Stories from the last two weekends

The basketball game at Bunkyo High School
Last Saturday (as in the 3rd) I attended the Junten High School basketball club game in Bunkyo High School. The school was pretty easy to find, luckily for me as I could just get on the tram and several stops later I arrived at Sugamo-Shinden, which is the stop basically joined to Bunkyo High School. I sheepishly followed some other guys into the school, as I wasn`t sure where to go and promptly copied them as they took off their shoes (turned out later that these guys were in fact friends, or older brothers or something of some of the Junten players). I walked in and turned a corner and luckily the Junten team were just exiting the hall where the home team`s game was being held. The day was more like a mini-tournament than a single game, so several of the league fixtures were being held on the same day and it was Bunkyo`s turn to host (I don`t know if Junten host one or not, I will have to find out). Anyway, they led me to a large room where they had dumped all my stuff and told me it was okay to leave my shoes there. I left my shoes there and went to check out the game that was going on and to see if I could find the Jutnen coach. The coach was no-where to be found or even seen, so I decided to watch the game instead, as it was quite an exciting, fast paced game of a relatively high standard. The Japanese seem to play very quickly, though, not always fast breaks, just quick offences. Anyway, after standing around until nearly the end of the 4th quarter, the coach arrived and seemed almost surprised (though pleasantly so) to see me. Maybe he thought I wouldn`t show, I don`t know. Anyway, I asked about the team they were playing and he pointed out `Tsukuba` wearing black and red warm-up shirts and trousers. This team`s name I had heard him say in practice and he may have even said it to me before, but I thought this was `Scuba`, like the team was `Somewhere Scuba Divers` or something…this is Japan after all. Another thing to note about Japanese (school anyway) basketball is that all of the teams are dressed in an extensive uniform (included, shirts, shorts, shooting shirt, tracksuit bottoms and even a bag), all the numbers are correct (4-18) and all the teams have 15 players exactly. I was so surprised to see four table officials (young, probably high school students) who could even do the shot clocks and everything, two sets of scores, electronic for the coaches and benches and a flip chart operated by two more students for the crowd (who were sat on benches and chairs and around the balcony of the main hall) and to top it all off there was even 4 extra students in charge of wiping the floor, not only for when players fall over and get the floor sweaty, but at every free opportunity, (namely time-outs and quarter ends etc). The other thing about school sports (so many differences to England!) is that there are two team `managers`. For Junten Basketball club (and it seems for most school and most sports) this job is taken by two senior high school girls. It seemed rather strange to me that they would want to do this (and not play) but they seemed to get very involved. Before the game they gave the coach the team list and sorted things out with the table (everything was very efficient) and carried bags. I was kind of gutted (not to mention shocked) when I asked if I could help and they said no. They had so many bags on and were blatantly struggling. They wouldn`t let me take them off them, and I wasn`t about to use a lot of force (I know how annoying it is when people rip bags off you). They also seemed to be doing scoring or stating during the game, but I couldn`t tell, I was too far away.

Bunkyo won their game by quite a margin and left the hall, along with nearly the entire crowd. The coach told me where I could sit and I sat down near(ish) the guys I had followed into the hall. The game started quite soon after a quick warm up, where Junten showed their Japanese spirit once again with the same things we had done at training earlier that week. The game started and throughout the first half it was very even, one team was always about 2 or 4 points up, or drawing. At half time I decided to go up to the balcony, so after having a really tough time with a vended can (I just couldn`t open it, it was confusing) I headed up and got an aerial view for the third quarter and the start of the fourth. This is where I took most of my video and pictures from (please look once I put the pictures up!). It was also a good angle for me to watch the game as well. Anyway, it was so tight during the fourth quarter I decided to go downstairs and join the sideline cheering team again (the guys I followed in and one mum, so in total there were 6 of us). It came to 70-70 and then after that, Tsukuba went on a 14-0 run towards the end of the game, and the final score was 84-70. It was kind of gutting for everyone from Junten and some took it harder than others. After the game was finished we had to help pack up the hall (finally I could help with something). After this was done I could say my goodbyes to the team and thanked the coach for inviting me. I then went off on a small shopping trips (smallish anyways) and went home so I could get a good night`s sleep, as I had to be up early the next day…

