Entries this day: AM Professional_Hackey_Sack_Jack jen john troy

AM

9:24am JST Thursday 10 June 2004

My room is a mess.

Last night I read some Japanese comics before going to bed. Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future. Doraemon is a cat-shaped robot born in 2112. He can pull anything out of his magic pocket on his stomach to allow for endless plot devices.

This book was giving to me by Atusko, my Nova student friend from Tsunashima. I wonder how she's doing with her foreign exchange student.

- - - -

This morning I put my futon away, listened to the pronunciation part of my Chinese tape, and I plan to write some Japanese sentences.

Professional Hackey Sack Jack

4:36pm JST Thursday 10 June 2004

Met Dan and Jen in Tsunashima today. After I griped at them both for having not kept their original plans with me, we enjoyed a great lunch and great hackeysackey fun in front of Subway! Jen and I had 1.5 sandwiches each; Dan ate his and we chatted about work and travel and whatever else came to mind. After lunch it was time for some hackey sack fun.

Dan and I got our world record hackey sack count in his apartment at Bell Wistaria. 18 kicks between us. Awesome.

Today, three times, we got 17 kicks. We definitely did better outside than in the apartment. We still had a median around 2 or 4 kicks, but we had a greater number of kicks in the teens than usual.

Jen went inside to get another drink and reported that we had a fan club inside; they were all commenting "すごい！" and "いいね。。" which pretty much pumped up my spirits; in the back of my mind was the idea that maybe we weren't welcome there; that maybe we were disrupting the smooth Japanese chi. But disrupting it for the benefit of those around us is all good so I was like, "yay!" and we got a little crazier in our attempts; Dan did some Dan Hutchins (tm) head butt goal shots, and I (because the coast was basically clear) kicked the sack as hard as I could, sending it about 60 feet away. That grew old after a few hard kicks, but was still fun to do; I hadn't done that previously. No room inside and way to crowded in Jiyugaoka.

After that little stress relief, our average went up. We banged 13 kicks then 17 (again) and then like 14; it was great! Then we were like, "I can feel it; this will be the big day," and our average went back down to around average.

We had a couple of onlookers looking on, and we made way for people to walk by whenever they did, and we just had fun fun fun kicking the footbags around. We used Jack and Jill somewhat alternately; I had just found Jill sleeping in the pocket of the wool pants Tim had given me when he left right around the time I left Tsunashima apartment; like the end of February. She said she had left her cellphone in my other pants pocket so she couldn't call Jack and he was kinda upset about that but he was glad to see her and we all made up and Dan and I kicked them about with glee. Great fun was had by all involved.

But *then* Dan and I had this feeling. Like *this* was the big one; like we were about to destroy the world record. Dan had said, "we're either going to destroy it, or were not going to beat it today, you know what I mean?" and I knew what he meant. At the same time we were both like, "Jen," and encouraged her to watch. "This is the big one. Right here."

And like a good parent watching her kids she obliged and I served and we were counting each kick, "one, two, three, four."

"Okay, okay that was just practice, here it is," and he served, "one, two, ... okay, this is it. Those were just practice," but by that time Jen had gone back to Dan's computer, surfing Yahoo mail or porn or whatever it was.

Dan and I continued, and we got to 17 again, and then to 14, and then to 7, but that series included three great recovery kicks.

Then, out of nowhere, "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one" and my mind relaxed; during the series so far we had passed Jill back and forth twice, and she was under control, "twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two! MATE! thirty-two!" and we high fived and it was just like bam awesome.

"Okay, one more for good measure," and he served, "one, two, three, four."

We rested; we had, as predicted, destroyed our world record, nearly doubling it. I was like, "mate, I don't know if there is enough room on my whiteboard to write such a big number."

