tonari no shibafu

Holy crap

Joe Montana is 53 years old. I can't believe it.

For Todd and Amy

UPDATE: The reasoning behind Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline being played at Fenway.
via NPR via Amy

A dream come true for a hoops fan

Beating LeBron James in H.O.R.S.E

Mariah

ギャルの女王。

Dude's on fire

Just watched this guy Lampard score his fourth goal for Chelsea in their 6-1 defeat <Youtube link> of Chelsea Derby. Awesome.

Telegraph article recap of game.

千秋楽

Some friends of Isherwood scored some tickets to the final day of the current sumo basho. We're going a bit late (3:00), but it should be a good time because both Yokozuna have one loss. The Yokozunas' matches are scheduled such that from the first day they fight increasingly high-ranked opponents until they face off with each other on the final day of the tournament. This one is special because Asashoryu has been absent from sumo since the July tournament and he has been denigrated in the press and condemned in the court of public opinion for the past 5 months.

We, unfortunately, have pretty bad seats, but the main point of the outing is to hang out with friends, drink a bunch, and then go out to a place called Andy's which is an izakaya in Yurakucho owned by a foreigner. Evidently it's pretty famous, but it'll be my first time going there.

I'd imagine that Hakuho is favored, but Asashoryu has a lot to prove and is one of the most competitive athletes I've ever seen.

It's gonna be a knock down drag out.

Willie O'Ree

NPR's Scott Simon has an interview with Wilie O'Ree the NHL's first black hockey player. This month is the 50th anniversary of his first games in the NHL.

ESPN's Top 25 single season athletic performances

I may quibble about the order, but at first glance all of the biggies seem represented.

I'd like to see the next 25 to see who would make their cut...

Gotta think that Tyson and a whole slew of other amazing athletes would have to be in there.

via Kottke

Late notice

Today in Japan is 文化の日 (Culture Day). As such, there will be a number of demonstrations within the grounds of Meiji Jingu. The highlights are:

9:00 am Aikido

10:00 am Kobudo

1:00 pm Yabusame (mounted archery)

Sweet

Aminishiki just beat Asashoryu in the first match of the Nagoya sumo tournament. He beat him last tournament as well.

Awesome!

Hole-in-one insurace

A few weeks ago, the subject of golf came up in one of my classes. As a warmup exercise and while waiting for the occasional straggler I often ask the students in my classes what they did during the weekend. This gives a decompression period for everyone to get their English caps on and also provides opportunities for people to create original utterances with familiar, back-pocket-variety vocabulary. During one of these discussions someone mentioned that they saw on the news that A father and son hit back-to-back (one each) holes-in-one. One of the other students made a remark about how that was an expensive afternoon for the duo and that he hopes to never sink a hole-in-one. I thought this strange and pressed him only to learn that it is customary to buy gifts not only for the rest of your foursome on the fateful day in question, but for all one's 'golf buddies'. As the gifts are meant to be on the nice side, a stroke of luck can come with a price tag into the thousands of dollars. But, no matter, you can always buy hole-in-one insurance. It was explained to me that for a few hundred dollars per year in premiums, you can indemnify yourself against the misfortune of getting it in the cup in one.

Does this happen elsewhere?

Technorati Tags: golf, Japan

More on the Kameda fight

Mutantfrog Travelogue has an update on the scandal surrounding the Kameda title fight and how the netizens are leading print journalists in breaking this story. 

I should warn you, I was listening to The Cure a lot when I wrote this....

When I went to my boy Doug's wedding in 2001, my old karate teacher from Amherst was in Japan  as part of a delegation celebrating his teacher's having brought karate to the States.

When I went to the States this past March, I missed the final game of March Madness by like one or two days.

Now, come to find out that the World Championship of Basketball.  THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OF BASKETBALL.  The game that I have been playing for more than three decades.  The game raised to the level of art by Cousy, Maravich, Erving, Johnson, Bird, and Jordan.  Is going to be in Japan starting Aug 19th, four days before my trip to the States, and the finals are held the night I return.  To make matters worse, according to the schedule, all of the games before we take off are at least a 3-4 hour train ride away, and the finals are up in (da)Saitama, 5 hours after we land.  So it's possible for me to go to the finals, if I ship my baggage from the airport to my apt. and go directly to the game after a 14+ hour flight.

