Volleyball in Japan

I played in a PTA soft volleyball tournament a couple Sundays ago. "What is 'soft volleyball?'" you may be asking yourself. Well, let me tell you! It's a form of volleyball that I had never heard of before coming to Japan, and someone here once jokingly said that it was created by the Japanese just for PTAs, which in some ways wouldn't surprise me. I'll take an aerial photo next time I have a chance because you have to actually see it to believe it, but here's the rundown, at least of the features I found 'unique' about soft volleyball:

1. The game is played with a softer, bigger, rubbery, bouncy ball similar to (from what I can recall) the balls we used to play 4-square or kickball at recess during elementary school.
2. There are 9 players on the court on each side of the net (18 players total if you count all players on both sides of the net) which can be as crazy as it sounds, but is great for those who were never really interested in moving much to get the ball. :-) Players do not rotate, so the setter always stands at the net, with three players at the 10-foot line and the other 5 players arranged behind them in a row of 3 and 2 per each team's preference.
3. As in tennis, you have two chances to serve the ball each time you serve. If you serve into the net or out on your first serve, you get another chance.
4. Each player can only serve 3 times. If you serve three times and your teams gets all three of those points, your team maintains control of the serve, you simply pass the ball on to the next player to continue serving.
5. I haven't completely figured this one out yet, but there seems to be a rule that you get at least one extra hit to try to get the ball over the net if it goes into the net on your side.
6. This rule isn't foreign to the rest of the volleyball world, but I keep forgetting about it because we played old-school rules in Arizona: If a blocker touches the ball during a block, it counts as a hit so the rest of the team only has 2 more hits left to try to get the ball back over the net.
7. And my favorite part- the net is quite a bit lower than women's regulation height. The best illustration I can give you of the net height in soft volleyball is on Sunday when I went up to attack a ball that the other team had accidentally set up on our side of the net, I smacked it straight down inside the 10-foot line. While it felt really good briefly at the time, there is unfortunately no pride to be gained from the accomplishment. :-) Those of you who hav seen me play volleyball on a regulation height net (whether it be men's or women's) know what I'm talking about.

We lost our first match and that's all she wrote for our team, but it was fun and we held our ground much better than we have in the past. The team consisted of only mothers of children at my main elementary school and one or two of the female staff/teachers (and me!). But some of the fathers and male teachers/staff would come to practices to serve as our practice team and a couple even came to the tournament. The principal and vice-principal of the elementary school also came to the tournament, which was kind of funny. Pictures will of course be posted on my Yahoo photos account. We had proper uniforms and everything!

It was a great experience. I got to meet and get to know some of the parents, which I'm sure wouldn't have happened outside of this opportunity. We had practice once a week in October and November, and some of the mothers always had to bring their children along, so I got to know some of the students better too, which was probably even more fun than playing volleyball!

The PTA Soft Volleyball season is over now, apparently. I'm sure another one will come up at some point. Hopefully they'll ask me back to play. In the meantime though, the female teachers at my junior high school have started Soft Volleyball practice for a tournament coming up in February. Actually, we've only had one practice so far, but it's already been a great way for me to get to know some of the teachers better - there are quite a few more teachers who speak English than there were parents on the PTA team.

I mentioned to some of you also that for the first two months I was in Japan, I was playing "Mama-san" volleyball with about 30 women from the town at the training center near my junior high school. Mama-san translates literally to "Ms. Mama." I haven't asked anyone specifically why it is called this, but people have indicated that all the women on the team are married and most, if not all, have familes also, so I'm assuming that is the reason for the name. Mama-san is pretty much the same as soft volleyball except in mama-san they use a normal volleyball and the play is much more competitive; a lot like adult competitive rec leagues in the States, except for the 9 people on the court and the unique rules. :-) They let me hit quite a bit, which was great. With the lower net, I really did feel like Misty May (shout out to you, Laura!). Sometimes I'd play setter too, but with the number of people on the court, the strange rules, and the fact that anything people called out on the court was in Japanese, hence incomprehensible to me, I was so confused that eventually I volunteered to play the back row (imagine that). It was much easier to play back there, but for those of you in Arizona, don't expect me to volunteer for that position next time I'm in town. :-) Nobody on the mama-san team really spoke English, at least not actively, and while the women were friendly and some of them always made sure I was included in drills and play, eventually I stopped going simply because volleyball just isn't the same when you can't be social as well. Maybe if I get to a point where I can speak decent Japanese I'll try going again. Until then though, I'll focus on becoming a Soft Volleyball master! Maybe I can spearhead the first Soft Volleyball Olympic campaign (ha ha).

Oh, I should probably mention that they do play regular volleyball in Japan as well. The sports clubs for junior high, high school and university (I'm assuming on the latter), all play 6-person, regular rules volleyball. Japan has women's and men's professional indoor teams as well, both of which will finish in the top 12 in the FIVB international competition taking place right now in Japan. Eastern Europe and Brazil are kicking butt. Who knew- Eastern Europe is a powerhouse in indoor volleyball.

