Here are some pics from school and baseball practice:

My classroom, 2-B. My desk was one away from the window in the front row.

The view from the teacher's desk at the front of the room

My friend, whom everyone called "Leader." He was in charge of saying "kireitsu" (attention) and "rei" (bow) at the beginning and end of each class-period, hence the nickname

Takabatake-sensei. He was my homeroom teacher and my class' English grammar teacher. Overall, a very awesome guy; very laid back.

Me and the guys

The all-dirt infield of the 野球場 (baseball field). The school and gym in the background

The baseball team (with a few players missing), and the club's three managers on the left

School got out for summer vacation yesterday, so consequently it was my last day of classes. It was sad to say goodbye to my friends, but we exchanged contact info so hopefully I'll be able to keep in touch with them in the future.

I still have baseball practice though, but now there's a twist. Today the whole team loaded onto a bus and drove about 30 minutes away to a nearby baseball stadium to practice with about 4 other local high school's teams. In all there were about 50 players there...by far the busiest baseball practice I've ever been at in my life. I was also surprised to find that there are coaches out there that are stricter than my team's kantoku. We practiced from about 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. with a break for lunch in the middle, so I must say that I'm pretty worn out. Tomorrow we do the same thing, and then on Friday we play scrimmages against the other teams. Should be fun.

Well, I went to Sapporo for the second time this Monday to see the Nippon Ham Fighters play. I was still a little sick, so I didn't go to baseball practice in the morning like I had originally planned. Takuya had to go to practice, though, so he couldn't come with us to the game. So, my host parents and I set off for the city and finally arrived at the Sapporo Dome about two hours before gametime.

I had only seen one baseball game played inside of a dome before in my life (in Montreal's Olympic Stadium), and it was by far the worst place in the world to play baseball. It was loud, ugly, and fake-feeling, and it also felt really claustrophobic. So, my expectations for the Sapporo Dome were quite low.


I was pleasantly surprised. The dome was built only a few years ago, so everything, from the seats to the scoreboard to the turf, was state of the art. The ceiling was nice and high, so I didn't get the feeling that I was watching a baseball game being played inside of a garage like I had in Montreal. Also, it was IMMACULATELY clean...I could have eaten my hot dog off of the ground.


The best part about the stadium, though, was the fans. Japanese baseball fans are really into organized cheering; the fans of the home team sit in the left-field side of the outfield seats and the visting team's fans sit in the right-field side, and when their favorite team is batting the according fans wave huge banners, blast songs from trumpets, bang on drums and sing organized cheers (which I couldn't understand, but were still fun to listen to). It felt like I was at a World Cup game...it had that kind of atmosphere. Obviously, the Fighters' fans heavily outnumbered the visiting Orix Buffaloes' fans, so every bottom-half of an inning was especially a treat.

If you are a Mets fan (and I know at least a few of my readers are), you may remember a Japanese player named Tsuyoshi Shinjo. He came to the MLB for a little while, but it didn't take long for him to return to his native Japan. Mets fans may remember that he was a bit of a showman, wearing flashy clothes outside of the stadium and always going the extra mile to please fans. Well, in Japan he is an absolute superstar...many fans (especially those of the female variety) love his big, bright smile and his funky batting stance. Ever since he came back to Japan he has played for the Fighters, so it was fun to see him play and watch the fans' reactions. Apparently, Shinjo is even too cool for Japanese kanji characters, which is how people write their names in Japan. On the scoreboard, Shinjo's batting position was marked in big capital letters: "SHINJO" (you can see it in the picture below; look on the left side under the number 8).
You can also tell from the scoreboard that the Fighters ended up losing the game, 5-1. They didn't really have a chance after the Buffaloes put up those four runs in the fifth inning, but even until the last out the Fighters fans were cheering with all of their might. Even though they lost, I still had a great time at the game. It was really cool and interesting to see such a familiar sport played in a foreign setting; everything felt familiar, but different...just like how the rest of life in Japan feels to me. I really enjoyed seeing the differences of how the Japanese play baseball--they put a lot more emphasis on bunting and stealing, which is quite different from American play--and of course I tried a Japanese hot dog! (pretty much the same as you'd find in most American ballparks, but to my surprise it was quite spicy!) Keeping with my ballpark tradition, I bought a Fighters hat as a souvenir, a nice addition to my hat collection.