We were doing a few more kicks for fun and then everything changed. Some guy walked up like he was interested in playing, so I served to him and he caught it, and tried to kick it. I was patient; self serves are not allowed, but I figured maybe he didn't know. But then when he served it to us, he threw with both hands. Not very manly at all. We would kick it a couple times and then back to him and he would miss it. I served it to him and he caught it, and I was like, " 手なし" (hands none) and he didn't seem to get it. Dan showed him by example, and finally he got it and kicked at the ball instead of catching it. We tried to get a hack, with all three of us kicking Jill before she hit the ground, but we never quite got it.

The dude left, and Dan and I sat down. Then he came back, and then he left again, and came back again, and then left again. I guess five year olds don't have much to do these days but walk around.

- - - -

But then this other guy walked up, and, as opposed to being five years old, he was like fifty years old and told us "thank you for good play." We were like, "thank you" back to him and engaged in a bit of a conversation. He would laugh unexpectedly when we asked him a question, but he always answered the question after that. He lives "over there" and he's a taxi driver, and he thought we played rather well. He offered to get us a drink and we declined politely; Dan and Jen had to work, and I claimed similarly. He persisted. "Please, let me give you money."

He pulled out his cash and counted out three thousand yen. One note for each of us. He folded it up into fourths and gave it to me. I thanked him in the most thankful most polite Japanese I know. Holy moly; I was floored. We were floored. We had just become professional hackeysackers, and Jen had just become a professional hackeysack cheerleader.

- - - -

Just now from Dan:

MATE- $10!
MATE- 32!!
   MATE

jen

5:28pm JST Thursday 10 June 2004

Saw Dan off and Jen and I went to Hiyoshi for Starbucks frappucinos and to mail her letter. We chatted about the amazingness of the day and about her moving into my building (*my* building) in 2 days. Talked about Gaba and relationships with students. Talked about how we both hate the get-to-know-ya chitchat of getting to know people; we want to get to the real stuff first.

Mental hugs to her as she headed out for work.

- - - -

Oh, earlier, at Subway, Jen said, "Heck, I'll eat it; I think I've got worms." That is hilarious. 'specially if she hasn't got worms.

john

5:31pm JST Thursday 10 June 2004

"All my life I've been waiting to use the word melancholy. Just got that out of the way."

John borrowed 200 yen for me to get a beer. I know he has a drinking problem, and I know I'm not being a good friend by supporting it.

He said he was melancholy because his divorce is about to become final. She's moving to Brazil or some such.

troy

11:52pm JST Thursday 10 June 2004

Just watched Troy with Hitomi. Good movie. Yes, I definitely want to be remembered for ages, but I'd rather not kill anybody to do it. I liked Achilles though; he was pretty much a badass to the max. Sucks about the heel though.

I was able to read some of the japanese subtitles and that was cool. I asked her about some new kanji: horse and big as one kanji and horse and river as one kanji, but Hitomi couldn't explain them to me in English. I'll maybe remember to ask Ayana in the morning.

Ummmm, Hitomi brought custard shucream (puffs with custard inside) and we forgot to eat them during the movie so we chowed them at the end of the movie during the credits (during which there were no outtakes! argh.) Yummy shucreams.

On the way to Hitomi's train station, the city of Kawasaki's nightlife percolated all around us. Girls chanting/singing behind us, people drunkenly in stupors with friends about; three girls watching the palm reader do a reading for their friend; a yamamba rabbit in an oden tent; the takoyaki vendors closing up their carts for the night; JeansMate (clothing store) open 24 hours. (Why?)

When I dropped Hitomi off at the train station, some guy approached her, and I was like, I'll kill you in my mind, though I really probably wouldn't have. Hitomi was startled, but reassured herself and went on through the gate. Good work.

Waved bye to her and put on my I'll-kill-you look while walking to my train station. Not that I think anyone would bother me in this part of Tokyo, but just in case; my adrenalin is ready. Not even the "massagie massagie" girl offered me a massage.

Good lord the drunks are just disgusting tonight on this train. Makes it fucked up for the rest of us.