Soccerbu

Soccerbu translates as Soccer Club, but really, the soccerbu at Hokkaido University is the soccer team. I am now in the Soccerbu.

So I've been trying to figure out ways to meet more japanese people, because quite frankly it's been rather tough. Walking up to a japanese guy when you tower over him and asking him to be your friend isn't exactly the best way to go about it. So there is a website for all the clubs and things at Hokudai (Hokk. U.) but of course it was written in Japanese. After some home made translation, asking around a bit, and getting some info, I found myself at the soccer grounds today at 4:30, ready for soccer practice.

Japanese people are fast. Like really fast. I mean like...man these guys are fast.

Anyway, so I get there and put my soccer gear on as about 20 dudes stand around and stare at me. They started doing a drill about halfway through me getting ready so I figured I would watch a bit. Man I thought my foot skills were bad but holy cow, these guys can play. So after I get my stuff on, I stand up and just kind of stand awkwardly on the sideline, wondering what was going to happen next. Luckily one of the japanese players walked over to me, and we started to have a little conversation.

Turns out they dont really have a coach, they just have sempai and koohai, which roughly translate at senior and junior. So there are the upper class man who play on the team and such and they basically help the younger kids get better etc. And I was currently talking to one of the upper class man. The current drill was kind of a keep away, but me and the guy couldn't really get the meaning across the languages.

But he said it was cool for me to play, we have practice every weekday at 4:30, 3:30 in the fall because the sun sets at 5. We also have practices sometimes on saturday, and sometimes we have games on sundays. Pretty busy eh?

So I am definitely going to try and play on the team for awhile, obviously studies come first and such, but it seems really fun and I think I will be able to balance it will school work and such.

So we talk a bit more, turns out I am going to need some shin guards, or regattu. I think I know where to buy them, so maybe I will pick them up tomorrow. Hopefully they will be ok.

So next they started doing a shooting drill, and the guy told me to hop in line. It was a simple drill where you passed the ball to a guy who laid it off for you and then you shot. Well...out of 6 tries I only made 1, pretty pathetic.

After that we just had a half field scrimmage with 3 teams where one switched off. It was pretty intense, I got put in at right full back and had my hands full with a couple of guys who would switch positions a lot, and I never really received orders from the center back which made it worse, so after my first day I ended up doing fairly bad.

After practice ended, I stood around and talked with a bunch of the guys for awhile, it was pretty fun. Finally getting to use some more Japanese feels great, and makes it not feel like I am wasting my time here. We pretty much figured that I was a first year here, which kinda sucks because in Japanese society, being the rookie, or first year usually means extra stupid responsibilities, like shagging balls and picking up after everyone else. Joy.

The other first years asked me to go to dinner w them so I agreed and they also offered to pay which was very nice indeed. In that situation you say a special little phrase that literally translates as "I will take advantage of your kind words." So I took advantage of their kind words. They asked me what I wanted to eat, and I said meat...MEAT. So we went to this place, sat down japanese style (insert pain here, and a charlie horse) and had meat. I order the LL (2xl) cheeze burger steak, with rice, and soup. Yum.

We sat around and got to know a little bit more about each other, and it was a lot of fun. Not having to pay was a bonus as well. It was overall a lot of fun, and I am really glad I decided to get involved. Hopefully I will be able to make some new friends, be a 20 year old ball boy, and get better at soccer too. We'll see.