Movember

Movember! Maybe some of you do not know about this up growing tradition. The idea is to start with a clean shaved face and grow a "mo" (moustache) during the month of November. The goal is to raise awareness of prostate cancer and other male cancers in order to help raise money against cancer. It started in Australia and now is known all over the world. Apparently it is not a big thing in Akita maybe I will manage to encourage some Japanese to grow a stache for charity. And to all my men readers you should grow one too but remember with a great moustache comes great responsibility ;)

So yesterday I shaved off my beard! I now look like a 14 year old boy... and it feels a lot colder outside! In a couple of days I should be looking like Freddie Mercury ;)
Hope you guys all have fun growing your moustache! If you can't grow a moustache because you are unfortunately not manly enough or  because you are a women (please don't grow a moustache Halloween is over!)  you can still help by donating to:  

     http://uk.movember.com/mospace/3988281

It is important that we all fight cancer together because maybe one it could be you, me or someone very close to you lying in the bed asking for help! 

It is a fun and easy way to raise money for charity. People (including me) who are to lazy or don't have time to run a marathon for money can do it! You also finally have a good excuse to grow the "mo". Even Australia's rugby team's air plane has grown the mo.  

  

Noodles night with Trev

Tonight after a delicious but very small dinner, Trev and I went to the library to work. After working very hard for a couple of hours... or at least I did. Trev spent must of his "working time" on Twitter or Football results. This last week he has been very happy. Because Norway absolutely demolished France in the U21 European football qualifier 5 to 2.

Big Dinner...

Coming back to my story. Around 9pm, we were both very hungry and fed up of working or tweeting. So we decided to go and buy some very tasty noodles, extremely cheap as well (150yen).
So here we are just chilling in Trev's room eating noodles, delicious Norwegian chocolate and drinking Japanese beer ( because beer  does fill you up).

Trygve chilling

Enjoying life in Japan

こんにちは

Hey,
It has been a long time since my last post. I do apologise to all my fans and addicted readers ;)
I have not been up to anything very exciting these last few days. Have been working extremely hard at school ( as I always do...) and have been  going to a lot of cold morning trainings in Toulouse or Bordeaux...and by cold I mean freezing!
I have also booked my trip to Sapporo for the end of November. Sapporo is a big city on the island of Hokkaido in Northern Japan.           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapporo
Sapporo has an amazing night life so will definately be checking that out and going skiing soon at Teine.

Sapporo Teine

As promised in my first post, here are some photos of my HUGE dormatory.

View of the A building in Global Village. My room is the bottom row on the far left side of the first building.

To the right of this lovely, very narrow corridor,  is my roommates fridge and cooking plan. Located to the left of the hall is the smallest bathroom ever! I have seen a lot of small bathrooms in my student life but this is ridiculous! Next to that is The Famous WC( Interesting story about those later).
Japanese houses have sliding doors- it makes everything a lot easier and saves space. It does take some time to get use to however. The first week I came home after a beer or two... or ten...I don't really remember... I went to open the door thinking that i just needed to push it in and nearly broke my nose.

I love just laying in my bath... Can't even get one leg in there!

My room

So now about the Water Closet that is a part of a Japanese tradition which I just can't do.

The Japanese WC...

So in Japan, they wash their backsides with this funky backside spray that shoots out from the toilet. There are a bunch of little buttons located on the side of the toilet that you can press to dictate the functions of the toilet (seat tempurature, backside cleaner, flush, etc.) A couple weeks ago I decided to try it. At the beginning it was a very pleasant, nice, warm seating experience ;)
 ...but then came the time to wash my backside. I didn't really know how much pressure was needed in order to get a good clean because there is no "This is how it works" manual. I decided to go medium pressure, expecting some nice gentle clean. WRONG!! It was like a bloody jet spray.  Had me jump straight up, water going every where, I could not stop it (the stop button was not working) so I proceeded to  unplug the whole thing. By this time I have gotten a wet, non-clean backside and water all over the floor. Luckily enough there was some toilet paper so I just did it the good ol' western way. Because I am not a fan of getting my backside jet sprayed, I will never try this experience again.

WC happenings aside, I have found a way to keep on the weight: 10pm snacks consisting of noodles, beer, and Norwegian chocolate.

10pm snack

East-Japan Championship

This week my team and I, went to the north part of Akita prefecture to participate in the East-Japan Championship. It's was a 3hours drive so we spend the weekend in a lovely hotel, with a real size bed and non rice bag pillow.

Hotel Room 

         

This tournament, brought together the 4 best university teams in Akita prefecture to compete against each other. The winner would go to the Japan Championship in Tokyo and represent Akita prefecture.
Our first game was against the other university of Akita, I pitched the entire game for a 4 to 3 loss. They jump right at me, by hitting a Inside the Park home run on the first pitch I threw...

After getting settled I threw a good game (9inn, 9h, 1BB, 8K) but unfortunately in 2012, wins have been pretty rare for me. Only 5 wins this season with two being the biggest wins in my career. I also batted 1for5 in this game, but the only time I got to second, got picked off!!! Hard to understand "shortstop is behind you" in Japanese.

