fiber of my being. One more question would seal the deal.
"Who is your favorite player?" I ask. If she says Jeter there is no possible way we can be friends.
She excitedly answered, "Well I don't like Jeter," and then made a face to let me know that either she really didn't like Jeter or had swallowed some bad shellfish earlier in the night. Good sign. She continued, "And A-Rod sucks. He is soooo overated, he never comes through in the clutch. I like Robinson Cano."
Wow. Aside from being a Yankee fan this girl is perfect. She hates A-Rod and for some reason doesn't like Jeter. However, she is in fact a Yankee fan, so I try and avoid talking to her for the rest of the night.
Finally, I sat down opposite a girl and found out that she had graduated from Loyola Marymount. Immediately I was excited. Now granted, she was probably three years old when Hank Gathers became the second person ever to lead the nation is both scoring and rebounding, averaging 32.7 and 13.7 respectively. (OK, I looked that up. But I did know that he led the nation in both, so put that in your pipe and smoke it) I am sure everyone reading this blog already knows the story of Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble, because you are all both interesting and trustworthy. However, in case you forgot, I will refresh your memory. One game before the NCAA tournament, Hank Gathers died on the court because of a heart problem (actually immediately after throwing down a hard core ally-oop dunk. The guy was a stud) Best friend and teammate since high school, Bo Kimble would then lead the Cinderella squad all the way to the Elite Eight, where they would fall to the eventual champion UNLV. Kimble did this all while shooting his free throws left handed when he first got to the line. He was a notoriously bad free throw shooter, but he never missed a left handed free throw the entire tournament. Probably my favorite college sports moment ever.
Anyways, when I asked her about Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble, she got very excited and we had a very nice conversation on the topic. So I guess there are sports fans in Japan, you just have to look really hard. So I will continue to search on, and I am sure it will be worth it.
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