Soft volleyball

It is so warm and humid like Japanese summer because 20th typhoon got through Japan.

There was a tournament of soft volleyball near Mt. Fuji, yesterday. Soft volleyball is sports for very large range of generation. It is so easier than real volleyball. So lots of elderly people play this. We played 7 games, so there were 3 games in the morning and 4 games in the afternoon. The results are not so good and not so bad, 4 win and 3 defeats. We enjoyed all games very much regardless of won or lost. I am not good at Soft volleyball because I started to play it since August of this year. My friends give me a lot of advice while a game. I appreciate them but it is too lots, and I am sometimes confused and blunder, in addition I can feel free to ask them some questions. So usually games we play are noisy and funny. We often involve not only spectators but also the opposing teams. I like it, delightful atmosphere. After the tournament, one elderly people said to me "I like watching your games, thank you." It was absolutely compliment for me.


There was "a party" last Saturday. Two friends and I went to a bar. The party had 2 men and me I knew and 3 girls I didn't know. One of my friends invited them for a dinner. You know, such a party is a chance to find a girlfriend or boyfriend in Japan. Of course, at first, we said each other "Nice to meet you." Then we talked about works, studies, hobbies and so on. They have same hobbies. They seem to do tea ceremony. Do you know tea ceremony? It is traditional manners when you drink Japanese green tea. In addition, another hobby is to wear Kimono. Do you know Kimono? It is Japanese traditional clothes. Now, such girls are very rare and interesting but a little strange for me. I was able to drink and talk then. Maybe this was first time and last time to drink with them. (^_^;) Let's go next!!!

Bruce emailed me about his life from Uganda! He sounds good! However I heard a bad news. It was that Lucky Dube was shot and dead by someone in Johannesburg, so sorry. There seems to be the most dangerous city in the world. Bruce loves him and his songs. He knew all of his songs and sometimes sang them when we were doing a campfire in Kenya. You may not know Lucky Dube. He was a singer in South Africa. I knew him in Nanyuki and got his CD there. In Kenya and Africa, almost of people know him who is very popular because he sings about discrimination and slave and so on. His songs that have very strong massages also impressed me. I often listen to his songs in Japan. They make me remember our life in Kenya. "Different Colours One People"

Busy Friday started!

My disease was cured. So I started to drink and exercise!

Friday morning
Usually, I have a long meeting in my lab Friday morning. We, students in my lab, have to explain about our studies of a week to our teachers and friends.

Friday afternoon
My friends and I play football in my school for 2 or 3 hours. It was rainy and cool a bit yesterday but we played outside because I got better. We practiced football. I did enjoy it! However I didn't know if my friends enjoyed.(-_-;) As you expect, we got drenched to the skin and got muddy.

Friday evening
I got home by train. It takes about 2 hours to go home. The time in train is rest time to get over physical fatigue for me because I am supposed to play football at 8 o'clock in my local area. It was raining hardly on the night. So we played in a gym of my high school. It was very dangerous to play there. The floor had too good grip. I have sprained my ankle some times before.

Then I got my new electric dictionary made by Casio! My friend sold me a new dictionary which he got as a gift in summer festival and he don't use it. So it was very cheap. The latest electric dictionary is too nice! It has 86 dictionaries about Japanese, English, life, health care, hobbies, computer, business, travels and several languages and so on. It includes too many dictionaries and functions. Of course, there is a heavy manual but I do not want to read it. I will learn by doing like studying English! (^_^)
After that, we went to a bar in Hashimoto city near here and drunk until 4 o'clock! I had a delightful time to talk with waitresses as well as my friends.

This morning
I felt pain in my feet! Surly gout?
Don't worry. I found sudden hard exercise made me feel pain. So it was muscular pain!

About Kenya:
After our project, I went to Nairobi airport by taxi Sep. 19 to go home.
I was puzzled in the airport because I didn't know how and where to get new tickets. Then one policeman let me known where to go and helped me write a paper to get tickets kindly. However, I thought it was too kind a bit. As expected, after he finished to help me, he said "Give me money!". I was unable to believe my ears, "Are you Kenyan policeman?" I asked. I said "I'm sorry. I don't have money because I am a student." and he returned without saying.
I don't know if Kenyan policemen have enough money and I don't know if it is culture of Kenya. However I think such an action may stand in the way of the development of Kenyan tourist industry.

