The Even Greater Tokyo Region

Osakan Trip

At a recent meeting for the new JET participants, a question was asked to the senior JETs. "What can you do in the area?" we asked. The general response was naming other cities in other prefectures. Basically, what they told us was: "you can leave".

My first trip out of the region was to visit my brother who lives in Osaka, under the premise of playing in a random basketball tournament. Thereby, in the one trip, I was able to combine two truly great, wonderful things. (Basketball, and of course, leaving Toyama.)

But they don't make leaving Toyama easy. It took a superhuman effort to bike back home as soon as the school bell rang, and a run to the station to catch the train. And then it took another 4 1/2 hours. It would have been a pleasant trip if only I didn't have that stupid Proclaimers song in my head. (I'm on my way from miserey to happiness today....) I couldn't help it.

So Osaka is a nice place. In my town Tonami, you never see any people. There are houses, and rice fields which occasionally have an old lady working in it. The mall has people in it, but after that I jhave no idea where they go. I don't think they live in Tonami. I, and the other JETs in my town, have never met our nighbours. The streets never have any people on them. It's like a ghost town. Only, the ghosts got bored and left too.

So it was comforting to see people again. A fun weekend yada yada... the basketball tournament. I had no idea what to expect. I was told in advance that one of the opponents was a professional K1 kickboxer. And last year, he got in a fight in the same tournament... So, I was on my best behaviour.

My brother, (depending on your perspective) also happens to be foriegn and he made up a team full of import players (All teaching English as some level). We were a pretty strong team, and rolled over the first few teams. Not having played regularly since November, and only a few times since then, you may be able to say I'm not in peak physical condition. Combine that with the hot summer here and the Japanese style of basketball (running up and down the court)... I am still sore 4 days later. But an opportunity to play some good basketball doesn't come around very often in Toyama, so I had to make the most of it.

The last game of the round robin was againt the K1 fighters also yet unbeaten team. There was prize money resting on the win, so the stakes were high. The K1 guy looked like he wanted to start a fight, but we aren't stupid. We are teachers. So we won, and recieved a dissappointingly small amount of prize money. But the memory of the trip to Osaka will last for a long time. Or at least the muscle pain will.