Just the Beats

More in my quest to one day fully update my journal entries:


These are transcribed entries from the journal I am writing in at school. I started the journal for a number of reasons, one of the main ones being that I didn’t have Internet yet so I couldn’t post things online. The other being that I had free time on my hands. These entries are slightly modified, but mostly for grammar. I suppose you’d never know either way. Surprisingly, I had way more to say than I thought. Unsurprisingly, I have been bad (abysmal) at keeping my online entries up to date with my written ones. Someday, the dates will match but for now…These are the voyages of a long time ago in a galaxy far far away:

May 18, gestsuyobi (Monday)
Frisbee frisbee frisbee frisbee, haaaamer haaaaamer. I found my people last Sunday: it was awesome. They are a ways away, about 2 hours and 1700 yen away - on the West side of Tokyo. But they play ultimate! Stall counts, stacks, sevens, hucks, cups, picks, flicks, bids, layouts, in lights and darks...I am fulfilled. Like they do everywhere, the players have put together a community and, like anywhere, I fit into the ultimate community in Tokyo. After less than a full day of pickup, I've already been asked to join both teams that play there, and I made friends with a bunch of the regulars. It was all wonderfully natural; like I say, the ultimate community is my community. Of course, at over 3000 yen a go, it's an expensive membership. Ahh well, everyone has their vices, and I have a few cost (And time) saving ideas, foremost being finding a friend to share carpooling costs. Fortunately, I've got some time to figure that out because this weekend they have special practices in Chiba which I'm invited to - of course - and Chiba has the virtue of being considerably closer, which has the related benefit of being significantly cheaper. And, the week after that, there won't be any pickup because everyone will be at the nationals tournament in Nagano. I was not invited to that, but I'd like to think that's only because the rosters for the tournament were already closed.

Also, a lot of the players are Japanese, and although they all seem to have remarkably good English, they (of course) use a lot of Japanese on and off the field. This is exactly what I need because I can listen to them, for one, but I can also practice (Japanese) and switch back to English if necessary. Yay! Inevitably, I bonded much more quickly with the native English-speakers, but I have high hopes to make friends with the Japanese players. There are a ton of really awesome people there, I am thinking. Strange how 17$, 2 hour commutes can seem so reasonable when one is desperate enough. (Present day weight in: still SOOO true!)

I also finally got my haircut (a kato in Japanese) this weekend. It turned out pretty awesome, which I think is rather remarkable. (I don't normally use the phrase "rather remarkable" but apparently I'm a huge sucker for alliteration) I usually am at a loss to explain how I want my hair cut in America - and frankly, most of the time, I don't even know what I want anyway (I know, collective gasps all around) - but in Japan, a few gestures and a little broken Japanenglish: "Shoto?" "Shoto?" "Choto?" "Choto" "ii ?" "ii des." seems to be more than enough. Its a sweet, unexciting haircut: just the thing for Sensei Arex. And now that its getting hot, ditching the extra layers up top was nice.

As an added bonus I got to freak out all of the kids at school with my new doo, because, as we know, Japanese kids are wild, and anything I do differently than normal is a great way to set them off. Actually in training we were told not to change our hair during the school year because it would be too much for the kids...but I think they were referring mostly to the elementary schools. Regardless, I was a little nervous about the cut, until I thought about it, and realized that as crazy as my kids are, I'm pretty sure they can handle a haircut, and it would probably be worth a few laughs. I was right, on both counts, and as an educational moment (both ways, actually: they taught me the name for hair: kami no ke) I made them all tell me how good looking I am in English; I have a sweet job.