the yokohama athletics club

time for some japanese history. back in the day when the west was forcing its way into japan all the foreigners had to do all their trade through one of several open ports. at the open port of yokohama the british had established an athletic club for the gentlemen residing there. now back in the day a country was partially judged on the strength of it's sportsmen. back in the day, japan had no sports. they had tea ceremonies and flower arranging. so in order to try to apear more modern and stuff japan adopted a good number of foreign sports and started trying to build a reputation. one of the most quickly adopted games was baseball.

the ichiko high school quickly established itself as the best baseball team in japan and by the early 1890's had bested all the other schools in japan and was looking for better competition. naturally, their views went to the foreign gentlemens club in yokohama that they had heard so much of but never seen. the foreigners were all stuck in one area and the local japanese weren't allowed inside the foreign compound. in 1891 the ichiko team issued their first challenge to the yokohama club and were promptly rejected. the foreigners said that the japanese had no skill, were half their size, and were no match for the history of european sport's clubs. for the next 4 years the ichiko team issued a yearly challenge, and were finally granted a match on the 5th year.


the day before the game it started raining and looked like the match would have to be canceled. the ichiko team wired the foreign team asking for a rescheduling but the gentlemens club said that with their busy schedules they wouldn't be able to have another game for at least a month. late that night the rain started to wane and the gentlemens club sent a message saying that the game was on. the highschoolers made the 3-4 hour bus trip to yokohama with about a hundred friends for support, but since the athletic field was inside the foreigner encampment the friends weren't even allowed to watch the game. needless to say the japanese team was pretty rattled after the rain incident and finally being able to play their long anticipated game. they made several mistakes in the first inning and let the yokohama team score 4 runs in the first inning. the foreigners thought that the game would soon be over and that this would prove the japanese inferiority in the world of sport.

however, this was not to be. the japanese took the field in the second inning and showed what they had learned in highschool. i didn't write down any of the individual innings, but the final score was ichiko 29 yokohama gentlemens club 4. yes, they didn't score another run the entire rest of the game. the foreigners were shocked and immediately demanded a second match 2 weeks later. apparently they found time in their busy schedules. this time the yokohama team actually practiced and pulled in a few ringers for the game. ichiko came back with even more supporters this time, even though they still weren't allowed to watch. final score: ichiko 32, yokohama 9.

two weeks later there was a third match, only this time at the ichiko school field in tokyo. the japanese students were finally able to watch their team play and hundreds turned up for the game. by now the series of games had attracted quite a lot of national fame and a large number of government officials also showed up for the game. the yokohama team had also gotten serious and pulled in a good number of sailors and navy personal for their team. this was starting to become a matter or international pride. final score: ichiko 22, yokohama 6.

the fourth and most important game was to take place of the 4th of july. the american flagship had shown up for the game and brought a former major league player with them in addition to their usual arsenal of enlisted players. in addition, the ichiko team had just finished their final exams (which are hell for high schoolers) and hadn't practiced together for weeks. final score: yokohama associated foreigners team 14, ichiko 12. the foreigners finally won a game.

from 1897 to 1904 9 more games were played with ichiko winning 8 of them. the combined scores for all the games was ichiko 230 yokohama 64. this is why high school baseball is so feverishly popular in japan.

+1 for space

so apparently some genius in japan found a new way to make silicon for solar panels that involves dropping molten silicon from a height of about 14 meters. while in free fall the silicon's surface tension causes tiny balls of silicon to form. this means that the solar panel can absorb light from any direction and lots of other cool things that make this noteworthy.

HOWEVER i have a better idea. let's move the facility into space. there's no gravity there so things like this can be made pretty easily and not as randomly as dropping molten silicon 14 meters through the air. i'm sure lots of other weird physics would happen in space that would make manufacturing that much better. who knows what science will come up with. while we're at it, lets use these solar plants and appropriated factory to make giant solar panels in space. we'll use them all to power my space hotel/spa resort.

do you have any idea the types of things a space hotel/spa resort is gonna be able to offer? how about 3-d ping pong for one. for another how about a space pool. this is about the same as a lame old earth pool except for the fact that it's in space and instead of on the ground and instead of being water in a cement hole in the ground it's a large amount of water randomly floating around a room. think about that for a second, a large amount of water floating in a room. that means when you splash the water doesn't come back down, it combines with other water in the air and makes a small mini pool in the air above you. buoyancy might not work the same but you'd be able to still swim through it the same. the possibilities are endless.

so call your congressman and tell him you want a freakin space pool.

