A Quick Rundown

Been real busy recently.

Seems like I'm gonna be busy until the summer time, with Nick's wedding and the Hawaii trip right before that, and right before that, the exploratory Yamaguchi surf trip with Keoki and Steve. Work is pretty exciting too, we have a Hungarian exchange student that's gonna be with us for an entire year, going to classes and living the Japanese life. She doesn't speak a word of Japanese though. No surf recently. Did have a basketball tournament though, we were humbled in the championship game. Here's some pics and quick captions/stories behind 'em.

Had our area basketball tournament the other day. Because we had won our C-level league at the last tournament, we were moved up to the B-level. First game we were lucky to pull the other weak team, and beat them. Then proceeded to get murdered in the championship. I got a lot of points, but all after the game had already been decided. (We started the game down 19-0!)

The pictures above are from the tournament after party. It was held at the team captain's house, Ryuuji. He has that keychain, and is unsheathing the sword up top.

These are from the other day. I had gotten off work early and wanted to check out the surf, even though I knew it was only going to be knee high. The second picture is me reacting to the light changing and missing the picture of the landscape I was about to take.

Slid up to Kokura this past weekend to get nots with the boys, and Ash. After talking trash about everything from OIA/BIF/ILH rivalries, if smoothies are gay or not, and my impregnable trump strategy, I got really drunk and passed out.This is the only picture I feel comfortable showing.

Bored at Work: Wow

Stole this from Truehoop today, but man, how nuts is this?! My measurement was 7 inches. Try yours.

Compare hands with Al Jefferson.

Satoshi's Wedding

This past Saturday, a good friend of mine, 聡 (Satoshi), got married to his long time girlfriend, ゆき (Yuki, don't know her kanji). I know Satoshi from my basketball team, the G Suns. He's the resident big man on the team, and always throws nice outlet passes.

This also happened to be my first real Japanese wedding. I had been to a bunch of 二次会's (nijikai - wedding reception-type party) before, but I had never been close enough to the couple to actually be invited to the real thing. There's a lot of etiquette involved in a Japanese wedding's preparation (RSVP, special envelopes, real polite language), so I was kinda surprised to see the actual ceremony.

(On a side note: I had talked to my boy Nick Riley about this a while ago, but somewhere along the line, we had become Japanese snobs. In the sense that, when we came to Japan, we didn't know one Japanese phrase. To be honest, I am pretty proud of my Japanese, but I really shouldn't be critiquing other foreigners' Japanese, as there are other people who are ridiculously better than I am - Joel, Sean, Tim. But, when I hear someone say they are very good at it, and then proceed to be terrible...it's like nails on a chalkboard. Really.)

The wedding had Western and Japanese elements to it, which was cool. What was interesting though, was the Japanese interpretation of the Western style wedding. In the chapel, there was an American pastor, who was doing the service in Japanese, which was pretty interesting. (See above.) What is lacked though, is the solemnity of a traditional wedding. The entire time cell phones were out, pictures being taken, conversations held. I was a little surprised, but, when in Rome.

After that, we moved on to the reception, which was awesome. Satoshi and Yuki were seated at the very front of a big ball room, with all the guests seated by affiliation. (I was with the ballers.) There were slideshows, speeches, crying, and the team had a little routine set up. Our point guard, Ryuji, got a golden basketball and had all of the team members sign it. (I signed, we gotta protect the lane!). We lined up around the room, and passed it around to all the members until finally, it got to the front where Satoshi was sitting, and the captain of the team handed it to him, saying, 'For your special day, since you lost your balls, heres a golden ball.' It was awesome.

After that, we headed to the afterparty, from where things get a little blurry. A bunch of stuff went down, but these were the only things that I got pictures of. Good times.

3 on 3 Tournament

Morning of the tournament.

