For those of you who haven't heard, you will be much surprised to learn that I am on the Village Hall Baseball Team. I was practically forced into it. One of the first things that my supervisor asked me when I got to Japan was, "Do you like Baseball?"- this is all in Japanese by the way. My supervisor doesn't speak a word of English.- I just responded... "ummm... I played it sometimes for fun in elementary school..." And then she informed me that I would be part of the team, just give her a few days to get it set up. Ecstatic I was... not.

I admit that being part of the baseball team is a good way to get involved in the community and to get to know people, but me... in sports? The Japanese people are obsessed with hobbies. Everyday someone asks what my hobby is, and usually they want to answer in some form of a sport. I tell them I was in Cross Country in High School, and it usually gets them off my back without needing to participate in another sport.

So, this last Tuesday was supposed to be my first practice. We got rained out... darn. There are also practices on Thursdays, so when nobody said anything all day, I thought maybe they forgot, and I got a little excited. Then I got a phone call that said someone would pick me up soon. My anxiety rose.

I got there and I was lent a glove and we started playing catch and I met a few of them and had the hobby conversation a few times. I caught the first throw. I threw back and the guy caught mine. Not too bad, I thought. Then they told me to go to second base, and my anxiety rose once again... it's showtime.

Then everybody else got in their positions and stood around while the pitcher threw some poorly placed throws to the batter. I realized that there were not enough for two teams, so we just switched out batting. I eventually batted and hit a few. In the field we would just dink around and talk about other stuff, and sometimes hobbies again. And then we were done. And then people asked if I like to drink. They said they like to drink after practice sometimes- not tonight, but probably next time.

Then it dawned on me. It wasn't so bad. I kind of liked being on the team. This wasn't high-school-kill-yourself-and-still-play-the-bench Sports, this was kind of fun! It didn't occur to me that in other countries, people actually have fun during sports instead of killing themselves to be the best. I will continue going to practice.

Changing the subject and moving on, My first day at the Elementary School was on Friday and so I met some of the Teachers and took a tour of the school. Oh, and I've had a request or two to tell more about my experiences teaching the kids, but I just wanted to let everyone know that while the Japanese have year round school, they do have some breaks, and right now is one of them. They will return on the 26th of August to classes, I think.

Continuing with the physical exertion theme, yesterday was quite an accomplishment for me. As it was my day off, I felt I had a few errands to run, and since I only have a bicycle, I readied myself for the task. I needed to buy some track pants and some slacks, both for school. The mall where I wanted to buy them was somewhere around 9.5 miles from where I live, or so I was told. I biked it... and survived! I biked back... and became the king of the world! Look out Japan, if I can bike 19 miles in a day just to get some pants, then I can survive learning your ridiculously difficult language, eat your smelliest "Nato", eat your octopus when served, and fight of a raid of your ninjas all without a tear or stain on my "Yukata." Your samurai are no match for my "Genki."

I'll admit, though, that it was a little difficult trying to figure out my pants-size in centimeters... but I did it! "Yata!!!" Also, I bought my first Manga today (a japanese-type comic book). I am determined to be able to read it from beginning to end. I think- and hope!- that it will help my Japanese ability tremendously.

In conclusion, here is a picture of a silly shirt that I bought by the silly Japanese who don't understand English.



P.S. I've dropped two or three belt-holes since moving to Japan. I'm feeling healthy as an ox... a healthy ox, anyway.