Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Equinoxer
For a nation with such a distorted work-first culture, Japan certainly loves its holidays. Friday was the Vernal Equinox so nobody had to go to work. A perfect time to head to Osaka for a day of sumo, right?
Almost perfect! It turns out that there was also a festival in Den Den Town on Friday full of street performers and cosplayers which would have been great fun to go and see. Alas, I was holed up in the nearby Prefectural Gymnasium all day watching sumo wrestling. And by all day, I mean all day. I arrived at nine AM and stayed until the last match at six PM. There were more than a few stretches of time when I was alone which wasn't the most fun, but for the most part I had a wonderful time.
Sitting down and watching a sport for nine hours is quite different than going to a ballgame or checking out the Olympics on TV. The early matches are extremely short; there's much less posing and staring as the competitors are encouraged to begin as quickly as possible. There's no scoreboard and no replay screens. If you miss something, you missed it. There are no regular pauses such as pitching changes or halftime, only a few breaks where the judges rotate and the staff sweep the ring. If you go to the bathroom or to the souvenir stand, you're going to miss out on a few bouts. I do my best to focus on the action when possible without trying too hard to analyze what's happening. And with over a hundred men competing, each match is a quick judgment call as far as support is concerned. Maybe I root for the local wrestler, maybe I root for the foreigner. Maybe I just like a guy's ring name or the apparent mismatch between him and his oversized/undersized opponent.
When I wasn't alone there were two other JETs (Ahmed and Emma) who live and work near me to talk to. Emma also brought a friend who works in Shizuoka whom I had never met. None of them had been to a sumo tournament before so I was occasionally required to explain the goings-on as best I could. In fact, we were surrounded by other English speaking persons and I often had to help them understand the proceedings as well. It was my pleasure to introduce as much of the sport as I could to newbies because I feel genuinely happy to increase the number of sumo fans in the world.
The big news of the day was, after a year and a half, I finally met up with Kazu again. He was finishing up grad school when I arrived in 2007, so aside from a brief afternoon together that August, we haven't seen each other or even spoken much since. I guess I was busy and then he was busy, but somehow it just never happened. I contacted him last week on a whim, hoping he would both remember me and be interested in seeing sumo. The answer was affirmative on both counts, although he was obviously more interested in seeing me than the wrestlers. Kazu didn't drop by until four so he only caught the very upper level of competition. He said it was his first time at the arena in twenty years.
Once the final men fought and the crowds poured onto the streets, we met up with a few other JETs and miscellaneous friends for some yakitori. Even though our group doubled in size I knew enough people to avoid get left behind by the conversation. If all else failed, I could simply catch up with Kazu, but it never really came to that. Kazu was nervous because he didn't know anybody at all but he's a genuinely pleasant guy so he got along with everyone in a hurry. Hell, all he had to do was tell a story about me and it got everyone's attention.
Our bellies full and our throats dry (alcohol dehydrates!) we moved on to a farewell party for Chika, a young lady I met last year at one of the various JET-togethers. She's moving to Singapore for a new job so she had invited a bunch of people out for drinks at a bar. I don't really "know" Chika that well but the few times we spoke she was super friendly and I really appreciated being invited to her party. Kazu was again concerned that he wouldn't know anyone but we were all stunned to learn that he knew Chika from college! I started to introduce them and they immediate went into the Japanese version of "don't I know you from somewhere?"
The only downside to the evening was that after so many hours of being out and drinking from mid-afternoon through dinner, I was pretty tired and definitely out of it. Not drunk, just seriously drowsy and feeling less than sociable. That factor, combined with the hour or so it takes for me to get home, forced me to leave the party pretty early to go home. Kazu actually stayed because he had made so many friends so quickly. Funny how that goes - he initially came out just to see me, then got dragged along to two straight functions and he ended up having a longer night than I did.
Anyway, that proved to be the main activity of this three-day weekend. Yesterday was a beautiful day but I was spent after Friday and Mako was spent from being six-months pregnant (yeah, she's getting pretty big now) so we didn't go anywhere. We just watched sumo on TV and I played some more games. I'm trying to get the hang of the level editor in LittleBigPlanet but I'm having trouble getting it to do what I want. In the meantime I finished Garden 6 in PixelJunk Eden, drawing a few steps closer towards the mysterious final level, and I managed to unlock Gen in Street Fighter IV with a minimum of anger towards the game's cunning tactics. Today looks to be more of the same, only with rain instead of sunshine.
Ugh, I'm so not looking forward to this week of complete non-teaching. I ordered a bunch of books from Amazon (including the baby book you suggested, Professor!) but they are days away from arriving. Guess I'll have no choice but to nap...er, WRITE. Yeah, write.