Ok, here we go. These two guys, Kenya and Masao, are on the team I play with every Wednesday, the really good team. They invited me to play in this open 3 on 3 tournament, where anyone can come out. I had been pretty tired cuz of Brent's prolonged stay in Fukuoka (more on that later), but had a decent tournament. We lost in the first round of the playoffs after going undefeated in pool play. Sucked. Here's some pics.

Here, after the tournament, I taught the guys these terms: Splash/Money/Milk (referring to jumpshots), and 'Get off me!'/'Get up!' (used when owning).

Got a lot to get up, so that's it for this. (This ramen was excellent by the way).

Ballin' Out...Of...Control

So, the boys are always asking me what the games are like up here. After I told them some of my stat lines from the games I had played, (of which I won't go into too much detail), they were desperate to see what the comp was like. I play for two different teams up here, so this video is from the younger, better team (with which I DID NOT put up those stats I had spoken of earlier). I finally got around to bringing a good camera to practice. I usually don't stand out too much with these guys, there are a bunch of dudes that need their touches, so I usually just run the break, play D, board, and shoot when a good shot comes around. And, to be honest, they can ball. I'll let the video speak for itself. (Videos are kinda long, but I only did that cuz the boys wouldn't like to watch just 25 seconds of it).

Here's me, first game of the night. I do have to preface this by saying I had just made and ate some excellent meat sauce pasta and garlic bread, ask Lena, it was excellent. When I got to practice though, I felt heavy and every shot felt off. I'll stop crying and just let the video go.

Pull the okie doke steal! Me and 山口 run a pick and roll that ends with me missing a point blank layup. I then terribly airball a wide open J. As I shot it, I said, "Eww".

Missed layup eventually turns into a サベ J. He's the master of pumpfakes. Luckily, we had たかや on our team, the dude who hits the three at the end, cuz me and 山口 were off as hell.

Here's a video of the dude with the mean J, 新野さん. That's his favorite shot, the walkrightuponyouandpop J. The next guy, けんや, the guy who hits the three at the end, is real fast and strong, and he can shoot from outside. He's a tough cover.

So, yeah, this is what the games are like up here. A lot of running, and a lot of quick shots. Defense is pretty intense. Probably like the same level as the UH Gym 2 good court, but without the size.

Alright, I'm ready. Bring the 'you suck' comments on.

Ball in Japan: The G Suns, not the おじさんs

When I first came to Japan, I really didn't ball for maybe 6 months, other than once or twice every two weeks with the kids. I was bigger than them, so I couldn't really hit the post as hard as I wanted to. Couple that with my unnoticed but almost unbelievable loss of shape, (undoubtedly due to the abundance of two things that I had never had enough of: money, and beer), and I was in trouble. There is no such thing as pickup ball in Japan. Let me repeat...there is No Such Thing. This was especially troubling for me, only ever having played pickup ball my whole life. I talked to the coach at my school, and he introduced me to a club team in my area. That club team turned out to be the G Suns, or Glowing Suns. Here are the founders:

(In the beginning, I'm like, 'This is the G Suns', but I say it wrong and it sounds like Ojisans, which means old men. My teammate is like, that's not what it is. I then ask how long have they been running the team, and they said over ten years.)

When I first started going to the G Suns' practices, I spoke Japanese, but in an effort not to sound dumb, I rarely spoke. It was pretty cool though, because for a while our main form of communication was ball. I've found that's how you make your friends. You can tell a lot about someone from the way they ball.

These guys are more relaxed than the other team I play with, the Hailars. All of them are really nice guys, although they are a little rough on me at times. They refuse to try and speak English. "お前のために日本語喋ってるやん、いい勉強になるやろう？" (For your ass we are speakin' Japanese, you better study!).

Overall, practice is the shit. Everyone watches every game, so if you pull something nice off, you get hooked up. At the same time though, if you do something dumb, you get the catcalls. It's a nice little atmosphere.

(Here's a dude I had trouble guarding when I got here, the dude who hits that J in the beginning of the clip. This dude's J is, can't even describe it. Cash, Milk, Money, Splash, Bottoms - all that. You can hear it too, it's just common sense that he's gonna score, no one cheers or anything. If he's open, it's a layup, from wherever. And he is real good at getting his shot off, from whatever position. I take pride in my ability to block J's, so I've spent a lot of time guarding him, and he's definitely helped my game. He's also the captain of that other team I go to.)

So, yups.

Ball in Japan: The Golden Stars of Itoshima

It's the end of the semester, so we have some half days before the real winter vacation. This is great for me, because I can hook up with the kids and play ball at work. Excellent situation. Anyways, I'm always talking about how good my kids are, so I wanted to give a first hand account of what a practice is like at our school.

When it came time to say how he was doing, he replied with, 'I'm fine, thank you'. Classic.

Almost every team in Japan has team managers. They do all the stuff that the team takes for granted. Taking stats from the games, making tea to drink after the games, cleaning the bird shit off the court. These guys are awesome.

Here's some of the drills the kids do. We have a lot of kids on our team, so it's pretty impressive that every one can stay in tune and not stray away from the team.

One of our girls got injured pretty seriously and won't be able to play for a couple of months. That doesn't stop her from coming to practice and getting her shots up though.

The architect of it all, the coach. His English has gotten really good, to the point where I can just speak to him regularly and he'll understand. He is also the one who introduced me to the teams I play for now. I owe a lot to him.

Here's the end of practice huddle.

It's like this every time I go. Talk about lucky.

Ball in Japan: We Talkin' Bout Practice!

Practice. These are the guys I practice with every Wednesday night, the Hailars. They are pretty good, but my video of the game is pretty choppy. These are also the guys I talked about here. There wasn't too much of that nonsense tonight, but there was some questionable calls. I guess I'm just getting used to it.

This is the coach's wife. I asked her to do an interview but she wasn't having it.

You thought I was lying about the free throws. And Kenji knocks down a J afterwards.

The boys, after practice.

Rasheed Is a Toaster

I got these from Slate Magazine via Truehoop. Frickin' funny.

First, Gilbert:


Now, Sheed:


I don't know how to resize the pictures correctly, if you click on them, there is more to them.

Ball in Japan: Random Funny Basketball Pics, and Championship Afterparties

It feels good to win. My team, the G Suns, got our first C-class championship for the past...I think 5 years yesterday. We had a pretty good couple of games (excluding my shooting foul on the dude taking a 3 with a minute left and us up 5), and we've got a bunch of pics to prove it. (I told the guy who takes the pics I wanted ALL of them...and he came through, in spades).

I would make fun of myself if I wasn't me.

Don't act...this one is actually pretty smooth.

No look. This is my captain and point guard, 竜二, (Ryuuji).

大輔 (Daisuke) pullin' his best Kyle Korver impression.

Yeeeheeee!

This was a smooth pass.

I got it.

信吾 (Shingo) gettin' rocked.

No and 1 here.

Over the head...if you don't believe, look at the eyes.

There are a lot more pics, if you go on facebook I have a bunch of them up. But yeah, it was a good time. So, move on to later that night, at the afterparty.

The 'chip. Why it's next to the Minnie Mouse ears I don't know.

Rockin' Kimchee Nabe and watchin' the game.

Well, some of us were at least.

Glorious victorious.

Actually, there was cause for celebration this night. 信吾 and his girlfriend (the guy in the black jacket sitting under me and the girl on his right), announced they were getting married and their baby is due in February! He doesn't look too happy about it right here, but it was definitely a good time.

Until next time.

Do you wanna be good, or Good?

Last night, I had practice with my area team. I'm on two area club teams, and for a while, because I had gotten fat, I only ran with one of them, the G Suns. These are the older, more relaxed, everyone gets a shot guys. I like playing with them obviously, but they lack the competitive edge that I like to play with sometimes. Little by little, I've been returning to my pre-getfat skills, and with that return, I have started to play more and more with my other team, the Hailars. (Don't ask me what it means, the captain doesn't even know). These guys can ball. They play hard, and are pretty competitive and are on the cusp of making the all-Japan national amateur tournament every year. They are also unbelievably faggy with their calls. If they ever miss a shot, it was a foul. The games usually shake down like this:

• Two teams, Hailar members against others (I'm usually on the others team)
  
• Game starts
• People feel each other out, get loose
• Time running out, still a close game
• Things get physical
• 'いてっ', or 'itte', which means 'Ouch, that was a foul' in Japan.
  
• Free Throws (!?!?) ensue

Don't get me wrong, when a foul happens, I call it, if it is really easy to see. I am a little like this guy, though, in that I like to let it go (without groaning), for the sake of the flow of the game. For these guys, that has nothing to do with it, it's all about using every single possible avenue to win the game. These guys call travels on the other team with the utmost authority, three second calls happen 5 times a game, and if a guy catches a ball with the possibility of being saved, they start walking down court cuz they know it's out already.

Last night, I couldn't stand it. I didn't call anything for myself, but fouled the shit out of them every time I had to take a foul. If they are going to call a foul, it may as well be a foul. Which leads me to the question: Would you rather be good: win games at all costs, make every call, irritate your opponents into losing; or be Good: play your game, for better or worse, give and take calls as they come, try to beat the guys who are good by being Good, even with all the calls that come against you?

I, most definitely, without question, would rather be Good.

This is So Smooth

This makes me happy. The Hinrich one is just ridiculous.

He Actually is for real.

After I showed mad people the 'cross' video, and after watching it a hundred times and laughing to myself, I decided to look a little deeper. I found a couple more videos, which are pretty good, but don't have the same shock value as the first. Still hilarious though.

'Triple combo. Be tricky, be explosive with it. Old school cross.'

He also has a pretty professional looking site. I'll be honest, this dude can probably ball. He played D1 at Austin Peay, so he can't suck. But...God DAMN, what a character. On the site it says he has trained NBA players. So, the next time we see the 'stepoutcrossboom' in a game, we know who to thank.

StepSealCrossPushAndGo

I would love to ball with this guy. I'm not sure if this guy is for real or not, but he does have a lot of videos up. If you are lazy, just watch from about the 1:10 mark. Unbelievable.

Ball in Japan: 県民大会 and Drunken Huddles

県民大会

Every year in Japan, individual prefectures hold tournaments to see who the best team in the prefecture is. This year, I was lucky enough to be selected for my area's team. I've only recently been able to run like I used to, so the timing of the this tournament was excellent. I had a pretty good game, but we lost, in overtime. The first three quarters for me were good, but I choked hard in the 4th. One charging call, missed layup, and two missed free throws. That is six points. We lost by six. It's not all my fault though. I cannot tell you how many times I said this sentence, in Japanese:

Guard the three! Guard the THREE! Don't just let him shoooot! (スリーチェック!)

I know all the pics are of me. I wanted all of the pics, but apparently our photographer guy misheard me and just sent me the ones with me in them. Whatever. I also got a nice parting gift...in the 4th quarter, going for a rebound, I caught a nice elbow in the eye. After two days, it looks like this.

打ち上げ

The best part of tournament days, though, is the afterparty. Everyone got together and we just got lit. Here's the pics. Most are pretty blurry, so bear with me.

The guy in the yellow shirt is the team captain, りゅうじ. He's talking to かじわら about rebounding, I think.

Random shots.

I like this one. That's 岡崎さん with one of the girl's team members. She was crying, I think, because some of the younger girls on the team wouldn't listen to her when she was giving directions. They lost too. I thought it was awesome that she could cry about it at the bar after. These are real ballers right here.

My favorite shots are these, though...

25 people, standing outside of a bar, in a team huddle. My kind of people.