This past Saturday I was finally able to fulfill an invitation from a friend in Japanese class to go play soccer (or football as they all called it) with him and some guys he is on a team with outside of school. Just a leisurely, free time activity for some older guys to stay healthy and have fun. In fact, most of them were married and working full time careers. Nonetheless, it was a good time. And my first time to play soccer on a team in almost two years.
The most significant thing that occurred to me was the bilingualism of the team. Everyone had fluency of either English or Japanese and a good hold on the other. It’s very interesting, as I play more soccer outside of a more proper and organized team, to note that the teams and people I meet are much more international and from far more backgrounds. It turned out I was the only American on this team, by the way. And my legs were shot for days after.
Sunday I went to the aquarium in Shinagawa with some friends. I guess it wasn’t any different than any other aquarium really. But definitely not comparable in size to the aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia. Still it was perhaps one of my best aquarium experiences I’ve had. And probably made most fun just by the people I went with. Watched a dolphin show, let little fish eat the keratin off my hands, expressed our desire to eat the various fish and other sea creatures we saw (Japan does that to you – incites random desires to eat odd sea animals), laughed at dumb jokes and such, inspected the thickness of the aquarium glass, took pictures with jellyfish in front of us, and tons of other stuff.
Notice a Japanese character held by Santa in the bottom right corner. Some kind of Christmas promo.
Dolphins in mid-jump.
After the aquarium we ended up in my favorite place again: Kichijouji! We had dinner – a very filling one – and chatted primarily in Japanese of course. It was fun with these few Japanese friends as always. They’re very easygoing, carefree, and fun-loving – that’s what I like most about them. And that’s a weekend wrap-up!
With the guys; framed by jellyfish.
Writing from Koganei, Tokyo, Japan | December 4, 2008
