City Championships

Today I went to see the schools vie for the city championships in all sports. Well, I only watched baseball and a little tennis, but there was also ping pong, kendo, basketball, volleyball, and maybe something I'm leaving out.

Let me preface the rest of this posting by commenting on how extremely, mind-numbingly hot and humid it was today. I got up at 7:40 this morning, and it was hot by then. I went out to hang my laundry and my shirt immediately stuck to my back. And front.

So, I ran into my LMS babies cooling out under a tree. As best one could cool out. I think they were sort of happy to see me (?) At least the ichinensei were. They're my babies. The sannensei were probably still unhappy from their loss earlier in the morning. When they stopped talking to me I left them and ran into the guy from GS that sits across from me when I'm at M-chan's desk. He was with the ichinensei. They were happy to see me. As the running joke is that my name is Ebi (shrimp), one kid proceeded to sing an ebi-mayo song, which was actually cute. And then he got it in his head. Ah, sweet redemption.

I followed the kids and sensei over to the baseball field where I watched GS cream M-chan's BMS 8-1, poor things. They're sweet kids, too. The above picture is of some of the ichinenseis hanging on the fence where they chanted songs for whoever was up to bat.

After GS vs BMS, I hung around for LMS vs. another school I don't go to. Poor things got hammered 11-1. They even stopped the game in the 4th inning because of the score. Afterwards the little babies were crying. Well, the sannensei who cared enough, anyway. Although I think some of it was a little forced, but at least they cared. After the team circle, which all the parents stood around for, the kids got up, bowed to us (well, their parents), then to the head coach. Then there was Picture Time, and I was invited to be in the one with the kids and parents. Cool!

So, what I found interesting about the baseball games was, at the end, instead of shaking or slapping hands with the players from the other team, only the captains did so. Then the teams, lined up facing each other, bowed to each other, to the refs, then came to the side, lined up facing the stands and bowed to their own spectators. Interesting.

After Picture Time, I made tracks to the tennis courts where I ran into girls from all over the place. It was cool to have all the kids smile and come say hi to me, but at the same time it was weird to be hanging out with LMS, say, and see kids from rival schools. Well, rivals on that day, anyway. But they were all cool about it.

After that it was off to Valor, the gas station where I ran into more girls from CS3, and home where I ate, vegged, finally took a shower and realized my neck and face were burned in spite of the sunscreen, but not my arms or legs where I put the 50+ stuff, and here I am. Yosssh.