April 21th-All Aboard!
Today was Monday. I would have gone to school today, but it was a day off! Why? Because we had to get up at O-dark 30 (referring to a time that’s incredibly early and ungodly), to go to school for an hour and a half and learn English! Of course…just because it was vacation today, that didn’t mean that I could sleep in! In fact, I figured out today that there is no such thing as a day when I can sleep in! Isn’t that remarkable?! Anyway, today we had boat practice in the morning. The weather was much better today than it had been on Saturday and we actually were able to launch the boats. I was in the boat with Ippei “The Technician.” We started out with some easy things. First we did the rest position: oars angled backward sliding over the top of the water. Then we did rowing with one hand at a time. I found out very quickly that rowing in the water was very very very different from doing the rowing machine at school. First of all, the rowing machine at school doesn’t sway violently back and forth when you have bad timing with the oars. Second, I don’t feel I need a life preserver for the machine at school (we don’t wear life jackets in the boat). Third, the machine doesn’t have any oars that you have to move in a very precise motion in exact synchronization with each other and with the oars of the other person in the boat! Well, you get the idea. I’ll admit it; at first I was REALLY REALLY bad at it. Then the Technician rowed for a little while and I could certainly tell the difference. We absolutely flew over the water! It was kinda scary, but it was exciting too because I was thinking about what it would be like when we both can have our timing down and row together. Towards the end of my time on the water, we rowed together for a little bit. We didn’t do that much…just 3 or 5 strokes together. If two people are rowing at once, and there timing is off, the boat capsizes! Just a second, I gotta look up the word for “capsize” in my dictionary. Ok! Got it…that would be a useful word in the boat! Anyway, I only got to have my time in the boat for about 40 or so minutes because there was another guy (a first year guy) who had to go out with Ippei. So, after I was done, I just waded around in the water and talked to the other kids and soaked up the sun. Every few minutes a fair of F-16s few overhead. I like that place where we practice. It’s pretty cool. The water is nice and clean, it’s near the ocean, there are palm trees everywhere, you get to watch jet fighters fly directly above your head, and you get to mess about in boats! After practice I took the train home with three of the other guys. It’s kinda complicated actually. Since there are a lot of people on the boat team now (about 12 or 13) we can’t all fit in Tanba-sensei’s pimped out van (it’s a heap but it gets you there). I think I tried to explain the phrases “pimped out” and “phat” when I was sarcastically describing Tanba-sensei’s van…I don’t think they got it at all, but it was ok. It’s REALLY REALLY REALLY hard to teach kids here colloquial English. Like the other day I said, “Yo, wuzzup, dog?” to one of my friends knowing that they wouldn’t understand but with the intention of teaching them. It took forever to grasp that “What’s up?” means, “How are you?” and that when you say it, it comes out as “Wuzzup?” “Dog” and “Dude” meaning “friend”, surprisingly, weren’t that hard to explain. Anyway, since we can’t all fit in the van, whoever doesn’t fit takes the train from Miyazaki station to a station that’s about a 5-minute drive from where we practice. Tanba-sensei then comes and picks up whoever took the train. So, today I took the train both ways. On the train, I e-mailed mom telling her when we’d arrive. She picked me up and on the way home she took me to the supermarket to pick out something for lunch because I guess she hadn’t planned to make anything. After that I changed my clothes and rode by bike back into town to meet Chie.
I had been trying to make plans with other
people for Monday afternoon, but I was unsuccessful. I enjoy Chie’s company and she’s really cool and funny, but I don’t
want to just hang out with one person.
I want to meet a lot of people here!!!!
Anyway, everyone else was too dorky and immature to figure out their own
schedules, so I met Chie. We hadn’t
made any plans really, so after I met her we rode our bikes to back to Miyazaki
station. We parked our bikes there and
spend the afternoon walking around town.
The center of town where all the shopping and commercial areas are is
called, “Machi” (which just means “town”).
We did some window-shopping and just talked for a while. She took me to her favorite juice bar where
the staff was very nice and the manager talked to me for a long time while I
was sipping my pineapple drink. I She
told me that her son took some classes at NYC and that she’s been to
Brooklyn. Then I think she was telling
me about her experience of the drive from JFK airport to the Bronx but I didn’t
understand a great deal of it so I just nodded, smiled, and said, “Sou da ne~”
(Isn’t that so…) every few moments. We
also went into a store where they sell “Idol” merchandise. In Japan, an “Idol” is a person who’s big in
pop culture and attractive. So they
sell posters, buttons, and pictures of all kinds of Japanese people from actors
and actresses to singers to models. I
looked for a poster of Kaori Manabe but they didn’t have any. I thought about buying an Ayumi Hamasaki
poster or button but I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it so I decided against it.
Of course Chie and I had to take プリクラ (“print
club”…immensely popular past time for Japanese school girls). What purikura entails is going in a large
booth, drawing the curtain closed, and posing in front of the camera and you
can snap about 10 pictures with whatever kind of silly face you want. Then you choose which pictures you like and
on the screen display you can use the magnetic pen to add borders, icons,
dates, and write whatever you want on the photos. Then you wait about 2 minutes and the photos are process and
printed on a little sheet and then you go get scissors (provided at the place)
and clip them up and divide them amongst your friends. Most print club booths cost 400 yen (about $3.33)
but schoolgirls will go from one booth to the next until they are all print-clubbed
out. Of course you have to have a print
club album! All the album is is a
little book in which you stick your print club pictures (they have sticker
backs). I don’t have a book because I
don’t take print club nearly often enough to make it worthwhile, but most girls
have hundreds and hundreds of pictures in their books…it’s kinda sad…but it’s
very Japanese. Chie had her dance class
at 6pm so she and I parted around 5:30.
I rode my bike slowly along the Oyodogawa (river that goes through town
if you don’t remember). The weather was
fantastic. The sun was getting low in
the sky so it was warm but not harsh at all.
The long grasses on the riverbank swayed and flowed with the breeze as if
they were alive and moving as one being.
In the tall grasses wildflowers grow year round. When I got to my bridge I stopped my bike
for a while, sat the grass, checked my e-mails on my phone, and watched some
kids play soccer. It was very
nice. All in all, I’d say the day was
very nice. Tomorrow we have to go back
to school though. It’s a short week so
it should go quickly. I just hope the
weather is nice, that’s the most important thing.
-Maikeru