Monday afternoon I got home from work and was thinking about ping pong the next day. I've still been going mostly every week to play with the crowd of intense older folks that I've befriended (who are all wicked good, basically), but on Monday I wasn't very excited about going the next day. I love ping pong, but it felt like I was just going and playing on autopilot, not really enjoying it like the epic contests of old.
Of course that meant this weeks round of battles would be more exciting then ever. I've never really tried to "learn" how to play before, I just kind of did whatever felt natural and was reasonably effective, but these people are SERIOUS. There is a method to practice, and when you practice you play one way, focusing on consistency and technique, and then when you play it's all about the win. The thing is, I have finally started getting a handle on the technique and control that they want for practice, which is huge.
It doesn't hurt that I got to play the last half hour with the teacher, who is 77+ and better than anyone. This man just loves ping pong, and that's all there is to it. He is the one that was training back in October for the All-Japan disabled championships (he is nearly deaf). Some people have described me as a monkey when I play ping pong, but he is the only one there who really brings that out to the fullest, making it an all-out go-as-hard-as-you-can sort of battle. Well, he doesn't have to go all-out, but he pushes me to, and the whole time we're laughing and smiling. Perfection in ping pong, more or less.
All of this is basically leading up to this coming Sunday, when apparently there is some sort of tournament in the nearby town of Seihi. They have invited me to go with them to tournaments before, but this is the first time that I will actually be around to go, so it is pretty damn exciting. It'll be the first time I've ever really played in something organized (MRHS Senior Trip doesn't really count), so I will have to do my best to represent the strong tradition that I have participated in, from The Cellar and PPNN, to THE15, T2, all the way to this new chapter in Oshima.
Obviously I'll try and bust out a Kano on some fools, but in all likelihood if I am facing younger versions of the people I play with now it will be me getting the Temple of Doom treatment.
go big or go home love from the future,
-greg.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
seriously mia [2008.02.15]
It's been a while, I guess. I've been sort of running all over the place, so you will have to forgive my slacking in the writing department. Here's the rundown.
Christina came right after Christmas, and we traveled from Tokyo down to Kyoto and then on to Hiroshima on the shinkansen (bullet train). Tokyo was hectic, of course, but I finally made it to the Dragonfly Cafe, something that my friend Nathan got us all set on doing when we were in Tokyo for orientation and got there right as it closed. It was really classy with amazing food. I tried to go there with my Pops later but it was closed, making me 1 for 3, but that's jumping ahead.
Kyoto was our New Year's stop, and we stayed in two different ryokan (traditional Japanese inns). The first ryokan was a smaller affair run by an old couple, and it had a really warm welcoming feeling, even if the temperature was not so warm inside. The second one was more impersonal, but we got to experience the crazy kaiseki ryori dinner (fancy Japanese haute cuisine) that the smaller place just wasn't equipped to handle. The room maids just kept bringing out all these myriad little dishes that literally covered the whole table. It was nuts.
If you're curious, New Year's was spent watching K1 Fighting on TV, partially due to our first ryokan's midnight curfew. It was nice though, taking a relaxing soak in the really really hot bath and then just kind of chilling.
Overall Kyoto was pretty awesome, especially Fushimi Inari Taisha, which was swarmed with people New Year's Day who were making the first shrine visit of the year. It was great to go back to Hiroshima too, even though none of the restaurants that I wanted to go to ended up working out. There was a random tapas place though, of all things. I miss my friends in Madrid, haha.
Now Dad is here in Oshima after I met him in Tokyo and we went up to Sapporo in Hokkaido for their Snow Festival. What started with a few college students who were then joined by soldiers from the Self Defense Forces has become a festival attended by more than 2 million people from all over the world. They had huge snow sculptures created by large organizations, including several units of the SDF, as well as a whole variety of smaller ones created by teams in competition.
So lots of crazy traveling and good times were had by all. Tomorrow we're going to the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, which basically amounts to a big Chinese New Year celebration. No pictures of any of that stuff is really online yet, but there's some sort of recent random Christmas ones and some from a visit to Kumamoto in the usual place (flickr).
I'll try go get back to being on point in the near future. Oh, and I turned in my papers a few weeks ago, so I will officially be coming home in August. I like my job, and I love the people, but I miss everyone back home too much to stay another year.
heavily delayed future love,
-greg.
ps: can something from the future really be late?
Christina came right after Christmas, and we traveled from Tokyo down to Kyoto and then on to Hiroshima on the shinkansen (bullet train). Tokyo was hectic, of course, but I finally made it to the Dragonfly Cafe, something that my friend Nathan got us all set on doing when we were in Tokyo for orientation and got there right as it closed. It was really classy with amazing food. I tried to go there with my Pops later but it was closed, making me 1 for 3, but that's jumping ahead.
Kyoto was our New Year's stop, and we stayed in two different ryokan (traditional Japanese inns). The first ryokan was a smaller affair run by an old couple, and it had a really warm welcoming feeling, even if the temperature was not so warm inside. The second one was more impersonal, but we got to experience the crazy kaiseki ryori dinner (fancy Japanese haute cuisine) that the smaller place just wasn't equipped to handle. The room maids just kept bringing out all these myriad little dishes that literally covered the whole table. It was nuts.
If you're curious, New Year's was spent watching K1 Fighting on TV, partially due to our first ryokan's midnight curfew. It was nice though, taking a relaxing soak in the really really hot bath and then just kind of chilling.
Overall Kyoto was pretty awesome, especially Fushimi Inari Taisha, which was swarmed with people New Year's Day who were making the first shrine visit of the year. It was great to go back to Hiroshima too, even though none of the restaurants that I wanted to go to ended up working out. There was a random tapas place though, of all things. I miss my friends in Madrid, haha.
Now Dad is here in Oshima after I met him in Tokyo and we went up to Sapporo in Hokkaido for their Snow Festival. What started with a few college students who were then joined by soldiers from the Self Defense Forces has become a festival attended by more than 2 million people from all over the world. They had huge snow sculptures created by large organizations, including several units of the SDF, as well as a whole variety of smaller ones created by teams in competition.
So lots of crazy traveling and good times were had by all. Tomorrow we're going to the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, which basically amounts to a big Chinese New Year celebration. No pictures of any of that stuff is really online yet, but there's some sort of recent random Christmas ones and some from a visit to Kumamoto in the usual place (flickr).
I'll try go get back to being on point in the near future. Oh, and I turned in my papers a few weeks ago, so I will officially be coming home in August. I like my job, and I love the people, but I miss everyone back home too much to stay another year.
heavily delayed future love,
-greg.
ps: can something from the future really be late?
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