Almost perfect! It turns out that there was also a festival in Den Den Town on Friday full of street performers and cosplayers which would have been great fun to go and see. Alas, I was holed up in the nearby Prefectural Gymnasium all day watching sumo wrestling. And by all day, I mean all day. I arrived at nine AM and stayed until the last match at six PM. There were more than a few stretches of time when I was alone which wasn't the most fun, but for the most part I had a wonderful time.
Sitting down and watching a sport for nine hours is quite different than going to a ballgame or checking out the Olympics on TV. The early matches are extremely short; there's much less posing and staring as the competitors are encouraged to begin as quickly as possible. There's no scoreboard and no replay screens. If you miss something, you missed it. There are no regular pauses such as pitching changes or halftime, only a few breaks where the judges rotate and the staff sweep the ring. If you go to the bathroom or to the souvenir stand, you're going to miss out on a few bouts. I do my best to focus on the action when possible without trying too hard to analyze what's happening. And with over a hundred men competing, each match is a quick judgment call as far as support is concerned. Maybe I root for the local wrestler, maybe I root for the foreigner. Maybe I just like a guy's ring name or the apparent mismatch between him and his oversized/undersized opponent.
When I wasn't alone there were two other JETs (Ahmed and Emma) who live and work near me to talk to. Emma also brought a friend who works in Shizuoka whom I had never met. None of them had been to a sumo tournament before so I was occasionally required to explain the goings-on as best I could. In fact, we were surrounded by other English speaking persons and I often had to help them understand the proceedings as well. It was my pleasure to introduce as much of the sport as I could to newbies because I feel genuinely happy to increase the number of sumo fans in the world.
The big news of the day was, after a year and a half, I finally met up with Kazu again. He was finishing up grad school when I arrived in 2007, so aside from a brief afternoon together that August, we haven't seen each other or even spoken much since. I guess I was busy and then he was busy, but somehow it just never happened. I contacted him last week on a whim, hoping he would both remember me and be interested in seeing sumo. The answer was affirmative on both counts, although he was obviously more interested in seeing me than the wrestlers. Kazu didn't drop by until four so he only caught the very upper level of competition. He said it was his first time at the arena in twenty years.
Once the final men fought and the crowds poured onto the streets, we met up with a few other JETs and miscellaneous friends for some yakitori. Even though our group doubled in size I knew enough people to avoid get left behind by the conversation. If all else failed, I could simply catch up with Kazu, but it never really came to that. Kazu was nervous because he didn't know anybody at all but he's a genuinely pleasant guy so he got along with everyone in a hurry. Hell, all he had to do was tell a story about me and it got everyone's attention.
Our bellies full and our throats dry (alcohol dehydrates!) we moved on to a farewell party for Chika, a young lady I met last year at one of the various JET-togethers. She's moving to Singapore for a new job so she had invited a bunch of people out for drinks at a bar. I don't really "know" Chika that well but the few times we spoke she was super friendly and I really appreciated being invited to her party. Kazu was again concerned that he wouldn't know anyone but we were all stunned to learn that he knew Chika from college! I started to introduce them and they immediate went into the Japanese version of "don't I know you from somewhere?"
The only downside to the evening was that after so many hours of being out and drinking from mid-afternoon through dinner, I was pretty tired and definitely out of it. Not drunk, just seriously drowsy and feeling less than sociable. That factor, combined with the hour or so it takes for me to get home, forced me to leave the party pretty early to go home. Kazu actually stayed because he had made so many friends so quickly. Funny how that goes - he initially came out just to see me, then got dragged along to two straight functions and he ended up having a longer night than I did.
Anyway, that proved to be the main activity of this three-day weekend. Yesterday was a beautiful day but I was spent after Friday and Mako was spent from being six-months pregnant (yeah, she's getting pretty big now) so we didn't go anywhere. We just watched sumo on TV and I played some more games. I'm trying to get the hang of the level editor in LittleBigPlanet but I'm having trouble getting it to do what I want. In the meantime I finished Garden 6 in PixelJunk Eden, drawing a few steps closer towards the mysterious final level, and I managed to unlock Gen in Street Fighter IV with a minimum of anger towards the game's cunning tactics. Today looks to be more of the same, only with rain instead of sunshine.
Ugh, I'm so not looking forward to this week of complete non-teaching. I ordered a bunch of books from Amazon (including the baby book you suggested, Professor!) but they are days away from arriving. Guess I'll have no choice but to nap...er, WRITE. Yeah, write.
Labels: friends, JET, Kazu, sports, sumo, video games
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