Yeah, I'm not dead. Life's just gotten more mundane for me lately. Some commentary:
-Judo is going decently overall, but I need to get more fit. I've put on no fewer than ten pounds thanks to Naoko's cooking, and my aerobics haven't exactly improved as well. Fortunately, there is a weight room down the road which I'm going to start going to after school with some of the other judo guys.
-I've found some amazing arcades near by. The main game I've been playing is a Gundam game we all just call POD because it takes place in a capsule called the POD which supposedly simulates the inside of a mobile suit. Awesome game, but it's 150 yen per play which can get kinda pricey.
-This game has also led me to watch some Gundam recently. I watched the six-hour long compilation film series of the original series, which is generally agreed to be actually superior to the TV version due to improved animation and tightening of the original's storyline. I've started watching Zeta Gundam as well, which is generally agreed to be the best Universal Century series.
-I actually got around to buying some fashionable threads. High class men's clothes shopping is an odd experience, especially when it's being done multilingually. Also, having a clerk basically being my personal attendant for half an hour was kind of odd. I guess part of the high cost is buying customer service. Poor guy even carried my own clothes bag out of the store for me after I bought it. Also, Japanese metrosexuals are some of the skinniest men (besides Maasai warriors, Indian ascetics, and Thai boxers) on the planet. My American M size is an LL over here. My waist is barely even 34 inches (which is a 30 in most clothing lines, it should be noted) and apparently I'm huge. I guess my legs also have a ton of muscle mass, which doesn't help my case.
-My buddy Massud might be chilling out here in January. This could be epic.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
In a Bamboo City IV - The Greg
I was running late. I had to use the bathroom in the station really quickly, and I could swear I had told people to wait, but they left without me. I ran for my bike, which I had left in the parking lot.
Two or three city blocks later, I still hadn't seen anyone. I also had no idea where the sports center was. I pulled over a random local on a bike, and asked him. He actually offered to show me were it was. Nice guy. Got there without a hitch, minus being two or three minutes late. I found the judo dojo quickly enough, and joined up with anyone else.
Having not known anything previously about the sport, watching judo practice was interesting. Very definitely like wrestling, but with the added abilities to do things such as choke and legsweep in ways that American rules never allow for. There is also an emphasis on using the opponent's clothing for leverage. Some of the kids who take judo were actually surprisingly good at throwing their weight around. A small girl about a head shorter than my sister managed to throw a guy who was my height and probably even stockier. I guess it's all about leverage.
I tried out a judo-gi for sizing. The gi fits incredibly loosely. The fabric is ultra reinforced with as many as five sets of stitches on some hems.
I think I like it.
Two or three city blocks later, I still hadn't seen anyone. I also had no idea where the sports center was. I pulled over a random local on a bike, and asked him. He actually offered to show me were it was. Nice guy. Got there without a hitch, minus being two or three minutes late. I found the judo dojo quickly enough, and joined up with anyone else.
Having not known anything previously about the sport, watching judo practice was interesting. Very definitely like wrestling, but with the added abilities to do things such as choke and legsweep in ways that American rules never allow for. There is also an emphasis on using the opponent's clothing for leverage. Some of the kids who take judo were actually surprisingly good at throwing their weight around. A small girl about a head shorter than my sister managed to throw a guy who was my height and probably even stockier. I guess it's all about leverage.
I tried out a judo-gi for sizing. The gi fits incredibly loosely. The fabric is ultra reinforced with as many as five sets of stitches on some hems.
I think I like it.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Buddhist Ceremony
Yesterday at the temple, there was a special ceremony. My comprehension of the explanation was kind of muddy, but I'm fairly sure at this point it was a memorial service to the 1-year anniversary of the passing of the previous family patriarch, who it's pretty well implied was also the previous priest of Shinkouzen-ji. I'll explain what actually happened, at the very least.
We woke up fairly early for housecleaning. Hyden and I got put to weeding a couple large areas. And by large I mean half the yard. But hey, it need weeding. The rest of the family was cleaning everything else, so now the temple looks wonderful.
The next chore was kind of a fun one. Around 11, people began showing up for the ceremony. Pretty much everyone was a senior citizen. Anyways, Hyden and I had to deliver tea and little sweet cake things to every one of the sixty or so folks who showed up.
There were also about eight monks who showed up, decked out in full priest robes. A few (two or three) of the priests were actually little old ladies, but with their heads shaved and dressed in the exact same way. Genpou, my host uncle who's really more like a big brother in age difference (he's only about seven or eight years older than me, I'm pretty sure. But then again, my host parents themselves aren't much older than thirty), also showed up from Kyoto, where he's taking monk training himself.
