Amazing Day

Yesturday I had the most amazing day! Paul and I went to the house of Yamada sensei, a teacher at his visiting school. Yamada sensei is an amazing Go player. (Go is a really challenging game, like chess, with black and white pieces. You are supposed to win the most territory. It was created in China a long time ago and is popular in Japan like chess is in the states and other western countries).

So we went to his house to play go with him. First we ate at an amazing sushi place. The sushi comes around on a conveyer belt and each plate is $1 to $4 and you can just pick any sushi you want as it comes around. Cheap and delicious!

So then we went to his house. It's a beautiful house in the city of Obama just south of Kaminaka where I live. It's not huge, but very nice and clean. He has a wife, and a daughter my age who goes to university. She invited her friend over and there were 6 of us. First Yamada sensei played go with Paul and I AT THE SAME TIME. I mean, two games at once. And he beat both of us, despite helping both of us immensely! He really is amazing. After a few rounds of Go we played another Japanese boardgame called Shogi with the daughter and her friend. We were at their house for HOURS, sipping tea and playing games. It was so much fun. None of them spoke much English but we found ways to communicate.

After that Paul and I stopped at a Pachinko parlor on the way up. We decided it was worth a try. It's sorta like a casino, except they are ALL OVER the place. There were 3 in between Yamada sensei's place and mine. They are big bright buildings that are often surprising to see next to rice fields. Needless to say I don't know if I understand why the Japanese (or anyone really) sees a huge appeal in them. It was cool to try but, really, I'd rather go to an arcade or something. You don't really have much control over the game and so it's really just like like any slot machine.

Well, that about sums it up. About to go and take my first pottery class! More later.

-Lisa