ジェローム　バキラー

I felt somewhat exhausted once 5:30PM, Tokyo time arrived.  I’d spent some time out and about from 1AM to 3AM earlier in the day, ran the 1.5 mile run, and suffered through almost an entire morning of Staff meeting.

So naturally, in today’s scrimmage game I managed to not allow a single ball past me in goal.  Logical result, right?

I’ll be the first to say that the formula for a goalkeeper’s clean sheet is at the very least:

GK performance=Team defensive effort

if not

GK performance*1.25=Team defensive effort

Simply put, a lot of credit has to go to the team in front of the keeper.  And the team I ended up with played a superb, tight game in front of me.  I had to only be spectacular on a couple of shots to preserve the clean sheet, I had the luxury of having many shots directed right at me or wide of goal.

Final tally: 4-0.  You can probably argue that the opposition kind of quit once a 3-goal margin was established… and I would agree.  Still, a clean sheet is just that and I’ll gladly pocket that in my portfolio of life.

Current record as goalkeeper: 3-2-0

ONE clean sheet

Today I participated in the first practice for the unit soccer/football team.  Going in I made it clear that I was going to be a goalkeeper or nothing else, I wore sleeves, put the gloves on and everything.

After the first practice was all said and done, it’s now clear that I’m a goalkeeper for the team.  Starter or backup is now the question.  I’ll take either one, I’m not picky at all and I don’t have an ego to cause dissent with.

Let me mention that this is my first experience in organized football of any kind.  Let that be the world’s football, or American football for that matter.  Why did I decide to play now?  Let me call it a combination of Chan Kwok Kuen, World Cup 2002, and FIFA 08… a terribly odd combination that deserves a story in itself but back to the subject matter…

Practice today consisted of two half-games.  The first game was played between two squads of equal experience/inexperience (about half of those who showed played for the unit last year, the other half were newcomers/newbies like myself).

The first game was an eye opener for me.  Play moved faster than I’m used to seeing on TV, and for the love of god I couldn’t stop my heart from beating out of my chest every time an opponent was bearing down and about to rifle a shot at my goal… but I held up okay.  Held up okay enough for our side to win 2-1, anyway.  Made a lot of saves, some I credit just to the gloves being grippy enough to deflect shots well away from goal.

The second game was supposed to be Globetrotters vs. Generals… the experienced guys vs. not-so-experienced guys.  The winner was easy to predict, but the margin was not as wide as expected…3-2.  I would’ve liked to make at least one more save, but they don’t come easy when it’s 2-on-goal (guess my side just got tired near the end), which occured twice near the end.

So, what did I learn from today, my first "test" as a goalkeeper?

I learned that sheer height can go an extremely long way in goal, and makes up for a lot of the lack of everything else.

I also found out I’m reflexively better than I thought, but need improvement on positioning.

Finally, I learned I’ve earned a spot on the team, and the leverage to at least contend for starting rights.

Only the beginning… hopefully more positive things to come!

Job description: participate as part of 50-person team carrying the Yokota "mikoshi" (portable shrine) in Fussa City’s Tanabata Festival parade.

Festival description from wikipedia: Tanabata (七夕, tanabata), meaning "Evening of the seventh") is a japanese star festival．It celebrates the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair).  The Milky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky, separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. Since the stars come out at night, the celebration is held at night.

To be honest, I only volunteered for this "job" to get credit for something that didn’t have the word "base" in the description.  I got a helluva lot more than I anticipated.

I didn’t go with any "friends" at all, I think I was the only loner-type to participate among the Yokota contigent.  It felt a bit awkward at first, being the only one without someone to talk to or laugh with, etc… but if you know me at all you know it takes more than that to break my "cool".  Before the start of the parade, with my limited nihongo language skills I even asked some of the locals if I could take a pic with them and their mikoshi.

The parade, to be honest, was a 3-hour blur of events I can’t really describe in detail.  I remember the heat… the weight of the mikoshi… drinking a lot of water, Pocari Sweat, and Coke…

…but most of all, somehow, I remember making a few friends out of the Fussa citizens between the start and finish of the parade.  Somehow, it just happened like that.  And it really was… just me it seemed to happen to.  One of my newfound buddies went so far as to seemingly grab a random person from the sidewalk to help me understand what she wanted to tell me… which was "I’ll see you here next year again"!  Another instance, one took the camera right out of my hands and took a couple of great photos with me carrying the mikoshi.

Maybe they could tell I was the only loner out of the Yokota group?  Or maybe it was because I could communicate just enough on their terms for them to take to me?  Or… probably a combination of the two?

Who knows… not me that’s for sure. Much of it was a blur to me but at least I have some astonishing pictures to piece the memory together.

As far as memorable experiences in Japan go, I have to say that this one ranks 2nd only to climbing up to the summit of Mount Fuji.  This was a lot easier on the body as well.

Part of me feels some guilt that I didn’t get to share this experience with any friends or family… but like I mentioned somewhere before I had no idea what to expect aside from "carry heavy thing down street in Fussa".  I’ll definitely put a good pitch in to them for the 2009 Tanabata Festival.

Looks like return trips to Mount Fuji and Tanabata are in the stars for 2009!

Climb Mount Fuji.

Three words, sounds so simple, so straightforward.  Walk for a few hours and you reach the summit of Japan’s highest mountain.

Then, when you do some research, it’s not as simple as it sounds.  Due to fatigue, injuries, altitude sickness, and many other factors, not everyone gets to the top.  Many set out past the 5th station, the starting point of the climb, just to go up to the 6th or even 7th station and come back.  Still, reaching the top is a realistic goal for anyone in a reasonable state of physical fitness.

Living so close as to see Mount Fuji on a clear morning, it would be a shame if we didn’t even try to climb the famous Mount Fuji… so on July 19, 2008, Donna made the attempt.  I wasn’t optimistic about making it to the top, I just wanted to be able to put "climbed Mount Fuji" on my resume of life, and of course to experience what it was all about.

From the 5th station to the 6th, it was mostly straightforward, walking with slight ascents and slightly rough terrain.  Sometimes with the altitude, you still have to take breaks.  We stopped at the 6th station to eat the breakfast we brought with us, sausage & egg croissants.

6th to 7th got treacherous at times.  There were several moments where some serious climbing took place, though not quite climbing by strength of arms and hands (although on this climb any kind of strength would be tested!).

From the 7th station and higher, the cans of oxygen we brought along would hugely come into play.  The air got really thin up here, and breathing those cans of oxygen was literally a breath of fresh air.  It made me feel like brand new, if only for a couple of minutes then I’d start feeling tired again… then I’d need a 30-60 second break.  Breaks… they were also very important.

One we got the 8th station, we were above cloud level.  Also, we were introduced to some very chilling, strong winds, partially due to the winds blowing off of the snow still on Mt Fuji.  Before the 8th station, I just had a t-shirt on… from the 8th upward, I needed to wear a thermal sweater.

The 9th station was funny.  We got to within three steps of the station with it’s benches to sit on and food/drink to refresh, yet we needed to take a 30 second break to make those three steps to the station.  One of those Mt Fuji moments I won’t ever forget.

Between the 9th station and the top of Mount Fuji, it was not only torturous because of the fatigue factor and altitude, but the distance and rough terrain as well.  Many people headed back down short of the top at the this point because the rest of the climb is more than they can take.

In retrospect, I would’ve quit climbing at this point.  I was weary from climbing for five hours, impatient, and when I saw the torii that represented the end of the climb off in the distance, I thought there was more climbing to do after that point, as I wasn’t aware of the significance of that torii at the time.  If it were easy to see the route to start climbing back down, I would’ve taken that route.  Would Donna have stopped me if I decided enough was enough?

I guess it was my internal drive that kept me climbing at that point.  That, and the lack of an "escape route"?  Seeing the other climbers suffering from the conditions buoyed me quite a bit, because they weren’t quitting… so why should I?  From the 9th to the end, it was about 5-10 steps, then taking a break.  Repeat.  Oxygen from the can every other break.  At least I wasn’t getting thirsty on this stretch.

Once we passed through that last torii, someone told us "congratulations, you made it".  Wha?!?!?  That was the best surprise of the day for us.  After six hours of climbing, we finally made it to the top.

Proudly, we sat and had our spam musubi lunch from home on the summit of Mount Fuji.  Celebrated not with a beer or anything alcoholic, but a bottle of Coca-Cola.  We had our climbing sticks stamped throughout the climb at each station, but the stamps on our sticks at the top was the most satisfying… of course.

The descent was slow, painful (mostly due to everything that transpired in climbing up), and sometimes confusing, but we clocked it at about 3.5 hours… a breeze compared to the climb.

A little more than half of the Yokota climbers were successul in making it up to the top of Mt Fuji.  That statistic humbled me, if Mt Fuji itself and the mental/physical fatigue from the climb didn’t humble me enough.  Donna made it to the top with me, which I’m even more proud of than myself making it.  Obviously, I’m glad we decided to climb Mount Fuji.

A Japanese saying goes something like "Wise man climbs Mount Fuji once; a fool climbs it twice".  Who knows, my attitude may change a year’s time, but right now I say I’m going to be the wise man.  Being the wise one though, you have to look ahead…

Climb Mount Everest?

That would be unwise for both of us

Just something fun I discovered while conserving every ounce of kinetic energy for the Mount Fuji climb on 19 Jul.

Can you name each of these X-Men and X-universe characters, all favorites of mine?  Enjoy the pics… answers on the bottom.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

9)

10)

11)

12)

Stumped?  Answers below:

1) Cyclops 2) Rogue 3) Cannonball 4) Emma Frost 5) Armor 6) Stepford Cuckoos 7) Dust Surge 9) Xorn 10) Madrox/Multiple Man 11) Monet/M 12) Siryn

In between the trip back "home" to Hawaii in March and the present moment, a lot has occurred:

-a medical trip to Okinawa to check on my health progression

-promotion to the rank of Captain in the AF

-brief stint as acting Engineering flight chief

-trip to the Philippines, albeit an extremely abbreviated 9-day version.  Shortened mostly because of work issues as in…

-working the jobs of three people, all by myself due to AF downsizing and other factors

-some dental surgery which kept me at home for a few days

And that’s just the stuff that I can remember off the top.  The fact that the Pittsburgh Penguins will be playing in the Stanley cup finals in a matter of hours isn’t lost on me either.  But that’s still in the (near) future, much more to dwell on until then:

-I’m fully immersed in the X-Men again as you may have read or observed previously, probably even more so than in the grade school or college days.  It’s a relaxing escape for me, definitely.  The fact that my family (even beyond my wife and two kids) are getting into it is a huge bonus and makes the book purchases much more meaningful.  I’m anxiously awaiting Giant-size Astonishing X-Men #1 (which concludes the "Unstoppable" story-arc) at the end of this month.  In honor of the soon-to-be restructured Astonishing-X team, here’s a nice artsy pic of the team:

-The inner debate at the moment for me is which team do I like more, the current Astonishing crew or the New X-Men (pictured below)?  Could be a tie…

-Took a trip with the kids to inner Tokyo today, minus Donna who was at work.  First stop was Krispy Kreme in Tachikawa, where we waited in line for a grand total of 5 minutes.  Compared to the hour(s) long wait at the Shinjuku branch, we positively booked it through at Tachikawa.  Then we hit the ever-familiar Harajuku, where we mixed in familiar visits to Wolfgang Pucks and Jingu-Bashi with hitting new spots in Kiddyland and Blister at Omote-Sando.  By the way, today was our first ever visit to any Krispy Kreme shop… we never went to any of the Manila ones or even any of the California ones.

-It’s easy to see which team I’m following more closely between the Penguins and the Boston Celtics… but which one am I rooting for more to win this year?  Tough call… the veteran Celtics or the young Penguins?  The obvious choice would be the Celtics… but with some extra brain cell activity I’m thinking that success in today’s NHL is much more hard to come by, since the Penguins of the present day were really assembled starting around 2000 with the drafting of Brooks Orpik.  The Celtics, with the exception of Paul Pierce, were really put together in a matter of months.  Still, I’m pulling for both to win this year… that would be special.

