Of Spring and Arrows.
You give me all this,
and ask so little in return....
I wasn't lost but wandering outside the back of Sanwa for something to do. I had in my pocket a warm Royal Milk Tea from the machine in front, and the sun begged me to stroll towards the back of the school towards the tennis courts.
My meandering found me between the court entrance and the kyudo range. A delighted squeel of "LICKU!" signalled to me that my destination would be the kyudo range behind me.
I removed my shoes and was met by three shy boys and 5 excited girls, all in varying degrees of kyudo wear. One boy was in full regalia, with Hakama, breast plate and an artful, long kyudo bow in hand. Many of the girls only wore the breastplate and gloves. All were still in the process of warming up and chatting, and my presance had sent them afflutter. It's always a nice feeling.
We chatted a bit about movies, music and video games, standard fair when connecting with boys and girls in High School. We all laughed at each other's mispronouciantions of our corrospondingly foreign languages.
I sat on the make-shift rug placed inside the range and opened up my milk-tea, to the utter torture of the students, who told me it was "unfair" to drink it in front of them. I made sure to sip loudly and satisfactoraly. They all enjoyed it.
I remember Brad spending a signifigant amount of time here when he visited last year, and I could see why. There was an element to this place... Maybe how the traditional hardwood floors give way to a grassy expance, or how an artful expression is made from a form of aerial harm... or maybe it was just the sun ushering past sakura blossoms in the distance where the rugby team ran manuvers. Somehow, it was delightful.
I took another sip of the warm Milk tea. Soon they would replace the warm ones with cold, as the changing of seasons demands it. I delighted in warm milk tea in winter, and now being the Spring they would be ushered out until the chilly Fall. It felt like a brick being dropped into a placid river when I thought it; "This would be my last one." I could be wrong of course but that wasn't the point. I shook it off quickly though, as a question about Spider Man movies and X-men comics diverted my attention.
Shortly after the entire team played a group game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. This was not for fun but to decide who would do what for the remainder of the practice. I took it as a queue to make my exit so they could practice without interferance. They all smiled and waved goodbye, and then upon my exit I pretended to make the voice of Minney Mouse, who was adorn on one shy girl's socks. She smiled and ran off into the room, and I fell into the sunny expance past the door.
It was like floating in my pool when I was 11... That's the best way to explain the lap of the school I took back to the teacher's room. It was a path full of dirty concrete and old pipes, parts of a school jury-rigged amidst farmland and high tension powerlines that astutly lined up into the horizon, disappearing to where I assumed the earth curved.
I stared for a moment past the gates, over the hills and into the mountains miles away. I don't think I had a thought in my head. I think I was just watching the moving painting as my feet closed the distance between my body and the door. After that I stepped inside. Or something like that.
and ask so little in return....
I wasn't lost but wandering outside the back of Sanwa for something to do. I had in my pocket a warm Royal Milk Tea from the machine in front, and the sun begged me to stroll towards the back of the school towards the tennis courts.
My meandering found me between the court entrance and the kyudo range. A delighted squeel of "LICKU!" signalled to me that my destination would be the kyudo range behind me.
I removed my shoes and was met by three shy boys and 5 excited girls, all in varying degrees of kyudo wear. One boy was in full regalia, with Hakama, breast plate and an artful, long kyudo bow in hand. Many of the girls only wore the breastplate and gloves. All were still in the process of warming up and chatting, and my presance had sent them afflutter. It's always a nice feeling.
We chatted a bit about movies, music and video games, standard fair when connecting with boys and girls in High School. We all laughed at each other's mispronouciantions of our corrospondingly foreign languages.
I sat on the make-shift rug placed inside the range and opened up my milk-tea, to the utter torture of the students, who told me it was "unfair" to drink it in front of them. I made sure to sip loudly and satisfactoraly. They all enjoyed it.
I remember Brad spending a signifigant amount of time here when he visited last year, and I could see why. There was an element to this place... Maybe how the traditional hardwood floors give way to a grassy expance, or how an artful expression is made from a form of aerial harm... or maybe it was just the sun ushering past sakura blossoms in the distance where the rugby team ran manuvers. Somehow, it was delightful.
I took another sip of the warm Milk tea. Soon they would replace the warm ones with cold, as the changing of seasons demands it. I delighted in warm milk tea in winter, and now being the Spring they would be ushered out until the chilly Fall. It felt like a brick being dropped into a placid river when I thought it; "This would be my last one." I could be wrong of course but that wasn't the point. I shook it off quickly though, as a question about Spider Man movies and X-men comics diverted my attention.
Shortly after the entire team played a group game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. This was not for fun but to decide who would do what for the remainder of the practice. I took it as a queue to make my exit so they could practice without interferance. They all smiled and waved goodbye, and then upon my exit I pretended to make the voice of Minney Mouse, who was adorn on one shy girl's socks. She smiled and ran off into the room, and I fell into the sunny expance past the door.
It was like floating in my pool when I was 11... That's the best way to explain the lap of the school I took back to the teacher's room. It was a path full of dirty concrete and old pipes, parts of a school jury-rigged amidst farmland and high tension powerlines that astutly lined up into the horizon, disappearing to where I assumed the earth curved.
I stared for a moment past the gates, over the hills and into the mountains miles away. I don't think I had a thought in my head. I think I was just watching the moving painting as my feet closed the distance between my body and the door. After that I stepped inside. Or something like that.