Mozzie Farmer

I’m thinking about quitting my job as an assistant English teacher to start a mosquito farm. Apparently I have a knack for breeding mosquitoes. One would think that with the turn in the temperature (my guess is that it is in the 50s during the day and maybe in the 20s-30s at night), that the little buggers would take the hint and either die off or winter in Okinawa, but no. They’ve all decided to move into my apartment. Not only are they some mutant, cold-resistant breed of mosquito, but I think they’ve all had Ninja training as well, because they only come out at night and move in to feast on my hands and face while I’m asleep. Previously I thought skeeter bites on the hands were the worst (anywhere on the hands, but on the fingers might be the most wretched), but twice now I’ve woken up with a swollen left-eye and once with a half-swollen lip so I’ve changed my mind about the hands being the worst place to get bitten. I had declared a mini-war after the two left-eye incidences, but after the lip (which was accompanied by a couple posterity bites to the fingers), it’s an all-out declaration. I've found that my ancient, maroon, long-sleeved shirt works very well as an anit-mozzie weapon (why, I don't know; they are able to escape my counter-attacks with everything but this shirt) and I'm not above sitting up for 20 minutes at 3am with my maroon shirt in-hand to mozzie hunt (generally because they've woken me up with another stealth Ninja attack). But if they don't go away soon one way or another, I'm going to lose my mind and end up like Johnny Depp's character from Pirates of the Caribbean.

I Feel My Temperature Rising

Last night was my first onsen experience. That’s great Mandy, but what’s an onsen? Mandy-sensei: an onsen is a natural hot spring (that has, of course, been developed for income-generating public use), and there are loads of them all over Japan (apparently it’s one of the perks of being on “the ring of fire”). If you’re living in Japan there is bound to be an onsen in your backyard (not literally, although I’m sure if more people dug around their houses….), so people in Japan go to onsens at the drop of a hat for everything- it’s cold tonight, let’s go to an onsen for an hour before we go to bed; we’ve been hiking, let’s go to an onsen; we have vacation coming up, let’s make reservations at an onsen high in the mountains somewhere with monkeys that also like to onsen where we can drink sake while we soak (I’m not making that one up, although generally they try to keep the monkeys out of the human onsens, but what can you do if you are in an outdoor pool and a monkey wants to take a dip? Offer him sake, I suppose and enjoy the company. :-) ). Most onsens have natural hot spring water so besides being a great way to warm up in the winter or soak sore muscles (a la sumo wrestlers), the minerals in the water are supposed to have many different types of health benefits, especially for back or joint problems.

There are a couple of onsens in my small town of 14,000 and the one I went to last night is only a 10 minute walk from my house. Naturally it was the couple from Poponoki (the organic café I’ve mentioned more than once) who extended the invitation for me to join them last night for one of their many visits to our local onsen. Apparently they go a couple nights every week during cold weather. We tried to go last week, but only found out upon arrival that it is closed every Wednesday, which happened to be the day we were attempting to make an appearance. I’m telling you this because of the funny thing that happened when we did actually get to use the hot spring last night (which I will mention later)…we are all braced for something unusual to happen every time we go together now.

The thing about onsens is that the only thing you are allowed to wear is your birthday suit- some onsens forbid the wearing of bathing suits and if you did wear a bathing suit to an onsen that didn’t have a strict rule about it, people would look at you like you had two heads. So, this isn’t necessarily a problem, except when you are 1 of only 2 very obvious foreigners in town and going to the local onsen puts you at risk of running into a student, a student’s parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, etc. This maybe isn’t something the Japanese would bat an eye at, but having only been here for a few months, it’s something I’d rather avoid as long as possible. :-) Of course at an onsen, there are separate changing, bathing and hot spring rooms for men and women, for those of you who were wondering. However, I was a bit freaked out for a second last night when Mayumi (Poponoki owner) and I were in the changing room and could hear male voices that seemed to be coming from the hot spring. It did get me to wondering briefly if I had misunderstood the nature of onsens. At least at this onsen, there was simply a really high wall between the two sections of the hot spring with an opening at the top that allows voices to carry back and forth between each section. Still a bit disconcerting for my first visit!

I’m going to have to build up tolerance to the heat of the onsen pool water. I was only able to sit in the water for max 10 minutes before I had to get out and sit on the edge of the pool for a bit. I think I spent more time on the side of the hot spring pool than I did in it, but it was nice. We sat outside for the hour we were there looking up into the trees and listening to the nearby river run by (although you couldn’t see it because of the walls, but I’m not complaining!). I learned a lot about Mayumi’s family and childhood, which was really interesting. For many Japanese, onsens provide a place for people to socialize and speak more freely with each other without some of the societal constraints found in everyday life. I read (in Wikipedia, actually), that it is popular for co-workers to go to an onsen together for work retreats for the very reason, well, first of all, that everyone loves an onsen, but more importantly, because everyone is on an even keel undressed and unmasked in the hot spring. The teachers at my junior high school this term actually invited me to go to an onsen retreat with them earlier this month. It ended up being cancelled, which is probably for the better because I still don’t know how I feel about participating in an onsen retreat with my colleagues. Nothing like sitting naked in hot water with people with whom you spend 8 hours a day but can’t really communicate with wondering what they are saying in a language you can’t understand while you’re all naked sitting in hot water together (the repetition was on purpose)....

