Go-Go-Magic!

The Susanoo Magic is the professional basketball team of Shimane prefecture and I had the pleasure of seeing them play last weekend. I was pretty determined to attend this game- I tried to go a few weeks ago, but when I showed up I found out they were playing in the neighboring town of Izumo instead. This time, I knew it was in Matsue and I knew it was at the city gym. It is usually a 30 minute walk which is not unpleasant because there is ample sidewalk space to avoid colliding with the cyclists who are usually on sidewalks. I left my apartment and it was raining a bit, a little windy as well, but that wasn't about to stop me. I was a woman on a mission. I wanted to explore what the culture of a Japanese professional basketball game holds. So I set out on my journey, realizing that the rain was somewhat getting worse, but found quickly the real problem was the wind. I feel like I've been in some windy situations in my life, but rarely have I felt like I am actually potentially unsafe on my feet. Of course, there were special conditions to some of this unsteadiness. I chose the second longest bridge to walk over which gets very strong winds from Lake Shinji. I had my excellent new umbrella which felt so strong, I had my basically all-terrain boots, I was determined to put my head down and walk fast. Eventually I will make it. It wasn't until after the bridge that the wind was actually a problem. I was almost to the gym, maybe one block away. I could practically smell the sweaty players. Then the BIGGEST gust of wind hit me from behind, flipped half of my brand new umbrella inside out and exposed me to the elements. I struggled to shut my umbrella thinking- umbrella makers must know this is how umbrellas die. Shouldn't umbrellas be resilient to such force? Shouldn't they just be able to flip back the other way and be okay? Maybe some umbrellas do that, but not my sweet darling. I ran into the building from there because I was close enough, but on the way home discovered that there are some dangling jagged metal pieces on the inside. So unless I want an eyeball full of tetanus, the umbrella must go. I arrived shortly after blast off, the Magic was playing the Bulls. There weren't many seats in the upper deck left, but the woman found me a nice seat on the side-right behind the team! Cool, I'm there. All of a sudden the women around me are all asking which player is my boyfriend. Whoa- what? Just because I'm white I'm dating a player?? No- turns out I got seated in the family section. I had a nice discussion with the younger sister of the captain and met some other family members of players. The announcer was hilarious. Every time we were playing offense, a song would play and the crowd would chant GO-GO-MAGEE (Japanese pronunciation) led by our announcer. Defense was the classic "DE-FENSE" chant, nothing too exciting. During half-time, a youth basketball league came out and played a few mini-games. The little kids (6-7) played the little kids, the winner played the older kids (8-9), the older kids played the parents. It was all really adorable. The Magic played well, but the Bulls played a little better and won it in the end. The walk back was significantly less traumatic, but still rained a little bit.

I have been borrowing my coworker's bike to get prepared (mostly preparing my saddle bones) for the big bike ride this Saturday. I have ridden to work a few times and found it doesn't take long to learn where the big bumps on the route are, as well as which pants allow for proper bike-riding range of motion. I am very glad I get this practice because although there is the saying "it's like riding a bike," that doesn't necessarily mean that as soon as you get back on the bike you are as skilled a rider as you were previously. But I'm coming along. I'll be ready for the weekend, at least.

Great news- work is more exciting! We just got another student, probably will sign one who came today, AND we will be turning into traveling saleswomen. Tomorrow I travel to Tamatsukuri Onsen and - well, essentially my job is to stand there and thank the person for listening. But my Japanese coworker will be trying to get people to come to our school!

I have started to listen to TED talks every night, and highly recommend it to everyone. Tonight I listened to the one from a few days ago by the one and only Ken Jennings! I've found it's a great thing to listen to while you cook. Also- I've been super into cooking EVEN MORE! Tonight I made yellow curry with veggies including a mystery purple potato I bought on a whim. It is pleasantly sweet. Put that on some rice and mmm that is one taste bud experience I enjoy. I also made a potato-onion-eggplant rice dish and used pesto pasta sauce which turned out very well. And yesterday, for the first time, I made sushi! I put shrimp and corn inside, and before you say "corn sushi? what?!" I will tell you that corn sushi is among my top choices at the Hamazushi sushi conveyorbelt restaurant. The only difference is they load theirs with mayo and I don't buy mayo. But really, cooking is awesome. What a great new hobby. Bonus- I am getting more incentive to keep my dishes clean! Working on living the grown-up life.

The cutest coffee shop ever, right around the corner from my work. He roasts his own coffee beans!

  The game!

The little children playing! So cute

My second sushi experiment- temaki sushi

WARNING: POLITICAL

Two topics. A little bit to say.

I have been asked what I think about the situation in N. Korea being this close to them. As for my safety, I feel pretty confident that I will be alright. As for what the future holds, how am I supposed to know? How are any of us supposed to know? This is a new leader of an oppressive country. We may be familiar with how the country has acted in the past, but we have very limited knowledge of this guy's country-ruling strategies. I think all that we can do is try to enjoy our lives because unless you are a part of the national foreign policy whatever group (I ooze political knowledge), I can't think of anything we can do to change the situation. Besides move to Canada?

I don't want to get too far into the wound that is this country's battle over marriage equality because I could write a blog (not just a post, an entire blog) about that. And also, I think that of course everyone deserves to express their own opinion and a blog is unfortunately very one-sided. So I will simply leave you, my readers, with this music video by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Mary Lambert called Same Love. Not only do I love the message of the lyrics, but I think that the melody and composure of the entire song convey the "love is love" idea so well.