kyuudou

i don't really remember much...shoulda written it down earlier. in any case here's what i do.

it was a really cold day. still some snow on the ground. and yay for waking up early on a saturday. i also remember feeling a little ill, which riding in the car certainly didn't help with..x_x it didn't take long to get there, and i keep being surprised, despite the fact that relatively speaking, japan isn't that big, and i guess when people name different cities, i tend to think of places that must be far away.

aaanyways, so we get there and it kinda looks like a small school or something, or at least the dojo was behind a relatively big building. there were women preparing soup i guess out front too.

so first i got into my kyuudou wear, which to my embarrassment, needed help with...also because it embarrassed my kyuudou sensei as well, haa..so that was not fun. then there was an opening ceremony in the gym. i was told we'd be on TV, like That was supposed to make me excited. It wasn't even 9 AM and I had already made mistakes, probably some i dont even really remember. so some guys in suits spoke, while some other guys sat behind them. it looked like there was kendo, judo and kyuudou groups there. pretty cool i guess heh.

anwyays, so we headed back to the kyuudou dojo, which had an small entrance hall. to the left had traditional japanese style changing rooms for guys and girls to the left as well as a small kitchen, and through a plastic curtain was the open floor for shooting. there were also two old-style heaters, which everyone tended to crowed around. we took some group photos and watched a demonstration, and god help me to remember it...i certainly had no idea, but i did what i could. while people starting shooting in their groups, i got dragged to practice against the straw targets, which i sucked at, and even dropped the arrow. from that point on, i decided i didn't care if i hit the target, just don't let me drop the arrow as that would be far more embarrassing..ka...

(oh somehow it got around that i was american, so i heard the typical japanese "no way!" reaction and one guy even spoke some english "i'm cold" heeeh..i realized only afterwards it was wrong for me to laugh..x_x major oopsie...)

first we did the sitting style, zasha, i guess. i missed the targets completely. but my wish came true, i didn't drop any arrows at all, though i did get scolded for my technique. go figure. not to mention i was so nervous that i certainly didn't walk in and out properly and my legs were shaking the whole time. however, i did manage to hit the target 4 times at least, even if 4 points was all i got XP. I did do better than that one kid, who said he didn't hit them at all...i guess :P anyways, there were 4 rounds all together, the first, the sitting style, the rest, just free shooting the 4 arrows in groups. fairly picturesque of kyuudou competitions, although it was hella windy outside. and cold of course. (tho not So cold as to whine about it, as it seems certain ppl tended to do..-_-')

so between shooting times, and around noon we had lunch. which consisted of the boiled down vegetable soup and a bento box. oh ya, that was the other thing that i messed up with. i managed to somehow lose my 100 yen coin, so what i had counted out at as 500 that i needed, i no longer had and well, looked like an even bigger helpless idiot...haaa..anyways back to lunch. had its basic rice, salmon, meatballs and a few other assorted foods...but that wasn't the uncomfortable part. to be polite, and i wondered if i coulda just sat normally, but i certainly didn't need to be scolded anymore x_x, i sat the whole time with my legs under me..and jesus did that nearly kill my legs..x_x on top of that, yay, i was gassy for some reason, which just added to my nervousness and discomfort.

anyways, we packed up pretty soon and finally after what seemed like forever, though it was only around 4 or so, we left (after waiting forever for y-sensei to get a contact info from one of the dojo's senseis..haa)

anyways that's about it. :) next entry, about this week keeeh...