I'm going to bring my picture to school tomorrow because I realize that I haven't really taken any pictures of the actual schoolgrounds yet. Look for those and pictures of baseball practice in my next post!

I woke up with sore throat and a bad cough this morning, so I decided not to go to baseball practice. The weather has been kinda crummy so I've been inside all day...so I'm kinda bored. I watched the Nippon Ham Fighters (yes, Sapporo's baseball team is called "Nippon Ham Fighters," named after a meat company) game on TV today, and they got smoked...yeah...that's about it.
Oh yeah, my host sister showed me how to take Japanese cold medicine. Instead of taking a pill or drinking cough syrup, you pour these little kernels (that's the best way I can describe them) onto your tounge, and then you wash them down with a glass of water. A slightly interesting experience, to say the least.

Tomorrow is a national holiday, so there's no school. But, there's baseball practice of course. However, my host parents are taking me to Sapporo in the afternoon to see the Fighters play, so I'm pretty psyched about that. I'll go to practice for the first half of the day and then set off for the city in the afternoon. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pics to share when I get back.

In the mean time, here's the Engrish pic I promised about a month ago:

Boy, I've had a busy week, so I haven't really had a chance to make a new post until today. Last weekend was the high school's summer festival, and we all had a lot of fun. Everything came together at the end--the guys finished the float and the girls finished the costumes--and the weekend was full of fun activities, from a parade to a concert of student rock bands. Here are some candids from the festival:

(A bunch of the guys from my class dressed up in the boys' costume)

(Some girls [and one guy] from my class sporting their costumes and the self proclaimed "Kimu-Taku" look-a-like in the foreground. If you don't know who Kimu-Taku is, you can read about him here and see a pic of him here)

(A random photo-op with some other second-year girls)

(Me and Ishii)

Earlier this week my host mom took me and Patrik to a nearby town (the same place where I tried tonbi) to see their omatsuri festival. This festival was a little different from the Zenibako one when I stayed in the Shinto shrine; this time, we only stayed for about an hour, watching this awesome dance involving a guy dressed up as a demon running through fire. I also met some of Takuya's younger cousins, and they were all very cute. Here are some pics of the festival:

The rest of my week has been pretty much completely devoted to practicing baseball. Yes, Japanese baseball! I've always wanted to play with Japanese baseball players, and this week I finally joined the yakyuu-bu (baseball club) and began practice. All I can say is that my body was definitely unprepared.

Because of the school festival, we had no school on Tuesday or Wednesday. So, on those two days we had eight-hour practices! I don't think my body has ever gone through such a grueling two days in my entire life...in those two days we practiced more baseball than we would in a week in America! A lot of the time was devoted running and stretching (along with "field save", in which everybody on the team helps rake the all-dirt infield), and we also spend a lot of time working on our swings. The eight hour practices were basically two practices in one day, so I got a lot of reps in! On regular school days we practice from 3:30 to 7:00, and tomorrow I'll have another 8-hour marathon.

Even though my whole body was sore from head to toe until today (which is my first day of no-practice since I started), I'm having a lot of fun playing with my Japanese peers. Obviously, they work very hard and they take the game very seriously, but they're also a fun group of guys to play. They're always willing to talk to me and ask me about American baseball. The head coach is a little strict, but that's to be expected. He seems to be pretty fair, but the rest of the players don't like him very much. I guess tough coaches come off the same way to their players no matter what side of the Pacific you're on.

My teammates often come over to our house when there's no practice. Today was one of those days, so for the majority of the day about eight guys have been stuffed into Takuya's (and my) bedroom playing baseball videogames. Here's a pic (you cant see the three people on the bunk beds, so it was even more crowded than it looks):

(Just a note, we wear the coolest uniforms for practice: a blank white jersey-top, white pants, a white hat and red stirrups! I'll try to take some pictures of baseball practice soon.)

Oooh, I have a big backlog of events to write about right now. Since my last post, I went to Sapporo for a day, went "sea cucumber"-catching with Takuya and otoosan, and started going to school! (Sorry, the image posting system is acting up again, so I can only insert the ensuing two pictures.)

