sophie in akita: fighto, fighto to-chu!

My work day today consisted of attending a baseball game. But as with most things involving sports in this country, the attendance was taken very seriously. As attendees, we were required to perform several coordinated cheers over and over again, with the entire school band present to back us up. Thank god we won, the effort would have been considerably embarrassing if we hadn't. We were given 30-second breaks to sit down and gulp water every fifteen minutes or so but the rest of the time was spent yelling at the top of our lungs, banging megaphones together and making cheer gestures with them together in unison. Suprisingly, it was really fun! But when we won, the feeling was definitely "Oh, thank god it's over, so we can go home and rest" instead of "yayyyyyyyyyyyyy". I was eager to get out of the sun, too, which brings me to the interesting Japanese approach to direct sulight, which is to wear more clothing in order to protect the skin. Every teacher there besides me was wearing a jacket, gloves, wide-brimmed hat and long pants, despite the probabaly 90-degree heat. Every teacher and student (except me) also had a small towel they used as a sweat rag around their neck. My approach was more heavy on the sunscreen, less on the clothing. Anyway, back to the field tomorrow for another game!