They call them Typhoons in the East

The etymology of the word typhoon comes from Chinese, "Da Fung," literally meaning "big (f'in) wind." That's what is going on outside of my 4th floor apartment right now as huge howling gusts are roaring past right now. I expect to see random shit (bikes, cows, small Japanese people) flying by my window at any moment. It poured rain all day yesterday (and yes, I did bike to school in the deluge, soaking myself in the process, oh joy). Today, the rain broke and the clouds have been whipping by all day, kind of like when the fog comes in back in San Francisco, but on a bigger and more ominous scale.

But, on the upside, if a typhoon comes (and it most certainly is) class is cancelled (yes!) but I still have to go to school (no!). At least it will provide a much needed respite from a rockstar weekend.

Softball Tournament in Ono (40 min north of Tatsuno):
(Man it's like the Asian version of Where's Waldo. Your boy 2nd from the left)... We are the Champions. Mr. Ono (1999 Raquetball Silver Medalist, seniors (over 40), Yuki, the dude from the gym, Markane from Seattle (another JET who works in my town), and yours truly amongst the other ringers.

I spent the majority of Saturday playing Softball with the Tatsuno Board of Education team. Every year, there is an all-prefectural (state) tournament, and every year, Tatsuno wins the tournament. Why, you ask? Because they stack the team with local athletic heroes, employees from the municipal gym, and a couple of random American imports (kinda like real Japanese baseball!).

We pretty much rolled through the tournament with a bye in the first round, a 12-2 rout in the second round, an 18-3 massacre in the semi-finals (I had a single, and an RBI, sweet). We finally met our match in the final round, playing the home team from Ono, who had a wicked fast pitcher, and good batting and fielding. It was a tough start, with Ono looking good 2-0 going into the second inning, and since we had played slo-pitch the whole day it took a bit for our team to adjust to the speed. Luckily our team had rockstar batting, a few lucky breaks and amazing fielding we were able to take the wind out of their sails in a hurry. Kudos to Markane for being walked, hit with the ball, and walked again for the catcher's mitt interfering with his swing (talk about lucky!!).

Final Score. Tatsuno is the kanji (Japanese writing) on the top. 2005 CHAMPS!

Osaka:
If softball wasn't enough, after getting home I headed into Osaka (about 1 and 1/2 hours from Tatsuno by express train) to explore the city and check out the nightlife. Osaka is the second biggest city in Japan and it's really really cool. It definitely feels more like American than any other place I've been to (except for Tokyo) with it's western stores, fashionable city-folk, and lack of rice fields.

After checking into the hostel (which was in the Tenderloin neighborhood of Osaka, but hey, what the hell it's only $20), we headed to Shinsaibashi, the younger and hipper neighborhood. A friend of mine was DJing at a club there, so we kicked off the night there. On our way in between venues, we passed some b-boys breakin' on the street street. Thinking of you lovely folks at home, I asked if I could snap a few photos. Sure no problem. At the same time, two of my JET Teaching buddies (Tyler and Jeff) are with me and they roll up too. Now these guys look really American, and when I say American, I mean they are white-boys in polos, jeans, and flip flops. And funny as hell:

So one of the Japanese breakers gives these guys the up and down and says (in a tough, thick, kung-fu accent):

"Whai don't chou do Samsing (something)?"

And I'm thinking, oh boy, some shit is about to go down. Jeff and Tyler (with Asahi and Sapporo to help) give each other a big American grin, get down on the ground and bust out with THE DOUBLE WORM! It was so funny, even the tough dude cracked up.

Didn't you see Ty in"Breakin'?" Oh so fresh.

So after that, Ty gets off the ground, turns to the dude, gives him his best Bruce Lee sneer, and says (also in a thick, kung fu accent):

"Why don't YOU do some-sing?"

So, he did:
They call him Turbo in Japan.

Yeah, pretty sick.

So afterward more wandering around, we ended up at an all Japanese nightclub with everybody looking totally glamorous and stylish, boogy-ing until about 5am. They played some eclectic mixes, from totally poppy candy raver stuff (there were even kids with glowsticks and everything) to totally dirty nasty hip hop, disco, funky house/breaks. Good lightshow and sound system. It kinda reminded me of 1015 Folsom, um, but with more Asians (if that's even possible) and less trash and people doped out on E. The Japanese really know how to get down and have fun, it was super good energy in that place... or maybe because Ty was re-enacting the worm on stage with a big posse of Japanese chicks in tow.

Night at the Roxbury.

This guy looked like how I felt at the end of the night. Takushi o onegaishimasu! (An honorable taxi, please!)


So the next day was spent in a hungover daze wandering around Osaka, with two of the highlights being the Hello Kitty Museum:

"er, the catnip... it's not mine."

...and of course, the ubiquitous:

"Makudonarudo Hanbaagaa" (yes Harmer, the Cheeseburger tastes the same)

Okay! The rain is coming down hard now and I think i can hear Mothra approaching in the distance. Love you and miss you all. Peace, -shu.