The first session of the day's proceedings was a sermon sort of speech by one of the priests. There were a couple of sutras chanted at this point, too, but I forget exactly when they were placed because I was still running around and helping with chores.
Next was lunch, where I got tea and soup for people who were sitting down to eat. After lunch, we repeated the whole "tea and cakes for the incoming" thing. The lunches were completely vegetarian, if not even vegan.
After that:
The Really Cool Ceremony:
The nine monks march in. Four are on each side of the hotoke shrine, with Sessou-san in the middle. Kind of like this, with the dashes being each monk and the o being Sessou-san:
- - - -
o
- - - -
All of the monks begin chanting and opening Sutra volumes. Japanese sutras are folded like an accordion or those post-it notes with the zigzag fold. Actually, you know that thing people do with the zigzag post-its where they kind of make a post-it "waterfall"? Zen monks beat you to it by a thousand years, and they even know how to do a few tricks with it. Once they've waterfalled one sutra a couple times, they move to the next. There are a few small stacks for each monk. The combined effect of all this chanting and waterfalling paper is kind of stunning. In the meantime, Sessou-san is doing the chanting and sutra book play, and then occasionally walking to the altar and doing a small ritual with incense smoke and some food offerings. This whole thing kind of repeats on loop for a while with various subtleties and intensities before winding down, almost like a jam song.
Heck, I guess there were even a few solos in there, too.
After that was dinner, which was a fairly luxurious bento set. A few of the people from the service stayed for dinner, but I didn't catch who any of them were, really. Also, as a random thought, old people are a little frustrating sometimes because the almost seem to assume you either know all the Japanese or none of it. They're generally just plain hard to understand because they mumble like an English farmer.
After dinner we all had to move around the tables and chairs for clean up.
Pretty much the last notable event of the day was Naoko-san and Sessou-san (the host parents) congratulating Hyden and I on being incredibly helpful for chores. They also may have given us some cashmoney for the Kyoto trip under the condition that we get them a small omiyage of some kind.
We woke up fairly early for housecleaning. Hyden and I got put to weeding a couple large areas. And by large I mean half the yard. But hey, it need weeding. The rest of the family was cleaning everything else, so now the temple looks wonderful.
The next chore was kind of a fun one. Around 11, people began showing up for the ceremony. Pretty much everyone was a senior citizen. Anyways, Hyden and I had to deliver tea and little sweet cake things to every one of the sixty or so folks who showed up.
There were also about eight monks who showed up, decked out in full priest robes. A few (two or three) of the priests were actually little old ladies, but with their heads shaved and dressed in the exact same way. Genpou, my host uncle who's really more like a big brother in age difference (he's only about seven or eight years older than me, I'm pretty sure. But then again, my host parents themselves aren't much older than thirty), also showed up from Kyoto, where he's taking monk training himself.
The first session of the day's proceedings was a sermon sort of speech by one of the priests. There were a couple of sutras chanted at this point, too, but I forget exactly when they were placed because I was still running around and helping with chores.
Next was lunch, where I got tea and soup for people who were sitting down to eat. After lunch, we repeated the whole "tea and cakes for the incoming" thing. The lunches were completely vegetarian, if not even vegan.
After that:
The Really Cool Ceremony:
The nine monks march in. Four are on each side of the hotoke shrine, with Sessou-san in the middle. Kind of like this, with the dashes being each monk and the o being Sessou-san:
- - - -
o
- - - -
All of the monks begin chanting and opening Sutra volumes. Japanese sutras are folded like an accordion or those post-it notes with the zigzag fold. Actually, you know that thing people do with the zigzag post-its where they kind of make a post-it "waterfall"? Zen monks beat you to it by a thousand years, and they even know how to do a few tricks with it. Once they've waterfalled one sutra a couple times, they move to the next. There are a few small stacks for each monk. The combined effect of all this chanting and waterfalling paper is kind of stunning. In the meantime, Sessou-san is doing the chanting and sutra book play, and then occasionally walking to the altar and doing a small ritual with incense smoke and some food offerings. This whole thing kind of repeats on loop for a while with various subtleties and intensities before winding down, almost like a jam song.
Heck, I guess there were even a few solos in there, too.
After that was dinner, which was a fairly luxurious bento set. A few of the people from the service stayed for dinner, but I didn't catch who any of them were, really. Also, as a random thought, old people are a little frustrating sometimes because the almost seem to assume you either know all the Japanese or none of it. They're generally just plain hard to understand because they mumble like an English farmer.
After dinner we all had to move around the tables and chairs for clean up.