In the bottom of the ninth base loaded, 2outs, losing by one... Guess who the next batter is?? Me of course!
I don't think I have ever been a stressed in my entire life. With one swing I could become a hero! In my head I was think be cool, take it easy, you can do these. But I had a voice tell me "go for it kid swing for the home run!!"
I hit a fly ball to right field, I could see the ball falling. A smile started growing on my face... but he dove and caught it. GAME OVER...

So that night, some of the boys and I decided to go to the batting cages to practise our batting.

2€ for 20 balls, different pitcher with different speed!

Our next game was against Hirosaki University, a team we had beaten 2 weeks ago. My batting practise paid of batting 3for3 with a triple ;) Unfortunately we lost 7 to 4 and all hope of going to Tokyo where gone. Hirosaki University went on to win the tournament.

Baseball season is over for me. It's been a good year, with two amazing experiences. Time to putt the glove away until April. 

Got the chance to have a real meal!!

Indoor Baseball field

View from my hotel room

Afternoon at baseball

Beer, Sake and Sushi

First we decided to ditch the cafteria food and get some sushi at a place in the city called Kappa.  It was an awesome little sushi joint- in every booth there were little screens on which you can select the kind of sushi you want and in minutes the sushi is delivered to you on  a little train that runs through the side of each booth.   Tried squid, salmon, octopus, even crab brains.

Sushi delivered on little train!

Visited the local mall with some friends and discovered purple potatoe ice-cream which actually tastes better than it sounds.  We also did a bit of shopping with Trev, buying only the essentials...

Trygve and the shopping cart

Purple Potatoe ice cream

Trev and I have got this habit of having a wee beer or two after a long day at the office. Normally we often go to the school cafeteria- apparently we are the only ones using the beer machine.  Whenever possible, on sunny day we tan in Trev's front garden.

Beer in cafeteria

Chilling in Trev's garden 

Last night the boys and I decided to go out for an All-You-Can-Drink Karaoke night.  The All-You Can-Drink bar was designed around a traditional Japanese monster.  The story goes: these men dressed as demon monsters would kidnap young Japanese children and scare the hell out of them till their parents offered gifts to the monster in order to get their child back.  This scare tactic was used on the kids in order to get them to respect and listen to their parents.

Trev in front of the bar 

Beautiful Monsters

Anthony, Dom, Mike and Trev

PS: Photo of last weekend Trev and I as Mexicans! 

Another week in Japan!

 Once again it's been a great week in Japan. On Tuesday I turned 21 years old, felt like any other day. The only think I really missed was not having Grandma's strawberry sponge cake-probably the first time in 21 years.  Luckily, Tasha bought me a Japanese Birthday cake...good, but nowhere near Grandma's.
My amazing Japanese Baseball Team gave me a beautiful necklace and T-Shirt.  Really appreciated it.

On Friday I went to the doctors for my shoulder pain. After many testes, the doctors said it was nothing serious just pulled muscle in the shoulder mainly due to the difference off weight between hard ball and rubber ball. I was then send to reeducation centre next to the hospital. The infrastructure was amazing, they had a indoor bullpen was camera all around to film you pitching. Then with help of the doctor  you tried to find the best mechanic for you to pitch without getting pain in shoulder or elbow. 

Sexy hospital flip-flops ;)

Friday night my dear friend Trev and I went to a "Semi-Formal Ball" and we decided to go as semi-formal Mexicans.  Unfortunately, no photos to document the event but we definitely did NOT look ridiculous.


Some random photos of thing in Japan:

Coca-Cola can in Japan!

Trev @ Sushi Restaurant 

Intouchable in Japanese 

Tasha and I working hard!!!

   

Baseball Tournament

This week end being a three days break( today is old peoples day in Japan). My team and I participated in a baseball tournament at Yori-Honjo with 8 local teams from the prefecture. Our first game was an easy win 14/4 ( sorry I've forgotten the name of the team).

First Baseball field

This was one of the stadiums we played in. Our next game was on Sunday against Sendai University. After a bad start, we slowly started to make our way back into the game. I pitched from the 5th to the 7th. I was pleased with my outing, the shoulder still a little stiff. We were winning 7 to 5 but unfortunately conceded 4 points in the 8th and lost 9 to 7 :(
Still have to wait for my first win...

First Baseball field

Earlier that day, Fukuji won the first semi final against Hirosaki.

Freshly painted bases for our game!!! 

So today we played for third place against Hirosaki University. I got to start the game as pitcher, threw 4 scoreless innings, 3hits and 4 strikes outs. We won 3/1, but still know win for me ;) (didn't pitch the 5th) I think my arm is getting used to the kenko ball and to pitch every day. It is feeling a lot better. 

Second baseball field

Second baseball field

I was rewarded with a beautiful gift for something, but I did not understand what for. I just heard Maxwell Tyler mixed into some Japanese and suddenly everybody is looking at me. I had no idea what to do, when was I suppose to bow? or not!!! I think I made a fool of my self. But I'm a foreigner, I'm used of everybody starring at me now.
Maybe the reward was best foreigner... but being the only one doesn't make it that cool...


Tonights post was posted from the beautiful Library ;)

Where I spend most of my time