Dartboard

Here I am with Yasuhiro and his monstrous trophy! That’s the second place winner, right there!!! The same dude I talked with forever at the enkai the previous night …the professional tri-athlete …sponsored by a CAKE SHOP! Is any of this ringing a bell?!?! I can’t believe I was so oblivious to his amazing capabilities!

Yeah, he did that triathlon in 3 hours and 30 minutes or something. That’s … unnatural.

I was so incredibly excited that I “knew” the second place winner that I tried to take this picture of him on stage, but I was so far away it turned out all fuzzy. Memories, though, memories.

Then there was some dancing and music. These are old women from my town, later some elementary school kids dancing to pop music. I saw Blaine and his band there too.

Mike, his wife and Rhianon at the enkai.

And then there was this raffle… AND I WON!!! I couldn't believe my luck! And then I couldn’t believe my unluck. I won 5 kilograms of sazae—this disgusting, LIVE shellfish. Who the hell gives away 5 kilos of shellfish and has the temerity to call you “a winner?”

Sierra with her 5 kilograms of sazae. Nasty!

And Mike won fish. It’s better than sazae anyway, but what a ghetto island!!

I think I stood alone in the disappointment of raffle prizes. Come on! They all came from right out of the ocean!! I’ve obviously got a long way to go before I whoo for the “oishii sakana” prize like every other Japanese person there.

Fortunately there was this really cute guy who noticed my discontent at winning 5 kilos of sazae and offered me his box of Goto udon. I insisted on trading the sazae for the udon (even though he had his own 2 kilos of sazae for taking first place in the relay team category) so that lucky guy went home with SEVEN KILOGRAMS OF SAZAE!!! More than enough for a lifetime.

I still can’t believe it.

Thanks very cute man! Enjoy your sazae!!

Also, this guy was deaf. He had a hearing aid so I thought he might be able to understand some things I said, but when I tried talking to him he really just couldn’t understand me. All this work to learn Japanese and there are STILL Japanese (really cute ones too) that I can’t communicate with!!! I’m grateful that Tajima-sensei has taught me some Japanese sign language and I was able to sign “Otsukaresama” to him before I left. I couldn’t remember my name in sign language however!! I’ll have to keep practicing sign in the rare event I run into him (or another deaf person I’m dying to communicate with) again.

The Fukue kids had to leave early (to catch their private water taxi back to their island), but since Dave didn’t have to work on Monday he stayed another night with me. Here’s Luis and I saying our goodbyes. It was wonderful to speak Spanish with him.

Some brave Japanese who sat at our gaijin table. Really genki folk from Yamaguchi-ken. I think the guy on the right lives in Arikawa and speaks really good English. If I’m not mistaken, he was at my eikaiwa class in Aokata tonight!!

Then everybody (the cooks, dancers, kids and townfolk) formed this tunnel for the athletes. Soooo coooool!

The nijikai (after party) was where I met the best of the best. I came in and sat down between these two. The girl on the left, Naomi, is… get this! Japan’s Number One Female Triathlete! Yasuhiro (2nd place winner this weekend, not sure how he’s ranked nationally) is on the right.

And this is Shige, the 1st place winner from today’s triathlon. He took first place last year too. (Wonder if he won some oishii sakana or something???)

And now I have all their numbers in my keitai!!!

And when Shige put his number into my phone he chose the little heart icon instead of the phone, home, or business icons. What a sweetie! I checked, he doesn't have a wife or a girlfriend either—he just lives in Fukuoka! A lifetime away!!!!

These three were so inspiring to be with. We talked for hours (yeah, in Japanese, people!!) They’ve all made professions out of doing what they love—swimming, biking and running. They said, “You should do it too! You can, you really can!” and being with them almost made me think, “Yeah! I CAN do it!”

Okay, this coming from the girl who stopped after swimming 2K!!! I haven’t ever even DONE a triathlon (on my own) and I’m dreaming about being a professional! It was way out of my league of course, but it was nice to dream with these who have not only done it, but have national recognition for it.

And they are such down-to-earth, awesome people. Naomi’s 22, just like me. Yasuhiro is 32 with a 2 year old son. His hobby is driving. Shige is 30 and wanted only to speak English, but after introductions realized it wasn’t really possible anymore. Naomi was especially wonderful. She invited me to come visit her in Fukuoka anytime. We’ve keitai emailed a bit since Sunday, but I doubt I'll see her before…

...prepare yourself. I’ve signed up for a REAL triathlon. My own. Not a team-relay-thing. I’m doing the whole thing myself. It’s much MUCH smaller (much doable-er) than the Monster Man and it’s not until October, but these three will all be there and I just have to hang out with them again. Asagami-sensei is going to help me and go with me. I’m so pumped!!

Here’s the whole Fukuoka Viking Team. I love you guys!!!

Speaking of vikings, one of these days I’ll tell you all the tragedy that’s occurred between me and my Norwegian. It doesn’t look good, folks.

I'm really exhausted. 1:12 a.m. already!! As much as I enjoy watching the soccer games on TV recently, I’ve got to get to bed earlier!! Japan beat North Korea, by the way. Did you see it? We're going to Germany and not coming back without the CUP! (Yeah right, but it's nice to dream, isn't it?)

All my triathlon love and inspiration, Sierra