The day trip to Hakone
Well, as promised I had to get up early and did so and we went along to meet Nishimura-san at the train station. After getting the train to Shinjuku with him and Yoshio-san (from my class) we got on quite a cool train to Hakone, though it took a long time. We had a nice cup of tea and a talk about stuff though, which was good. After the train arrived, we got on yet another train (but this time we had to stand up) and eventually we were allowed to queue for some kind of tow-cable train (I can`t really describe it) to a high up part of the mountain where guess what, we were allowed to take a cable car (more travelling…this mountain was massive). On the cable car we were treated to some actual views of the mountain and one very famous mountain. You guessed it, we could see Fuji-san himself. It was an amazingly clear day…lucky! After a sheer photo frenzy, we got to the top and this is where the adventure truly began. We were able to go up to some sulphur gas springs (not sure what somewhere where gas is released is called, sorry) where they cook the infamous black eggs. Of course, the smell was awful all over the place, but the views were great. The sun was out, it was clear and the scenery was amazing. What a place to eat a black egg, I thought. Yoshio-san bought us a bag of six between the four of us. Me and Mike received 2 each and they showed us the way to eat them and had one each. Here are some instructions on how to eat and enjoy a black egg:
1. Take a Black Egg and attempt to hold it. Be careful though, they are very hot!
2. Smack the Black Egg on your forehead and hope it doesn`t smash on your face. You should of cracked it just a little bit.
3. Now it is cracked, take off all of the black shell. Tip: It`ll take ages unless you peel off the membrane too. Maybe this is common knowledge, but my personal egg shell peeling techniques were pretty poor at the time.
4. Once the egg is naked, take a bit of salt and sprinkle it over the egg. Don`t use too much, that’s pretty self-explanatory right?
5. Eat the salted egg and enjoy another 7 years of life! That’s right, just one egg = 7 more years of life…well, or so they say anyways.

Anyhow, after our egg eating and another mammoth picture taking session we went back down the mountain in the cable car (but a different direction) and went to eat. After eating we had a ride across the lake on a pirate-ship-esque ship, though it was a fake. Then again, pirates on a lake doesn`t make sense, so it wasn`t going to be a historical piece. I can imagine the pirates now, `Let`s set sail and get some treasure!…oh damn, this is a lake`. Anyhow we got off the boat (on which I took some cool pictures of the sun…sounds weird but trust me they rock) and got onto a bus where I promptly fell asleep and was woken up so we could go to the onsen. This was our first experience of an onsen and we were a little confused as what to might be waiting for us. We knew some facts: a) Onsen translates to hot spring, its hot water you sit in, b) You go in onsens naked, after all it`s like a bath or something, c) You have to/can wash yourselfs there as there are tap things or something and finally d) You are provided (well, you can rent) a small towel. We also didn`t have a clue about: a) Where you change, b) How to wash yourself at the taps c) Where you look while in the bath… and d) What you do with the small towel. Luckily, we had our two Japanese guides to help us discover the joy that is onsen. Basically, the one we visited had three onsen pools (I think it`s okay to call them pools. Maybe the word bath is more fitting though). One very hot (basically unbearable) and two others which were of similar temperature. We entered into the room and there was simply a row of lockers. The whole place was situated on a kind of balcony. It was like a room, but missing one side, I`m sure you get the picture anyhow (I hope so), it was kind of half inside and half outside. Anyway, you just get naked first and put all of your clothes and stuff in a locker. Now that this is done its time to wash before entering the bath. We had Nishimura-san show us what to do and then entered the bath/pool. We probably looked weird, two gaijin following an older Japanese man around like stalkers. Naked stalkers. Anyways, onsens are really relaxing, though can get too hot, so every so often you can just wash yourself to cool down, or sit on the benches provided with your towel over your crotch. When you`re are in the onsen, the traditional Japanese way is to fold the towel and leave it on your head, but this is kind of hard and mine kept falling in the water, which was annoying, so I chose to just pt mine somewhere. The towel didn`t seem to be for drying at all, even h
though it was a towel. The towel has two basic purposes I think; for washing yourself, for covering yourself while you sit down. While walking around, no-one covers themselves up, so we decided not to either, though I guess it might be possible, though look weird. We spent maybes and hour and a half in the hot spring (the time we spent in there was just about timeless, it was like a time warp. We left the onsen, learnt how to get dry (you just don’t…we, you do because if you know what time you`re leaving you can sit out of the onsen and naturally dry and then leave, but we had it sprung on us while sitting in the onsen. `Hey Ben, Mike, it`s time to go or we`ll miss the train home`). We had a small party on the train on the way home with beer, chu-hi (chu-high, no idea what`s in it) and nuts and things. It was a great trip out and of course we were very thankful to Nishimura-san and Yoshio-san. We got back home at a decent time, only to realize we had loads of work to do for the next day…ah well, we`ve learnt by now the weekends in Tokyo just aren’t as long as anywhere else. This fact is kind of annoying, as there is so much to do!

Recently…
The past week was a normal week except I was a bit ill and had to skip basketball both times, though I went to watch once. There`s a new member of my Wednesday evening class, so I am going to have to adapt the plans again to fit around everyone, but I already have a good idea for this which I hope will work. This weekend had a party at Dave`s house which was a lot of fun. Went shopping the next day but didn`t get anything interesting. Sunday (today) we had advertising, then we tried two out of the three Starbucks new drinks (I had a Crème brûlée latte and Mike had a Gingerbread latte) and then I went on a ticket mission (which I was half successful, I managed to get tickets for a gig at Zepp Tokyo the week before my birthday in January) and then just planning and relaxing. It was a decent weekend, but of course…not long enough…

PS: About pictures, I will try and get some up soon, but as I said I am going to try and sort out a photobucket account。As soon as that is done I`ll post the address on here and then you can all see what I`ve been doing as well as read. Sorry for the delay but as you know I`m busy busy busy. Maybe tomorrow night if I get my Japanese homework done quickly I will be able to get it all sorted. Thanks for reading! – Ben