![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Happy 2nd Year In Japan To Me
Seriously, it was exactly two years ago today that I landed in Japan to actually live here for real. I can't decide if I'm feeling like "OMG! Did two years go by so quickly?" or "Wow, it's been a LONG TIME".
Yesterday and today I've been working at this part-time summer camp thing for the week, herding around some kids and speaking English to them. Yesterday we went to Asakusa and the Sumida Water Cruise and Odaiba; today we went to the Ueno Zoo. Tomorrow is some big aquarium place, I believe.
After "work" today, I went up to Omiya for the Fighters-Lions game. You know, on the train to Omiya I felt EXHAUSTED -- couldn't keep my head up, kept falling asleep, and even walking to the stadium I was feeling like, maybe I should go home -- there's no way I have enough energy to do an entire game at this point, but of course I got to the stadium and found some of my friends there (not my normal group but the group I first met in Hiroshima) and sat with them for the game, on the side of the grassy cliff that makes up the outfield in Omiya. And I did my usual thing for the game, cheering and keeping score and talking to everyone. No idea how I survived the entire thing.
Finally exchanged email addresses with the guy who's sort of the "leader" of that group, too... now I can actually warn him in advance to save me a seat (or to not save me a seat) rather than just showing up and being like "can I, uh, sit with you guys today?"
Oh yeah, and we were all on TV when Crazy Inaba Fan (I honestly don't know his name, he's like 19 or 20 years old and has been an Inaba fan since elementary school or something like that, he also goes to a ton of Swallows games as well) basically had us all hold up his 7 or 8 Inaba jerseys to cheer for Inaba. One of the guys in the group had the game on TV on his cellphone and said "hey! I just saw us on TV!", which was pretty weird.
After the game I caught up with my friend Matt, who I hadn't seen in forever, and we walked back to Omiya station together and took the Saikyo line down towards civilization again. Matt had a Seibu towel on and I realized that like... every time I've left Fighters games in Kanto recently I've gone to meet up with a fan of the opposing team outside. That's pretty weird, but whatever, I'd think that it shows my dedication that I'd rather sit in the Fighters section than go hang out with my English-speaking friends in the other team's area.
Also, the ouendan invented the Inaba Slide. Teehee. (It was basically in place of jumping, people just got on top of cardboard boxes or plastic sheets and slid down the hill... was funny until everyone got to the bottom and landed on each other, pretty much.)
Funniest Matt story: he still actually goes to Yokohama games every now and then, and apparently one of the times he was chatting with Sign Guy he told him that I'm actually a Fighters fan and that's why I haven't been around at all this year. And apparently Sign Guy got pissed off like "She's WHAT? I never knew that! WTF!"
So, wow. Home. And wow, I guess this starts another year of this adventure. I wonder, did I ever actually think I'd really be here for two years?
Yesterday and today I've been working at this part-time summer camp thing for the week, herding around some kids and speaking English to them. Yesterday we went to Asakusa and the Sumida Water Cruise and Odaiba; today we went to the Ueno Zoo. Tomorrow is some big aquarium place, I believe.
After "work" today, I went up to Omiya for the Fighters-Lions game. You know, on the train to Omiya I felt EXHAUSTED -- couldn't keep my head up, kept falling asleep, and even walking to the stadium I was feeling like, maybe I should go home -- there's no way I have enough energy to do an entire game at this point, but of course I got to the stadium and found some of my friends there (not my normal group but the group I first met in Hiroshima) and sat with them for the game, on the side of the grassy cliff that makes up the outfield in Omiya. And I did my usual thing for the game, cheering and keeping score and talking to everyone. No idea how I survived the entire thing.
Finally exchanged email addresses with the guy who's sort of the "leader" of that group, too... now I can actually warn him in advance to save me a seat (or to not save me a seat) rather than just showing up and being like "can I, uh, sit with you guys today?"
Oh yeah, and we were all on TV when Crazy Inaba Fan (I honestly don't know his name, he's like 19 or 20 years old and has been an Inaba fan since elementary school or something like that, he also goes to a ton of Swallows games as well) basically had us all hold up his 7 or 8 Inaba jerseys to cheer for Inaba. One of the guys in the group had the game on TV on his cellphone and said "hey! I just saw us on TV!", which was pretty weird.
After the game I caught up with my friend Matt, who I hadn't seen in forever, and we walked back to Omiya station together and took the Saikyo line down towards civilization again. Matt had a Seibu towel on and I realized that like... every time I've left Fighters games in Kanto recently I've gone to meet up with a fan of the opposing team outside. That's pretty weird, but whatever, I'd think that it shows my dedication that I'd rather sit in the Fighters section than go hang out with my English-speaking friends in the other team's area.
Also, the ouendan invented the Inaba Slide. Teehee. (It was basically in place of jumping, people just got on top of cardboard boxes or plastic sheets and slid down the hill... was funny until everyone got to the bottom and landed on each other, pretty much.)
Funniest Matt story: he still actually goes to Yokohama games every now and then, and apparently one of the times he was chatting with Sign Guy he told him that I'm actually a Fighters fan and that's why I haven't been around at all this year. And apparently Sign Guy got pissed off like "She's WHAT? I never knew that! WTF!"
So, wow. Home. And wow, I guess this starts another year of this adventure. I wonder, did I ever actually think I'd really be here for two years?
no subject