The Throwdown – written in late January 2009

Their jet-black hair is pinned into an immaculate bun. Clad only in an ornate apron and fundoshi (ie. cloth swaddled around their loins??), each man parades around the ring for the opening ceremonies. Some of them simply seem chunky, while others seem rather muscular. As they face the crowds, they stand with pride in a ring. Hundreds of people have filled the stadium to watch awe and clap for these giant figures. This is the second-last day of the sumo tournament in Tokyo, featuring some of today’s bigger names of the ancient sport.

Bright and early on Saturday morning, the girls (M-sensei and H-sensei) and I stumbled onto a Tokyo-bound bus at 7:20 a.m. I am not a morning person, but hey, we are trying to save our yennies. (The 1.5-hours shinkansen ride is faster and more expensive. The bus takes about four hours from Koriyama.)

We caught some lunch at T.G.I Friday’s with the other JETs. The restaurant’s servers all had to wear silly hats and buttons on their suspenders (flair?!) It was something right out of the movie, “Office Space.”

We all headed to Ryogoku, which has been dubbed “Sumo Town” in Tokyo. On the sidewalk, there were a couple of the amateur wrestlers who were out and about. These are the “scrubs” – they are still in the early stages of learning the sport. The sumo tournament is held in the Kokukigan, which is a green-roofed building located beside the train station. Since it was the second-last day of the tournament, the place was obviously packed with eager spectators.

A decorative roof is suspended right above the sumo ring, which is located in the middle of the stadium. Red cushions dot the lower level; people pay top dollar for this prime seating. We sat on the upper level, but still had a great view of the bouts. Despite their sheer immense size, I thought that the sumo wrestlers’ movements had a hint of grace. Their calculated moves are meant to instill fear in their opponents, and inspire frenzy amongst the hundreds of fans who are sitting in the arena or listening to the bouts on the radio. M-sensei and I fancied the foreign looking Kotooshu, who looked like a teddy bear in the sumo booklet. We also saw the infamous Asashoryu.

At night, we ended up doing the usual – grabbed dinner and went clubbing. We ended up at “Air,” which H-sensei has discovered is the same one in that “Lost in Translation” movie. It was all right – I wasn’t really feeling it, because I was sick. And there so much house music – soooo much house music. We also had to stay out pretty late, because our hostel locks the front doors between 2 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. We cabbed back, and I finally got to bed around 5 a.m. Ah, Tokyo.

On Sunday, we went down to Harajuku where the girls had their hair appointments. I wandered around Harajuku while waiting for them. We then ate at Pizza Express, and I salivated over my delicious spinach and cheese calzone. Oh, how I miss cheese! (I’m only mentioning the mundane task of eating… because…. Mom, Dad, Ernest – we had the same waiter! “THANK YOU VERY MUCH!” haha)

“They of them”: Mid-Year Conference

Oops!: This blog was written in November 2008. I failed to post quite a few old blogs. My bad.

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Every November, FuJETs meet in Fukushima City for the Mid-Year Conference. It was really comforting to see everyone again. While I often hang out in the "big" city of Koriyama, it’s rare to see the others who live so far away from Motomiya. (Wow, I'm becoming a country girl who often escapes to the "big" city.)

We had yet another all-you-can-eat/drink (nomihoudai/tabehoudai) dinner at a beer garden near Fuku. We then boarded two chartered buses bound for a chill lounge in Fukushima. Everyone was trying to cram into the back of the bus for many photo opportunities.

It was a terrible idea, because I left my camera on the bus that night. I crawled all over the bus, but didn't see it at the time. (On the plus side, our lovely travel agent found it for me. SCORE!) Oh, and I recognized our bus driver as the same dude who drove our chartered bus to Nagano – I wonder if he can actually tolerate us? We got to the club, where I proceeded to take a much-needed nap. All of this partying is starting to get catch up with me.

At the actual conference, the speakers focused on the importance of internationalization. It was also highlight that “reading the air" is apparently the key to understanding Japanese culture. (Did you know that in Japan, “teeth sucking” indicates frustration? My cab driver once sucked his teeth at me when I dropped an ichi-man ($100) to pay for our cab ride. (“A hundred dollar bills, look at you! Look at you!!”). Some of the workshops were helpful; others were not.

There were indeed tons of quotable quotes from the conference’s speakers. I was confused when the last speaker was reading out a nonsensical poem that goes “They of them” or something like that.

Another memorable moment included a university professor who recited the Gettysburg address; when asked about its relevance to the topic of team-teaching and EFL, he said he just threw it in there because it was something he memorized back in the day. And he wanted to show it off??

Of course, the “tea-bagging” quote by the ex-ALT-turned-professor-in-a-Japanese-university. He was pretty funny, and had lots of anecdotes.

Overall, MYC was an excuse to party with the JETs again -- not going to lie. It was also nice talking English at a steady, normal pace. True story.