I really should update this thing. Last week was Sports Day at my favorite school, Yamanomura. That's the school up in the little mountain village with only 14 kids. Because the school is so small, parents and teachers also participated in the festival. They even had a mini-relay for the toddlers. I ran a few relays, and got to carry big heavy things from one end of the field to the other. One of the relays pitted me against a police officer from Kamioka, whom I(and I say this with all modesty) smoked. After that, they made me do the town folk dance. I think it was my punishment.
The kids were great. Both teams(red and white) did little cheers and skits in between the games. At one point, the principle(whom until now I had taken to be a very serious and stoic man) came bounding out in a dragon costume. Everyone laughed. Except the toddlers. They cried.
That evening, all the teachers had a party in a place twenty minutes away and even DEEPER into the mountains. Driving there was fun. I had to follow a guy who was doing 80km up this REALLY narrow mountain pass in near-total darkness. The guy would not SLOW DOWN, and every time he turned a sharp corner(they were all sharp, btw), I lost sight of his lights and had to speed up to catch him again. I kept waiting for that one time I'd miss the turn,crash though the guardrail and go tumbling down the mountainside. But driving is different here. We don't fall off mountains-that would be rude.
At the party I met a guy who trains at my gym in Kamioka. He also does Aikido, and asked if I would like to join. Why not? Since coming here, I've accidentally joined two soccer teams, one volleyball team, and an English club. One more couldn't hurt.
Today I learned:
Sports Days are fun.
Making promises is easy(especially if you don't know what you are saying).
I can outrun the Kamioka police officer.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment