Tennis and a little bit of work

I went to school today again. It was much better for me today because the club practice didn’t start until 3pm, so I wasn’t as rushed to get to school as I was yesterday. I still woke up early because I want to get back into the habit of getting up early since school is about to start and I’ll have to get up early for that anyways. I didn’t do a whole lot in the morning and just killing time on the computer. I had to get things ready for school like the paper that I needed to make for the Gotemba trip that’s coming up early next month. That wasn’t very difficult to do, but it did take a little while to get all the pictures that I needed to get for it.

I played tennis for 3 hours today. That’s the usual length of the tennis practice, but I didn’t feel like I got a good workout or even got any better. I have a problem with how they practice and I think it’s because I have a different philosophy than the coach. We grew up in different countries and he was a champion of the Kanto area when he was in high school, which to tell you is like being one of the best in the country. But I don’t feel as if his practices are working for the students. It’s one thing to play; it’s another thing to coach. So after the practice today, I talked to him, about how the practices are going. I convinced him to be able to change a few things around so that the students could get some other strokes in there, other than forehand and backhand. I see that the overheads aren’t good, the volleys aren’t good and their serves and returns are weak and aren’t focused.

I think that the students lack the effective strategy to win a tournament. I really couldn’t say that, since the top players in the Meguro area are actually the players from my school and on this team that I’m talking about. But I think that it’s only a few exceptional players and not the team as a whole. So since the timing was perfect, I was able to convince the coach to try it out my way this time, since I’m actually there to play with them and to guide them through it. I haven’t been doing that lately since I’m not the coach and I’m just there to hit the ball around. But I would like to see my high school sweep the trophies at the Meguro tournament this year so all the players have to improve their skills. I don’t really have much time since the tournament will be in a few days, but I think that once we get the ball going, I think they can improve for the better. I think the timing of it was perfect.

After school, on my way home, it was a bit weird because I was leaving with a bunch of teachers. I left with all the ones that I would consider my friends in the teachers’ office. So it was nice to go, but it would have been nice to not go with so many people. It’s a little suspicious when that happens, but I was able to give two of my many gifts away. I will have to continue to give as time goes by.

I stopped off at MOS burger to get dinner since I haven’t eaten there in a long time and while I was eating, there was a crazy ass guy who came into the shop and went directly to me to ask me for money to go home. He was going off on a long ass story about how he lost his wallet and that he had no money to go home because there was a train “accident” and he dropped his wallet at a train station. For one, the story was bull shit, two, he was lying and it was very obvious, three he was bothering the hell out of me. He wanted 2000 yen to get home, because he lived in Fujisawa. It’s a far place, but not that far at all really. 2000 yen is a bit steep to get home since I know where that place is and I know that it doesn’t cost 2000 yen to get there. So I was stuck at a difficult predicament. I mean this was in the middle of the MOS burger restaurant and I’m surprised that he went straight to me asking for money and no one else. I mean I look Japanese, so he’s not just hitting up foreigners. Although I pulled the, “I don’t understand Japanese,” shit on him. But he persisted and tried to explain his situation in English. I liked his effort even though I know he’s just lying through his teeth. He was very smelly and crazy-looking. I mean if it was just some ordinary looking guy that probably needed the money to get home, I probably would have been a prick and just said to fuck off, but since he was crazy-looking and my safety could have been compromised, I decided to give the guy 500 yen to get the fuck away from me. I thought that if he lived in Fujisawa, why would he be at Ishikawa cho station? Since that’s an upper class area and he was defiantly not upper class. And then he wasn’t even on the right train line to get there, but if he was and wanted to get there, 500 yen would be enough for him to get home. Or at least be a start, so he’d have to ask more suckers to get more money. Plus he would leave me alone so I could finish my dinner and go home. I mean I was tired and almost to the point where I was just going to punch his lights out, just for being in my presence and annoying the hell out of me. But he was probably trying to get the money together to get some alcohol or something because he smelled of it and gave a really long winded speech as he sat himself down in front of me at the restaurant. Everyone was watching to see what I would do, so I didn’t want to be a prick and just tell him to fuck off, although, that’s really what I wanted to do. But I was thinking that they would think I’m a sucker if I gave in, and there’s no way in hell I would actually give him that much money to begin with. I was just thinking how much it would take for him to go away. Ok I’m done venting.

I finally got home around 10:30pm and this was coming home straight from work, well aside from dinner which took about 20 minutes. That’s hella late for leaving work dude. At least I won’t go to school till around 2:30pm tomorrow, I mean arrive at school around that time. I will be able to get a good nights’ rest tonight since I’m pretty exhausted with the tennis and walking home and everything else. I have a crick in my neck and I’m not sure why. I wanted to get this entry in the computer first. There are other things that happened today too.

I was informed at school that the VP will have a birthday this Saturday and that I’m invited to go. Since it’s the VP and she’s the one that hired me and if I didn’t, I’d probably lose my head. So I decided that I will go. It will cost me 8000 yen, which is roughly around $80. How’s that for a birthday party? I don’t know where it is or actually even what time it starts, but I just know it’s Saturday and to be at the school around 5:30pmish.

I also have to do a survey for my department chair’s friend. It asks me about the Japanese Education for English. Since I’m going to e-mail to my department chair, I have to be very careful with the English that I use to explain my point. But I’d really like to be honest and to give my honest opinion, but I think it would be wise to be a little reserved with my comments. I’ll probably write the comments here on my journal since I never hide anything here. They are very good questions, and I could tell that the person who wrote it has had many problems with this in particular because of the way the questions are directed. It’s not set up for a positive response, but I think I’ll mix in both and try to make a very politically correct response to his questions. It’s time to get delicate with my English. But I’ll do that tomorrow as it is now 1am and I just typed a full 2 pages and a little on the 3rd page for just this entry. Good night.