Entries this day: Flood_at_Meijijingu Ultimate_with_Ami_et._al. last_chow_at_the_patio

Flood at Meijijingu

10:59am JST Monday 11 June 2007 (day 13592)

Went on a tour of Meijijingu. I had been there about 10 times before, but had never had a tour in English. We went to the 500 yen garden (where I had never previously been), saw bonzai trees, and got caught in a decent shower.

Though it hasn't been processed yet, I uploaded a video to youtube.

Ultimate with Ami et. al.

2pm JST Sunday 10 June 2007 (day 13591)

9:37am JST Monday 11 June 2007 (day 13592)

Fun day tossing discs yesterday. Just as we were going into the park, Geoff was coming out; he had been there for an hour and no one showed up for practice. He surmised they were not coming. Ami and I continued to the field and I called Little J and then Peta to try and see who may be coming. Before we made it to the field, Ami's friend Naoko called from the station. It was her first time out, so we headed back to get her. Peta was actually already at the station and was lovely enough to loan us her disc (though I will likely never see her again), as she headed out to where the core group of people were playing. I never heard a specific reason they were playing at a different location except Peta said, "they're too lazy to come down here." Though the field was wet after the rain, the weather was beautiful for ultimate.

I played catch with Ami and Naoko a bit, teaching them how to throw. Ami had the basics down and was doing pretty well.

In all, we had a total of 6 players. Shaggy was the first one out. He and I played catch with a baseball and a disc, throwing each to each other at the same time. I'm not sure if the skill is really useful, but I think it helps with coordination because each one is so different for catching and throwing. Shag(gy), Sean, Yuka and I are solid players; we played a game I had played one time at UH: call the name of the player to whom you will throw the disc before you catch the disc being thrown to you. We were using 2 discs, and were spaced pretty far apart so a lot of the throws were off their intended targets. I liked how Yuka said, ¤Ï¤¤ each time one of us called her name.

During this game, Ami and Naoko were off on a semi-spooky adventure. A woman had been found near the river. She was moaning like in pain. Ambulance was called. Fire engine, ambulance, police (in that order (though the fire engine was *just* in front of the ambulance, and actually let it go ahead)) arrived. The officer on bicycle. (I didn't have any memory available on my camera after having taken the video of Francois and the birds in Futakotamagawa station. But I don't really know how interesting it would be to see emergency vehicles from afar. Ah, except to other Iku players to show them what they missed! Short version of the story: the woman said she was fine, but her husband had died. Ami thought the woman had a few screws loose. After the emergency vehicles left, the woman walked out of the field on her own. What I can't understand is why the guy who had originally found her didn't go ask her, "hey man; are you okay?" Why go track someone else down and call emergency services?

Anyway, Naoko and Ami came back and we had three games of catch going on. Ami and I; Yuko and Naoko; Sean and Shaggy. Naoko did get noticably better during her practice. Ami says she did as well.

last chow at the patio

7pm JST Sunday 10 June 2007 (day 13591)

10:16am JST Monday 11 June 2007 (day 13592)

We went to the patio with 4 restaurants, a flower shop, and Mister Donuts around it (I think it might be called Dogwood Plaza) and got shocking news! The whole place will be shut down after Sunday July 1st! NNnnnoooooooooooooooooooooo!!

The ultimate gang often goes there after our games.. It's perfect; we can be loud outside and have 4 restaurants from which to choose. It's going to be demolished and a building will go in its place.

I'm glad I found out about it *before* it happened, but I would like to go with the ultimate gang for a bunch of silly fun pictures of the area. I'll ask Ami if she'd be willing to go there next week as well, instead of Showashonen Park.

Good times with guys there. We took some pics (actually I asked some women upstairs to take one).

Someone asked me how old I was; Ami chuckled and I rattled off "13581 days old." in Japanese.

Sean was like, "you know how many days old you are..."

I was like, "well, my computer does, and I just sorta keep track of it like I keep track of the date. I forget my days old like I forget the date."

Case in point. I thought it was 13581, but it's 13591.

Ah well.

2:10pm JST Wednesday 13 June 2007 (day 13594)

update: I asked Ami last night; she agreed to play ultimate instead of going to the park. Nice. I emailed the Iku group to tell them the news of the impending closure, and lots of peeps were like, "wha???" and said they'll definitely go. Nice!