"Konnichiwa!" One man spoke to me there. It means "Hello" in Japan. He, Kelvin, is from Tanzania, 28 years old and He has been to Japan once for business. There were 2 men, Ahmed and Shaikh, with him. They are also from Tanzania. At first, I was afraid of them because there had been a trouble of Kenyan policeman, in addition I had heard from Dixon that Tanzania was very dangerous place. but he tried to talk about Japan he know hardly and they were friendly to me and talkative. So I also asked them many things about Tanzania and told them about Japan and me. I told them that I had left my dictionary there because I wanted to find it. Then they helped me to find it kindly and hardly but finally we were not able to find it. However, I had a good time with them by Dubai. They was going to go to Dubai for business. Their job is to import Japanese old cars to Tanzania. Kelvin told me that he liked his job because he was able to go to many countries and see many things and many foreign girls! I envy them so much!

Weeding for winter

I cut the weeds a field that had a lot of weeds with my friend yesterday. We sonwboard in the place sometime when the snow piles up high in my local area. We used weeding machines. There were too many vines grown well there, the area was so large and we were not used to using the machines. So it was very hard to weed.There are some boxes or items my friend made several years ago and made from woods.

Unfortunately, they were broken. So we must make new boxes to play with items. At first designing!

I will go shopping to look for materials to make mobile boxes! I want to bring them to mountains we usually go to!

I hope we would have a heavy fall of snow!

The following photos are "before", "after" and "my friend".

Athletic meeting in Akiyama

It recently have got a little cool in Japan. Autumn have started. So streets of my school smell strange because maidenhair trees take their ginkgo off.

There was an athletic meeting in my local area yesterday. We attended it as Youth Organization of Akiyama. We not only helped preparation but also sold Yakisoba, juice and Rakugaki Senbe.

Do you know Yakisoba? Yakisoba is one of Japanese foods, like noodles without soup. Japanese Yakisoba is shown in left photo. It is not Yakisoba we made because I forgot to take a picture of our Yakisoba. It looks like our Yakisoba very well but I think our Yakisoba is better taste than its Yakisoba.

There were not any stalls in the athletic meeting by now. So it was risky for us to sell foods there because all costumers didn't know our stalls and brought own lunch. However, They bought our Yakisoba a lot because it is hot food, good taste and very cheap, I think. We were very busy and had no time to have a lunch. People with yellow T-short in photos are my friends. Do you remember the T-short? I wore it in Kenya.

Do you know Rakugaki Senbe? It is chips for children. You know Senbe. I brought it in Kenya. Senbe is traditional Japanese food and made from rice. Rakugaki means to feel free to draw something. The following is explanation of how to make Rakugaki Senbe. At first, we give children a Senbe whose size is big like a notebook. They feel free to draw something by several brushes with sugared water. After they finished to draw something, we put colorful sugar on the Senbe. So colorful sugar was fixed on only wet area. The stall also was busy with many children.

We went to our favorite bar after the Athletic meeting to have "a evaluation meeting". We enjoyed our time there as well as had dinner and drunk. Then, all of money we had got was gone. We spent all of the profit before we thought this year. (-_-;) I think now I should have donate the profit our community. We will do next year!

By the way, I did not drink in "a evaluation meeting". It was not so hard. I found that I was able to enjoy drinking party without alcohol.

About Kenya:

You know my essential tools in Kenya. Those were a notebook and a pen. Now they help me remember details of life in Kenya. I tell you about Kenyan adulteries. I asked Vincent about them when we were walking around there September 4. Kenyan adulteries similar to Japanese. Someone do and another one don't. He said that Nairobi has a lot of disease but here is very safe. I asked him how many time have you ever done. He said "uh..., one, two, three..... I don't know." Finally, he said that I necessarily use a condom.

Blood examination

I went to a hospital near my school yesterday because toes of my right foot has swelled up since I came Japan from Kenya. The result of my blood examination was that my blood had much urea. So I must not exercise snd drink. Oh my gosh!!!!