I'm a believer that you have to be careful what you wish for, but today I honestly with my whole heart wished that I could speak and understand Japanese far better than I can right now...
Today was my day in Nagoya to watch the Sumo tournament and my wanting to understand and speaking Japanese has nothing to do with watching Sumo. The officals provided a really great booklet in English that explained all the important things.
I found myself sitting between 'oji-san' and 'oba-san' while I watched the bouts go on. I got to the small arena half way through the lower ranking fights and met 'oji-san'. Regardless of our language barrier he took it upon himself to explain as best as he could to me what was going on and how to check off who won on my Japanese fight list. (I'd like to point out that the english list that is provided is only half of the "juryo" matches and all of the "makuuchi" matches.So all the fights that I watched prior to my english list where just kanji I could not understand.) Bouts started at 8:15AM and didn't end till 6PM. 'Oba-san' arrived toward the end of the low ranking fights and took it upon herself to make sure that I kept eating through out the whole day. Be it half her rice bento, which was rice and azuki beans mixed and cooked together and a small box of DELICIOUS mochi. I didn't even get a chance to finish 1/3 of the 1500 yen bento I bought when I got there. (For the record the small part that I managed to taste is some of the best food that I've eaten while staying here... the Japanese don't fuck around with their food.)I literally have to eat the rest of the bento for dinner tonight, but right now I'm STILL feeling a bit full. ><;;;;
Oji-san and oba-san was GREAT company while watching the tournament, a definate golden moment of my time here. I felt like I was back with Satomi-kasan and was being taken care of all over again. In fact oji-san's friend, Sensei, came close to the end of the juryo matches and after the tournament made sure that oba-san and I got in a taxi safely to make our way to Nagoya station. Of course oba-san would hear nothing of me paying the taxi fare... (They all insisted that I share a taxi with oba-san and not take the subway.)
I'm so sappy about this... this is a great memory and I'm glad I went to the tournament. But I did wish I could speak and understand Japanese better.
The old people of Japan really make me want to sit and listen regardless if I understand or not, and I'm sure then have wonderful stories to share.
I pratically spent the day watching sumo with grandpa and grandma, they took such good care of me.
But still even though my understanding was so little, I understood the kindness that oji-san and oba-san shared with me, Sensei too! Tomorrow I'll be heading to a temple for the local flea market there, but I'm going to remember to go say a prayer for them.
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