If you start to spend any amount of time with a Japanese person I can almost guarantee you that at some point they will ask you what your hobbies are, particularly what sports you like. When confronted with such questions I usually say things like basketball, soccer, ping pong, and listening to music, occasionally throwing in other things like swimming or reading.
During one such exchange with the teachers who sit around me one of them, Nagao-sensei, became very interested in the fact that I had mentioned ping pong. Well actually first they all laughed because "ping pong" sounds a lot like "pin pon" which in Japanese is used as sort of a "good job you win!" sort of sound, if my old Japanese 102 class is anything to go by. After sorting out what I meant (and learning the word for it), he started asking me if I was any good. I usually say I'm not very good at any of the sports that I mention (because I'm not), and this was no different. He pantomimes some snail's pace gameplay and I say that I'm a little better than that, so then he indicates himself and pantomimes wicked fast insanity.
He goes into the back room and comes out with two paddles, one pen grip and the other "shake" grip. I didn't even know they had specific pen grip paddles, but they are pretty damn serious about their たっきゅう here ("takkyuu", go install some asian fonts, haha). A pen grip paddle has rubber on only one side, has a raised grip on one side to make it easier to hold pen-syle, and is slightly shorter and more narrow than your typical shake style paddle, the kind that would be familiar to most of you. I told him that I play shake style and he puts them both down on my desk and says that next (this) week we're going to play in the gym!
He said that afterward we could go get some okonomiyaki at this place near my house. Okonomiyaki is usually referred to as a Japanese "savory pancake", a typical example of something that looks familiar but is in fact quite different (like curry donuts, oh man). He jokingly said that the loser would pay for dinner, but I took him up on the offer, knowing that he is probably going to trounce me like no other.
Unfortunately I have not yet seen him this week, since he and most of the rest of the staff have taken holiday for Obon. I am not sure when we're going to play, but I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes and how much dinner ends up costing me. I'm not saying I'm going to let him win, because I'll certainly give it everything I got, but things aren't necessarily looking good, you feel me? I'm certainly looking forward to the challenge, that's for sure. I hope he's back from vacation tomorrow so that we can get things going...
with love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
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