Sapporo was a lot of fun. YFU was hosting a Hokkaido-exchange-student-get-together in the city, so my host parents took me and Patrik for the day. Basically, we met with a few other exchange students that are on the YFU program and hung out with them for a few hours; we met a government official, walked around the city and even went bowling! Like most everything else in Japan, the bowling lanes were a little narrower than American ones, so I had some trouble adjusting...or maybe I'm just bad at bowling...

The following Sunday, the day before I would start school, I went to the ocean with Takuya and my host dad. We ended up spending about an hour and a half at a small, rocky beach, but calling it a beach would be a stretch. It was more like a huge slab of concrete that sloped down to eventually meet the water. The water was pretty warm, but I didn't feel like swimming, so I didn't catch any "sea cucumbers" like Takuya did. "Sea cucumbers" are actually animals, but they're named the way they are because the look pretty similar to that green vegetable. When we got home we ate them in small pieces for desert; they were nice and sweet! After the fishing we stopped at an onsen spa for about a half hour, which was interesting to say the least. There were plenty of baths to sit in, and they were all filled with natural spring water that was coming from the adjacent volcano. However, the water had a lot of sulphur in it, so the place didn't smell so great. Still, it was a relaxing experience.

Then came school. Finally, my exchange experience really begins. I had been waiting for the day for a long time, and finally I walked into Kutchan High School for the first time.

Wow.

It's as if they had never seen a white teenager boy before (even though they have, because Patrik has been attending the school for the past few months). I'd never seen a girl openly squeal at the sight of me before...until that Monday. To sum it up nicely: I feel like a rockstar when I'm in school. All the guys say "Herro!" when I pass by, be it a first-year or a senior, and I feel like Brad Pitt whenever I pass by a group of girls. It's been quite awesome, to say the least.

The school is pretty small for a Japanese public school--about 500 students--but I think it's the perfect size. Everyone wears a uniform; the boys (in the summer) wear a white collared shirt with blue slacks and the girls wear a white blouse, a blue top and a blue skirt with kneesocks. However, the administration doesn't seem very strict about it, so the boys frequently go around with their shirts untucked and the girls roll their skirts up at the waist to create pseudo-miniskirts.

For those of you who don't know how Japanese high schools work, rather than have all of the students move to a different classroom for each subject like they do in America, the students stay in one place and the teachers switch rooms. It makes sense, and the students really get to know each other because they pretty much spend the whole day together. There are six class periods every day, with a ten minute break in between each one, and a 35-minute lunch period. The students eat lunch (usually a bento box prepared by their mothers) in the classroom at their desks. Overall, the system is much, much different from the one I experience back at home, so it has been a really interesting experience so far.

I had heard that Japanese schools--well, Asian schools in general--were difficult and very strict. Well, not so at Kutchan High School. Homeroom to start of the day is a complete zoo. While Takabatake-sensei is talking, absolutely no one listens, and he doesn't seem to really care too much. During regular subjects, I've seen plenty of note-passing, sleeping face-down on the desk and other forms of not-paying-attention, and so far none of the teachers have raised a voice. Generally, the teachers just talk and talk, appearing pretty uninterested in their work. I can't understand a word of what they're saying or writing on the board (except during English class, of course), so I tend to zone out like the majority of the other students. However, even though I'm giving the school a pretty bad wrap, I'm sure that the teachers are competent, and it seems like if you put effort into it you could learn a lot.

Although I'm saying all of this, I've only had one real class day. The other three days that I've been at school have been wholly devoted to preparing for the up-and-coming school festival, which will begin tomorrow. From what I've deduced, every class picked a theme earlier in the year, and now the studnets are supposed to decorate their classroom with props and dress up in costumes to fit the theme. I'm amazed at how gifted and motivated the students are; without any supervision at all whatsoever, the boys work outside building "floats" for the parade using saws and screwdrivers while the girls run fabric through sewing machines to create original outfits...and those are only a two examples of what they are doing. The students are allowed to leave campus to go buy supplies, on the school's dime, and everyone seems to know exactly where to find the most obscure supplies imaginable. Overall, I've been very impressed with their worth ethic.

So far the Japanese high school experience has been great. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories and more pictures to share with you in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading!