| Fireflies | Monday, June 8, 2009 9:06:51 AM |
![]() | ||
I went out last night to search for fireflies. The ladies at English Tea (a Saturday English lesson I do) told me that on warm (and humid) days during this season they come out around the rivers, specifically near the river my Mizusawa Elementary. So I headed out there with my trusty camera to see if I could find them. Sure enough around 7:30pm as the sunlight was almost completely gone I started to see little green lights hovering around and pulsing in the grass. By 8:00 o'clock there were tons of them all around. It was really quite a beautiful sight. I had never seen fireflies in real life, so it was quite interesting. These particular kind had a green light that pulsed about every 3 seconds, but apparently there are many different types and you can tell the breed by the length and color of their pulsing. I tried to take some pictures, but their lights are small and dim and it was pitch black so they didn't turn out great. However, I put a few of the better ones on the June gallery.
Today I had Karate, and my legs are so tired. Today I sparred against a middle-school aged girl who is a Brown belt (much higher than me). It is tough sparring against the kids, 'cause I don't want to hit them too hard, but if you don't try to use full speed it doesn't become practice. So it takes a lot of control... It's tough. Anyway, at one point I was supposed to block her punches and she was way too frickin' fast for me. Plus, she is short, so her lower punches tended to go towards my family jewels which makes it even more important to block... Anyway... that isn't really the point of this story. Every day her father is there watching her. It looks like he did karate when he was younger, because he often tells her things and I have seen him do some slow motions before like he was doing forms. Well, when I was sparring with his daughter I noticed that she didn't seem to have a happy look on her face. Like, I thought maybe she didn't want to spar with me. Maybe she was hoping for a better opponent... But then I thought, I wonder if she even wants to do karate... There is another younger girl, that I think might be her younger sister, and sometimes I have wondered if she has interest in Karate because she doesn't seem to try hard. Granted, she is a very young kid still, but she often takes bathroom breaks and doesn't seem to like doing forms. She did ask the teacher one time if we could do sparring, so maybe she just likes that aspect and not the forms...
Anyway, again I digress... I wondered if this older girl maybe didn't really like karate and just did it because her father really loved it when he was young and wanted his children to be good at it like him. After all, he is there every week watching for all two and a half hours of practice. He must be pretty interested in it... I felt bad for the girl. Maybe she is just doing this to earn the recognition from her father. Maybe she just wants her father to be proud of her and this is the only way she can receive that praise from him... Like Charlie (LOST) seeking his mom's approval.
We finished sparring. She kicked my butt and then the sensei sparred with her for a little bit. I heard a noise come from her father's direction. He had taken out his cell phone and was recording a video (or maybe it was just a picture). This particular sensei is the head of the whole regional karate thing, so I guess it was pretty special maybe. When that was finished, I also sparred with him, but he went very easy on me and let me just practice my moves really.
Then when everything was finished for the day, I stumbled over to my towel and as they were leaving the father said to me "My Daughter." (in English) I looked up as he pointed to her. "強いでしょう。" (She's strong, huh?) I agreed. "Yes, she is. She's very fast." I told him. The big tough man had a huge big smile on his face. I could tell he was really proud of her. I looked at her and she wasn't smiling at all. ... I wonder how she feels.
More May pictures up too.