What would Tyler Durden do?  While I know that I am, in fact, not my f'ing khakis....still....

What would you do ?

Maybe I can talk The Shoe into going...

Just finished watching the light flyweight? title fight between Kameda and Juan Landaeta at the Rice Cafe where I was having dinner.  It is hard to overstate the fervor with which the Japanese support any and all athletes that participate at the international level.  Witness athletes like tennis player Sugiyama Ai, who though very successful as a doubles player has struggled a bit in singles, gain and maintain a devoted following, while athletes like Q-chan or Arakawa Shizuka, who won the women's figure skating gold in the olympics a few months back, rise to cult figure status.  Also, in Kameda's case we have all been treated to a very long and detailed back story that includes a father/trainer -- a theme that is familiar from such stories as female wrestler Hamaguchi Kyoko -- and two brothers that are also aspiring champion boxers.  Like most successful boxers, Kameda is arrogant and flamboyant in the Apollo Creed mold and is presented as the quintessential street kid, speaking a heavily inflected Kansai accent and thereby contrasted with the more sophisticated and effete Tokyoites.  Dollars to doughnuts the right-leaning news mags will be feasting on him and his 大和魂 for weeks.  I find it interesting that perceptions have changed so much since the premodern image of rustic, uncultured, Eastern warriors/barbarians and the cultured denizens of Kansai (Kyoto).

Now on to the reason for my post.  There is no way that anyone who knows anything about boxing could have had Kameda winning on their cards.  He landed only one or two punches that could be seen as more than glancing blows, and Landaeta was firmly in control for the final three rounds.  By the end Landaeta was standing back, picking his opportunities and pretty much landing jabs and straight left hands (he's a southpaw) at will.  By my count, the first seven or so rounds were a draw, in two Landaeta won by a point and the final three he won by two each. 

Hard to imagine that boxing has fallen on hard times fan-wise...

Whoa, somebody has already updated his Wikipedia profile.

UPDATE: Japundit agrees
                  Yahoo! Japan viewer poll about the decision

Great finish

New Ozeki Hakuho just beat Yokozuna Asashoryu (macrons omitted) in the last bout of the Nagoya basho.

Hakuho is poised for promotion to yokozuna after the next tournament if he does well.

Sumo video on the web

Turns out that the site banzuke.com has video of sumo matches online. 

Enjoy.

Figures

The first time i'm going to be home for March Madness in 5 years, and now they decide to offer games on the web.  To make matters perfect, I  get back to Japan 2 days before the finals...

via Gizmodo

Big city, small town

After a night of debauchery with Ramsbottom-Isherwood, I was feeling under the weather and was late for work.  By work I mean at Muriwui.  I started teaching conversational English there yesterday to supplement my income enough that I'll have some pocket cash when I head home next month.  I'm getting about $80 a week to chat with folks in the mother tongue and hope to save all of it for pizza, beer and sundries in 'ole Taxachusetts.

Anyway, even after multiple trips to the head I was feeling like death warmed over and battling through on willpower alone.  My second student was the ever-vivacious Reiko who I also taught yesterday.  She had looked familiar to me, but I assumed it was because I had seen her at the cafe before.  Turns out that she plays hoops with the Setagaya Phoenix and I had met her last summer.  She just didn't recognize me with the new 'do.

After that little bit of serendipity, another crazy thing happened.  I met The Shoe.  He and his wife were in Muriwui and he came up and introduced himself after my last lesson.  We had exchanged a couple o emails way back when about, oddly enough, playing hoops, but that had been our only contact outside of the comments sections of our blogs.

I have now met two bloggers in person that I knew only from the fabulous internet.

Tell me were you in the joint...

...the night Kobe scored 81 points? 

I can't believe this.  I just can't believe it.

Tony Pierce's reaction
Even the politicos are talking about it
Highlights of all 81 points (Windows Media)

This is the year I make my mark -- Loudon Swain

I remember going head-to-head/mano-é-mano with Smitty in '79.  He representing French Lick,  me straight-up East Lansing, as we replayed on the Center Elementary playground the NCAA finals.