as someone on the brink of atheism as well, i find theres really no need for religion.
thats sort of an odd statement.
given as i was raised catholic, much like you lucas, i started to see huge holes in belief. yes having a god that created everything is a comforting feeling. but, there really is no need for a god other than comfort.
i like the theory of the big bounce. infinite numbers of universe floating on an unknown plane. sheets filled with all the necessary elements to create an awe inspiring domain. suddenly one of these planes happens to bump into ours, igniting if you will, the big bang, or bounce. chance or what have you. but beyond our sheet of a universe, theres uncountable others. where did these spawn from? what do they float in? maybe theyre the very fabric or our own universe, just on a very complicated level.
now, if this god fella created our existence he would have had to create it and step back. could he possibly control the expansion, and ultimate contraction, of such a vast place? the elements beyond elements? the wormholes, gravity and quantum mechanics?
maybe god is gravity. a force so huge that we cant exactly say what it is.
this is a little scatterbrained. were gonna have to discuss this further.

the physics of disbelief

i read too much science. i say this because i almost became an atheist the other day while having a discussion about science, religion, and other assorted big thoughts. as i learn more and more about science there is less and less that religion and mysticism can hide behind and remain undisproven, which isn't a word but i think you understand. but at the same time there's so many things that seem like there's no way in hell they could've just happened randomly. the most most most basic principles that govern existence exist in the only state that they could be in, but they had to get there somehow. if any of a pretty large number of variables were any different than they are now then we would've never gotten past the mid level boss of world 1 level 1.

what it comes down to is that something had to invent physics so physics could shape the development of existence. that's all i know at this juncture

big update

wow i really need to write these more often so they're smaller and easier to write. but oh well, here goes. last weekend me, risa, and her parents went on a trip to nagano to visit mom's family shrine. the thing about tokyo is that it's in the biggest flat spot in all of japan, that's why it's so crowded. but driving out of tokyo into the countryside is a pretty sudden jolt. one minute you're in the city, the next the buildings have been replaced with mountains and greenery and all the sudden mt. fuji is looming over just about everything. it's surprising to say the least.

risa's family shrine is in a town of about 200 people or so stuck in the middle of the mountains. i was probably one of the first foreigners to ever go there. risa's great aunt is the family member in charge of the family shrine and lives in a huge hosue by japanese standards. wide, roomy, and very traditional. the shrine is across the street from the house on a hillside surrounded by small vegetable fields. the newer shrine is shiny and new and has about 70 years of family history engraved in it. the older shrines to the side have over 200 years of history recorded on them and are old enough that they're starting to turn back into natural looking stones. i barely know anything about my family from more than 70 years ago, so i was really impressed. on the other side of the new shrine was a smaller one that had all the names of family members who died in the russo-japanese war.

after we burned incense at the shrine and said some prayers we went inside and ate food and talked for a couple hours. risa had only met obaasan (japanese for old lady) once before so it was good for everyone to be able to make their family connections. after food me and risa went and walked about the area and took some pictures. we found a really old temple just around the corner that had fallen into disrepair, but was still really really cool. after that we found a path bordered by a small bamboo grove that led down into a bunch of fields. for some reason japanese family's in the countryside put a lot of their family shrines in the middle of fields. kinda weird place to put dead people but then again, in the mountains the field is one of the most important places for a family.

there was another shrine down by the fields, a much newer one that had a house attached to one side of it. it was kinda sad tho, there was an old temple on top of a hill in a nice wooded area that seemed deserted but less than a football field away there was a new temple that was being taken care of. i kinda wanted to know why the old one was deserted and replaced by something in such close proximity.

there was also a medium sized mountain behind obaasan's house that people were going paragliding off of, so we stopped and watched them for a bit, then noticed what i think was an eagle take off along the river. afterwards we walked around on the other side of the valley and went up a hill and watched the paragliders for a bit.

after we came back from the walk some of obaasan's friends from the other side of nagano showed up so we all went back inside and talked and ate some more. when we left risa and her mom were so caught up in thanking everyone for everything that kaoru forgot her purse and risa forgot her camera. we all got a big laugh out of that and ran back and picked them both up before running out to matsumotojo, matsumoto castle. matsumoto is one of the oldest castles in japan and the oldest one that is still built in the original fashion. me and risa went in and forged through the crowd up to the top of the castle while her parents milled around outside.

it was kinda weird tho, the top floor of the castle was kinda the end of the tour, but it seemed that most of the japanese people in the castle were more concerned with getting to the top and then getting back down than they were with actually seeing what the castle was. me and risa stopped and read all the placards at the top and found out that there was a small shrine hidden up in the rafters of the top floor. we went over and found the real thing up in the rafters and got all excited about it, then all the other people waiting in line broke out of follow the leader mode and took notice too. if me and risa hadn't been there actually trying to enjoy the castle no one else probably would've even noticed that some pretty damn traditional japanese stuff was going on right above their heads. curiosity saves the day.

last week was japanese finals and after successfully kicking ass i went out with the kendo club on friday and got some drinks and got to know them all a bit better. they're all very much guys, except for the club manager, who's a girl. they make a lot of really bad jokes, give each other a lot of good natured shit, and like beating each other up for fun. it's the kendo club, what do you expect?

oh yeah, i got a bunch of pictures up too so go looky look!