September 27, 2088: Our Sports Day in Saga

Today we enjoyed what was maybe the most beautiful day we've seen yet in Japan. The weather was perfect and somehow, I suppose it was because of the absence of the usual humidity, everything seemed especially colorful. We were able to sleep in and Sarah made an awesome breakfast of eggs and toast...a great start to the day!

Caitlyn & Darryl

We met Caitlyn and Darryl downstairs and biked our way to the train station. We hopped on the train, met JD and Cara in Hakata, and then rode almost another two hours, to another prefecture (prefecture=state/region) southwest of us. We grabbed some lunch at the train station (burgers from the fast food chain Lotteria...they were pretty decent). We then hopped on a bus with some other ALT's and arrived at a giant, beautiful park with green grass (which, to me, seems rare here). I think there were about 30 or so other people our age there. Our day was all laid out into a sport tournament of sorts or a "sports day" as most of the schools say. We all joined in, but Sarah decided to be the photographer instead (it was mostly guys playing anyway).

The park where the 'Sports Day' was held.

JD is pretty hardcore when it comes to frisbee. He even brought his own disc! In the next one, I promise we didn't plan it, but it's funny how the 4 of us were matching!


We started out with some ultimate frisbee (JD's specialty...or addiction). We had a blast playing. It is sort of like soccer, so you are constantly sprinting up and down the field and jumping for frisbees. Needless to say, it wears you out quickly! My team usually did pretty good. We won 3 of 4 games we played. I think every time JD and I were on a team together, we ended up winning. Next, was football. That was a lot of fun. I was QB the first game and threw a touchdown on the first play of the game. The first play of the our next possession, I caught a pass for a TD. So I was having a great time! We ended up winning one game and losing the other I think. Next, we moved on to dodge ball. Even Sarah joined in on this one! We played Japanese style which is a little different from American style. That was a lot of fun. I ended up on a team against JD and Sarah at the end. We ended up winning, but found it impossible to eliminate JD and one other guy who caught everything we threw at them. After dodge ball, we tallied up the scores and called it a day. I know my team of 3 ended up somewhere at the top, but I don't remember who got first. Regardless, it was a blast and we really enjoyed having some competition, the physical activeness (which I haven't had much of here), and being with a big bunch of other English speakers our age.

This guy was a little tooo prepared for these non-contact sports. Brandon playing defense. JD, Cara & Brandon in action!

With the "sports" part of our day over, we headed off to the onsen. While JD and I headed off to get naked and lounge around in pools of warm water with the guys, Cara and Sarah opted for the 40 minute massages instead (probably a wise idea for them despite us giving them grief for skipping out on onsen!).

Sarah & her massage therapist. If you can't tell...whenever Japanese pose for pictures, they love to do the "peace sign"..how funny, there's even a website to explain the history! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign) The other picture is the lobby of the onsen. They got their massages behind those big windows.


They got a great deal at about 3,000 yen for a 40 minute massage. But I rubbed it in that our onsen experience only set us back 500 yen. I told Sarah that we were each allowed 3000 yen to spend that night and that hers had been spent up on the massage. I said that left me with 2500 yen to eat dinner on and she had none. She proceeded to inform me that she actually held the money, and therefore had full control to spend it how she wanted. So she ate after all! I didn't dare try to stop her!

Dinner was great, too. I love when JD leads the way on going out to eat. He knows how to find food we like at a great price (which seems so rare to us when we aren't with JD). We managed to eat plenty of our favorite Japanese food (yakitorri) and only spent 1100 yen a piece! Normally, we leave hungry after eating mediocre food and pay about 3500 yen a piece. So we were very happy leaving the restaurant that night and owe JD many thanks for his Japanese dining expertise! Darryl deserves credit for that also!

Afterward, we caught the Shinkansen (bullet train) home. We got home, watched a movie, made a few Skype calls, and crashed out after a great Saturday! So far, this was one of my very favorite days in Japan....and I think Sarah enjoyed it alot too! I think she enjoys getting to hang out with Cara and some of the girls since she doesn't get to nearly as often as she did with her girlfriends back home. Hopefully, there will be many more days like this to come!

-Brandon