It was pretty god damn glorious.

Gleaming the Cube

Of all the activities that are on my Danger Wil Robinson list, surfing is the one that holds the most allure for me.  It just seems like something that, once you got good at it, would likely be one of those activities (like mountain climbing) that stradlles the line between earthly and transcendent. 

In my twice weekly random surfings, I came across these photos and figured I'd link them up.  If you are so inclined, take a look.  The pictures are pretty spectacular.

Sumo torrent

Here is a torrent of some of the sumo from September 18, 2005.

SumoSep182005.torrent

I'm feeling the green down deep inside

Check out these IPod cases so you can, like Putty, '...support the team.'

via Gizmodo

Sumo update

Shin-sekiwake Koto-oshu retained his undefeated streak (11-0) and the lead in the current sumo basho.  Yokozuna Asa-shoryu was handed his second loss today by Aminishiki (by the technique, soto-gake).  With only four days left, Asa-shoryu's chances to become only the second sumotori in the modern era to win 6 consecutive basho just got a little bit harder, and Koto-oshu is poised for a promotion to Ozeki. 

The zabuton, they were a'flyin'.

Lickin' my wounds

The wedding party was a blast.  Got to see Macchan, Hiro and a bunch of the folks from the basketball club.  Late night return.
Hangover. 
Gotta head out in about an hour to play hoops.

Terrific.

<=78 kg

I had forgotten about writing that last post.  Things at school have been hectic and, though my constant struggle to get into a shape that I am proud of continues, I haven't had time to hop up on a scale too recently.  At last check (about two weeks ago) I was at 78 kg and am likely at that level or less.  I've changed my eating habits a bit and have moved back to a largely vegetarian diet.  That combined with a good routine of working out has me feeling better than I have since March, but I wonder how much my increasing muscle mass is going to show on the scale.

Anyway, I'm going to hit the local public gym tomorrow or Monday and use one of the scales that shows bodyweight/bodyfat.  I know that this is considerably less accurate than going to a doctor for the measurements, but I figure that if I continue to use the same scale, then I should be able to at least gauge my progress in a relative manner. 

I jut finished a back/biceps workout and am waiting for the bath to heat up so that I can take a shower and then get a soak.  I need to regain some flexibility for karate and soaking in a hot tub before stretching out makes things a whole lot easier than otherwise.  I am pretty sore from last night's training because it was pretty intense as there were only three of us there.  Friday nights are always pretty sparse which makes it one of the best nights in terms of receiving corrections.  Also, a group of the highest ranking teachers work out together on Fridays and sometimes each student gets paired up with a teacher for one-on-one instruction.  Those are the times that really push the training ahead.  Also, I get the sense that our seniors are a bit disappointed with our lack of dedication.  From what I have heard, back in the day everyone trained every day, but nowadays most people only go to the dojo 3 or fewer time a week.  So, going on Fridays helps to display my seriousness, and that I don't put drinking or dates or hanging out ahead of my training.  Starting next week I return to my Tues-Friday schedule and am toying with the idea of hitting every other Saturday as well.  I am a bit reluctant to go to the Saturday classes, which are likely very crowded, but I think the extra training will help me to progress a little further a little faster.  We'll see how that works out.

Anyway, after I soak and stretch I am heading out to my friend Tsuyuki's wedding (after-)party.  I found out through the Setagaya Phoenix (hoops club) website bulletin board that she is getting married this weekend, when I went there to find out where they are playing tomorrow.  Tsuyuki is actually the person that first invited me to play with the club and I owe her for having introduced me to all those folks.  I am heading back to play hoops tomorrow for the first time in over a year and am anxious to get back my chops.  A while back I was watching a video of the 1991 NBA Finals between the Lakers and Bulls and got a little pang in my stomach from missing the game so much.  I played hoops in one form or another for almost 25 years, and sometimes I can't believe that I don't run anymore.  I don't have the time to play like I once did, but a couple of time a month ought to be enough slake my thirst.  Plus I can play a bit more once summer vacation begins in about a month. 