Having an onsen was great though. When we left, I wasn’t cold walking around outside. I couldn’t feel the early-winter chill seeping through any and every “seal” back at my apartment. And I was actually warm for a good hour + before going to bed. I did quickly realize though that you should never leave anything undone for the evening before you go to an onsen. When I got home, I wandered between rooms in a daze for a good 15 minutes trying to remember what it was I wanted to do in each room that caused me to head in there in the first place before I decided to toss in the towel and just go to bed.

Being able to sleep in my own bed after the onsen didn’t seem like it would be a possibility though when we tried to leave. The onsen closed at 9pm- we had arrived at 8pm for the final hour of business and weren’t in a hurry to vacate before the witching hour. So right at 9pm, after we’d had our departing cup of chilled oolong tea, we headed for the door that lead from the changing room entrance along an outside path to the reception area where we could collect our shoes. When we pulled on the sliding door leading out of the changing area entrance, however, it didn’t budge. Had they locked us in without realizing there were still people on the hot spring? It sure seemed that way. Another couple of yanks still didn’t yield any results. Thus started a round of laughter from our little group, and knocks on the door and window accompanied by hollers of “sumimasen!” (excuse me). It was quite the scene. After about 5 minutes, someone from reception did come to our rescue, only to inform us that Mother Nature had been playing a joke on us. It had been raining for a few days and apparently the wood in the doors at the onsen have a tendency to expand and stick during rainy weather. So, we had a good laugh with the reception people about that, then we were on our way. One can only wonder what will be in store for us the next time around. In our only two trips to this onsen, first we were shut out, then locked in. Although, being trapped where we were would not have been all that bad- in the room adjacent to the changing rooms are 3 massage chairs, an electric foot massager, free tea, an ice cream vending machine and open access to the hot springs. I’m sure we would have made due. :)

How do you say "Gooble Gooble" in Japanese?

Before I forget and suddenly find that it's January, I wanted to wish all of you back in the States a Happy Thanksgiving! This is my favorite food and sports holiday, so the task I grant to all of you Stateside is to eat a double-dose of everything at your Thanksgiving dinner for me, watch the Macy's parade and laugh at all lipsynching on my behalf, as well as watch 1-2 extra football games in my honor. And for that, as they say here in Japan, "Uroshko onigaishimasu" = my best regards (so I've been told).

Here's a little international holiday tidbit for you- this Thursday is also a Thanksgiving national holiday here in Japan, but of course Japan's Thanksgiving it not the same as in the States. I don't know the full history behind the holiday or why they call it Thanksgving, but the full title of the holiday is "Labor Thanksgiving Day," so I've deduced (as I'm sure all of you have also), that the reason for the holiday is more closely associated with our Labor Day. Feel smarter? I hope so. I think I lost a few braincells on this entry, mainly from trying to produce mental images of traditional Thanksgiving gorging and lazing about.

Natural Cryogenics

About 1-2 weeks ago the weather took a turn for the colder. People have been telling us newbies since day one how cold it gets during the winter here in Japan, but the "unique" aspect of 'Japan cold' is that whatever the temperature is outside is what it's going to be in your house because most homes don't have insulation in the walls. I can honestly say that I've never really given insulation a second thought, except for random chuckles about that one company's use of the Pink Panther as a mascot. But boy is it noticeable when it's not around! The other morning I went to squiggie the dew off the windows of the car and it came off as slush. Whatever the temperature is that turns water into slush is exactly the temperature it was in my apartment during the night and in the morning. Difficult to imagine? It was for me too until I experienced it for myself. I don't have any sort of heating unit for my apartment, so I've been wearing 2-4 layers of clothes from the second I get home from school every evening and sleeping with four blankets! When I'm feeling dramatic, I picture myself wearing all of my clothes 24-7 from now until it starts to warm up again in April. :-) But I do have a nifty coffee table in my 'living room' that has a heater built into the bottom of it. I haven't used it yet because I keep forgetting I have it, but I hear they're fantastic (har har).

Well, maybe being a human popsicle for half the year while I'm in Japan will cut my aging process in half. Mother Nature's got a great natural cryogenics thing going on here.

I'm sure some people have elaborate heating systems in their homes, but most of the people in my program have propane space heaters that they move with them from room to room to heat only whatever room it is that they are in. I'm hoping to get one of those soon. Apparently in order to fuel the space heaters you have to take a gas can to the gas station, which I'm sure will be an experience in and of itself.

School is the same...not heated! I wore long underwear to school for the first time last week, and I'm sure it won't be the last time. Unfortunately I only brought one pair. Those of you who have been mentioning Christmas gifts, I'd be happy to talk to you about stockpiling longjohns. :-) I'm seriously thinking about purposely using the squat toilets at school during the winter so I don't have to worry about literally freezing my bum off. Quite of few of you have commented on the crazy buttons on the toilet at my apartment. Let me tell you, right now the only button that matters is the one that heats up the seat (and yes, the toilet in my apartment has a heated seat)!