Pretty much the last notable event of the day was Naoko-san and Sessou-san (the host parents) congratulating Hyden and I on being incredibly helpful for chores. They also may have given us some cashmoney for the Kyoto trip under the condition that we get them a small omiyage of some kind.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
In a Bamboo City III - The Sensei
Wednesday night, a group of the exchange students from that school down the road came to the dojo. One showed up a little late (by around six minutes or so), but he actually remembered to bow on the way in. Not too shabby. The gaijin kids acted interested enough. Their Japanese wasn't too great, but a few seemed to catch what I was saying. I couldn't help them for too long, though; I still had to teach some class. For pushing 65, I surprise myself sometimes. It takes some effort, even when you've been in the business longer than most of these kids have been alive.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
In a Bamboo City II - The Judo Kid
Wednesday night's judo class was interesting for the fact that there was a group of gaijin intently watching the class. They're probably interested in classes. Anyways, they were being taken care of by one of the sensei, so I decided not to get too distracted. Flipping a guy as big as Yamashita-kun takes concentration. Heck, getting flipped takes some concentration, especially on the ukemi. Breaking your fall right is critical.
Kendo, Judo
So I've begun looking at sports, which will probably start after the Kyoto trip. My two options I've chosen to go for are kendo and judo. Kendo is, for those of you unfamiliar with Nipponese sports, the rough equivalent to fencing. Judo is the rough equivalent of wrestling with a touch of MMA. Both are badass.
I'm covering my impressions of Judo in my Rashomon spoof, so pay attention to that. If you want a quick version of my impression, it's this: Judo looks pretty brutal and I think I love it. It's the only sport I know of where an eleven year old girl about five feet tall can flip over a two hundred pound man. It's also actually more brutal than American wrestling by a good amount.
Kendo looks pretty awesome. Tonight, a group of SYA students including myself went to the Sports center (about a five minute walk from my house, luckily) and watched a session. We were there for an hour, beginning with the last half of the little kids' class, and ending with the first half of the older student's session. Kendo looks fast paced, with a rather stylized and sporting version of kenjutsu as its core. However, if this were real kenjutsu most of these kids would have been meatloaf, so I guess bamboo alternatives to swords are a good thing. The fencing analogy is very appropriate.
Kendo has the major disadvantage of cost. If i do decide to stick with it, I can expect an equipment bill of around 700 dollars, minimum. Lesson costs are very low (around 22 dollars a month, same for judo) but the gear necessary is pretty costly. That could be an issue. If I can find used gear I can probably shave the cost down a couple hundred dollars, though. Still, that's a price that my wallet can barely at all handle. I may have to stick with just judo.
I'm covering my impressions of Judo in my Rashomon spoof, so pay attention to that. If you want a quick version of my impression, it's this: Judo looks pretty brutal and I think I love it. It's the only sport I know of where an eleven year old girl about five feet tall can flip over a two hundred pound man. It's also actually more brutal than American wrestling by a good amount.
Kendo looks pretty awesome. Tonight, a group of SYA students including myself went to the Sports center (about a five minute walk from my house, luckily) and watched a session. We were there for an hour, beginning with the last half of the little kids' class, and ending with the first half of the older student's session. Kendo looks fast paced, with a rather stylized and sporting version of kenjutsu as its core. However, if this were real kenjutsu most of these kids would have been meatloaf, so I guess bamboo alternatives to swords are a good thing. The fencing analogy is very appropriate.
Kendo has the major disadvantage of cost. If i do decide to stick with it, I can expect an equipment bill of around 700 dollars, minimum. Lesson costs are very low (around 22 dollars a month, same for judo) but the gear necessary is pretty costly. That could be an issue. If I can find used gear I can probably shave the cost down a couple hundred dollars, though. Still, that's a price that my wallet can barely at all handle. I may have to stick with just judo.
In a Bamboo City I - The Cyclist
(note: The next three posts and the one attached to this message are part of an odd little Rashomon-esque project to be done of this blog. Don't mind it too much)
The man got my attention with a simple "sumimasen". He looked worried about something, like maybe he was running late. I wasn't in too much of a hurry, for once, so I decided to stop very briefly to try and help. He was looking for the gym (yeah, running late), and so I pointed him in the direction he needed to go. In fact, I was heading that way, so I decided to take the turn into the back streets to point out its location to him, as it was very close and only added a few seconds to my journey. He thanked me, and I went on my way.
The man got my attention with a simple "sumimasen". He looked worried about something, like maybe he was running late. I wasn't in too much of a hurry, for once, so I decided to stop very briefly to try and help. He was looking for the gym (yeah, running late), and so I pointed him in the direction he needed to go. In fact, I was heading that way, so I decided to take the turn into the back streets to point out its location to him, as it was very close and only added a few seconds to my journey. He thanked me, and I went on my way.
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