Ok, time to check on the bath and iron a shirt.

Futagoyama Oyakata

Futagoyama Oyakata, the father of the popular and extremely successful sumotori brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana, has passed away at age 55.

Kurt has a very interesting, if disturbing portrayal of the relationship between this father and his sons.

Too Bad We Gotta Get Old Stallion

I have been toying with the idea of buying some weights.  Pretty much from the time that I was 12 or 13 I have always had a weight set wherever I lived, and the convenience of being able to roll out of bed and hit the iron, or to be able to knock out a 45-minute workout in the middle of the day or night, kept me fresh and able to support long stretches of 4 to 5 workouts a week.  There have been a few periods here and there when  I commuted to a gym , but with the exception of my year abroad in Tsukuba, I have always found such things unsustainable.  The time and planning required to have separate training clothes (and often shoes), have a portable showering/personal grooming kit,  and getting to and from the gym was always too great.  A 1 hour workout easily morphs into a two hour affair.  And while I can almost always spare 6 hours a week to hit the weights, 12 hours is pushing it. 

The porblem is that my current apartment is too small for even a modest weight bench.  The only way possible would be to sacrifice abou t half of the space in the kitchen, and even then, it might be a stretch.  While I've been deciding whether or not to purchase another piece of equipment that might end up in the same pile with my achilles heel stretching device, and groin stretcher, I decided to do some old-fashioned Jack Lalanne style training. 

You see up til now I have been able to do a fair amount with traditional exercises.  I have some dumbbells that I use for shoulders and arms, and I do pushups for the pecs -- yah, whatcha bench? - - but I don't have enough weight to do reasonable back work.  I do some bent over rows, but I'm maxed out weightwise.  So, the other day, at the beginning of my back/biceps workout, I took a ride down to the local park to do some wide grip chins.  Now I should say that at my most fit, I could do about 15 or 20 of the suckers, which I had worked up to with the help of 'ole Drew "the boys back in Bedford must be working harder than you" Smith.  Anyway, I figured that I could go down there bust a set of 8 or 10, and then have succeeding sets of slightly fewer reps.  Well, true believers, I got down there and almost bust a blood vessel to knock out three chins.  Three.  Jeezus.  Afterward I found a way to support my legs and was able to do 3 more sets of 3-5.  And that was on Friday and my lats still hurt.  Suffice to say that I am definitely rethinking my strength training regimen and the chins are going to be front and center until I can do sets of 10.

Workout Progress

The holiday season went off pretty much as planned with only a couple of impromptu drinking sessions.  I had the opportunity to weight myself at onsen (pictures forthcoming) and I am at about 78.5 kilograms (173 lbs), down from 82, but still only about halfway to my New Year's goal of 75 kg.  And only about one third of the way to my ultimate goal of 70 kg (154 lb).

Ran with Misa on the 2nd and the 3rd at Komazawa Koen and this morning back in my neighborhood.   I can feel where the layoff has had a little effect on my fitness level, but not bad considering how much has been imbibed.  The distance that I had worked up to by the beginning of December was a little hard this morning, but I'm guessing that it'll be all good again in about a week. 

That being said, I have another week until my seminar starts again and so I am going to try to work in some double sessions between now and the 13th.  I'll still have work to contend with and ap resentation to finish, but tha lack of official obligations should make it possible for January to be a good month workout wise. 

What is currently fueling my running?  Tupac and Natto.

- - - - - - - -

Tonight after work I'm off to Mark's so that we can return some things that we have borrowed and burn some CDs/DVDs  of various things for each other.  Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on posting pics on Wednesday.

Cheers for now...

The Sox Win!

The Red Sox have won the World Series (in a sweep no less) over the St. Louis Cardinals. I think that this picture paints an accurate but sobering picture of life in the States. At least my view of the States, right now.

Government (to the people): Yes, yes, that's it. Have your little games. Pay $100 for tickets, $30 for a hat to show your allegiance, eat drink and be merry. But let there be no mistake...we are in charge.

Kudos to these guys for peacefully (at least at this moment) thumbing their noses at the riot police.

Photo Credit: Michael Dwyer/Associated Press