if you can dodge a car....

... you can dodge a frisbee!  Yeah, that's right, a frisbee.  Thursday night Oshima's Junior High PTA hosted a little dodgebee tournament at the school.  Dodgebee is a combination of dodgeball and frisbee (as you might have guessed) and ends up sounding something like "do-ji-bee" with a long 'o' like in "home" (and said more quickly without splitting syllables).

The game itself is not quite just "dodgeball with frisbees", however.  There were three teams, divided up into teachers / parents of grades one through three (seven through nine in the US).  Each team could field 12 people per match, which was timed into two three minute halves.   The playing area is split into two parts, each with an inside and an outside, so it looks kind of like this...

A A B B
A B :: A B
A A B B

Six people from B team are on the "inside" of the left half and six people from A team are in the "outside" of the left half, and then the opposite on the other court.  There is only one frisbee in play, and whichever team has the most people on the inside at the end is the winner.  I evidently misunderstood how that changes, but it has to do with outside people somehow.  I don't know, I don't speak Japanese, haha.  Oh, the frisbees are made of foam so people weren't in danger of losing eyes / teeth / arms or anything.

At the end the PTA people gave out prize certificates.  The first place team, the 1st graders, got a certificate, and then an MVP from each team.  We lost every game, haha.  One of the teachers from the second grade got an honorable mention for "best catch" (we battled back and forth and the third one he caught falling backwards) and then I actually got one for like "most energetic" or something.  We didn't get certificates, but all the winners got a can of beer.  Then when we were leaving eeeveryone got a can of beer, so I ended up with two.  I gave them to Umino-sensei the next day because what do I need to drink at home for?  It just takes up space in my little fridge.

Afterwards a bunch of the male teachers and fathers went out to a little bar for food, beer, and shochu, a drink that is weaker than whisky, stronger than sake, similar to soju, and has its production centered here in the Kyushu region.  It was interesting to see how the "junior / senior" roles actually functioned in context, with Umino-sensei and Nakayama-sensei playing the role of everyone's alchohol server, basically.  I felt bad, because they are 25 and 27, respectively, making me the youngest, but they said it was okay.  I made a drink for Umino-sensei anyway and then at least made sure that the people need me had their shochu topped up, not going so far as to be standing up and going around to people though.  I might be in Japan but I'm still American dammit.

The shochu was okay, but the food was amazing!  I think it's good that all you can eat /drink places tend to be expensive because it keeps me from pigging out all the time!  Man the food was good.  I didn't stay the whole time, but apparently they went home around 130am.  And on a school night!  I love it.

mad future love,

-greg.