Living the so called life in the Tokyo sabaku..
Sunday I attended a demonstation at the high school I train at. They have been working on this since I have arrived. Apparently they have won first place and a few other rankings in the all japan high school aikido demonstations. It was fun to watch. There will be pictures uploaded soon to the images gallery.
So some of the school girls here have really fat legs. More big then fat as they walk or ride bikes everywhere. I found it kind of odd.. apparently it is common enough to have it’s own term: daikonashi or radish legs. Daikons here are HUGE (and delicious!) Anyways, daikon-ashi.
That is all.
So I downloaded the old RHCP album off a torrent site.. ah flashbacks to my youthful miscreant days.
There is no central air or heat in japan, or at least it isn’t that common. So people have heated rugs, kutatsu, oil and electric space heaters. However, I only have a electric space heater…. so it is really frickin cold now. Apparently this area is on a plateau and feels the winds from siberia and mongolia (damn mongolians, tear down my shitty wall..) Anyways you get the point.
Along with the apartments, most schools and the dojo I train at are not heated except the space heaters. In a large area, this really does no good. So I am looking forward to aikido in 5degree F cold.
Other then that, there isnt much going on. I purchased a sansen yen basu karudo (3000y or 30 dollar bus card.) With the frequency I am riding the bus it will safe some money and allow me to get more tako yaki.
Tako yaki is a delicacy of Osaka and is everwhere around here. It is quite delicious! Think along the lines of a hushpuppy with a bbq/teriyaki’d octopus inside. Scrum-didaly-umptious! I have never seen this in the states in my ventures.. has anyone else? It is a must try.
Anyways, off to sleep. I am going into hiroshima tomorrow with a friends of l2s. I need to get some long johns, finding them to fit me should be fun. Most I have seen come up to my knees.
I had my first drunken experience tonight with the japanese.
We went to one of Larissa’s friends birthday parties, which started out at a public park with a fire. Being the good scout that I am I had to comadere the fire and take control in order for us to have a decent and ever burning fire. It was quite enjoyable.
From there we went to Lucy and Scott’s house. From here a bunch of nihonjin joined us and we drank and ate alot more. From here I was able to practice my nonexisitent japanese skills with nihonjin whose english skills were on par with my japanese skills. So it was fun! More sake and more japanese table wine! After this, I will call him Volunteer Firefighter-san and I engaged in an arm wrestling contest. As I am a foreigner, I decided it would be good show to let him win.. so I did. After this we played twister. I feel this is such an american game that I had to win, so I did.
Anyways, the night continued with more drinking and more festivities. Volunteer-firefighter-san’s daughter is a news anchor on a hiroshima tv station and he tried to set myself and a few other foreigners up with her… KAWAIEEE!! Anyways we left after doing some fire dancing.
This was quite an enjoyable night for me. I feel I learn quite a bit more when I am immersed with people. However, between the sake and shochu, I do not think I can remember much… but of course, where is the fun in that? Soooo desu…
This is volunteer firefighter-san and his wife… I taught him that the peace ‘V’ is incorrect and he must turn it aroun for pictures… his wife underdstands…
o’ya sumi