-Yesterday, I took my lover out to the newly-opened Premium Outlet mall in nearby Iruma city.  Definitely a nice place, and the prices are hit-or-miss, but what caught me by surprise was the volume of "Hawaii" shops there.  The trip to Hawaii a couple of months ago definitely whetted my appetite for bringing the family on a short island getaway, and the outlet mall seemed to only reinforce the notion.

Ah, nothing like a long weekend combined with some medically-mandated time off to get the thoughts and the blog flowing again… even if I’m having to control three steering wheels by myself.

Last week, I had a "business" trip to Hawaii, for the Pacific Air Forces programmer’s conference.  The conference itself was very important to me, in giving me the tools to do my day-to-day job.

The highlight, though, was finding my peace with Hawaii.

Of course, I was born and raised in Hawaii… but not all of my memories are of the pleasant kind.  The economy, the job market, the traffic, the conformity complex… it dragged me down, of course.

But, in a matter of a week, my viewpoint changed.

Not that I’d be willing to return to my previous job or a similar in Hawaii.  But being a "temporary duty" guy at Hickam AFB showed me how living and making a living in Hawaii can be good and positive overall… if you find yourself in a good situation.

The highlights of my week in Hawaii:

-going to Zippy’s for lunch, and introducing other Air Force personnel to the "local" cuisine

-visiting comic books stores for the first time since my teenage years (to complete the Astonishing X-Men saga to date and acquire some other X-titles

-going to Borders in Waikele and Barnes & Noble in Ala Moana… I didn’t realize how much I missed being in a bookstore

-shopping at Ala Moana

-seeing the sunset at Waikiki Beach

-seeing the sun rise at the Blowhole

-going to Ko Olina on an extended lunch break

Maybe the one week is a fluke… or quite possibly it could be a microcosm of life if I got stationed at Hickam in the future.  Either way, I left the 50th state at peace with myself and with Hawaii.

Out of all the many "X-Titles", past and present, I’ve found one that’s definitely established itself as my favorite:  Astonishing X-Men.

Starting out just after Jean Grey died (again), Scott and Emma Frost (formerly the White Queen, one of the prominent enemies of the X-Men) lead the way to carry on with Professor X’s dreams. 

What separates this title from the others?  One thing I noticed right away from issue #1 was a somewhat "compact" cast, so there’s ample opportunity to focus on the invididuals that make up the team.

Another thing to like are the fights, and I don’t mean the Astonishing team fighting baddies, but amongst each other!

The storyline is very likeable as well, not relying on other titles for continuity (so you don’t have to buy multiple titles to follow one storyline).  If you had to stick to one title, Astonishing is definitely the candidate.

The "cast" is great, with original X-member Cyclops, his new girlfriend Emma to provide "edge" to the team, Wolverine who’s all "edge", the likable Beast, and Kitty constantly suspicious of former villain Emma.

Finally, the humor is of the highest quality.  They are called "comics", after all:

Well, the relationship thing with Scott and Emma, it’s quite interesting and it deserves a post of its own… more to come.

So, after several times passing by an issue of X-Men in the store, I finally caved in.

Not to purchasing the comic books, but subscribing.

No, not a monthly subscription, but to the digital Marvel comic books online.

It’s been a blast so far!

A bit of history on this subject…

1983-1985:  Read many titles in junior high, especially X-Men, Spider-Man, Alpha Flight, New Mutants, and Fantastic Four.

1993-1994:  Read some titles while in college, just focusing on X-Men and Spider-Man.

2008-????:  In my adult life, reading on the many X-Men titles available (X-Men, New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men Unlimited, etc)

The digital delivery is the best way to go for me.  For about $5 a month the reward is unlimited access to the digital publications, which runs from the oldest issues to the newer (though not quite completely "current" issues).  Better than going out and buying the newstand up ($3 per issue) and looking for the back issues to read ($$$ per issue).  There is some storyline that intrigue me that aren’t quite available online, so I have to (eagerly) order a couple of X-Men digest paperbacks to get my fill.

But, there is certainly a lot of catching up for me to do in the X-Universe, and gladly I will eventually catch up.  Right off the bat, being away from the "real" story (as opposed to the movies X-men through X3) makes you realize just how skewed the movies were.  And that’s saying something when it comes from me, who rarely will criticize a movie.

More to come, in the future a little more on the little details that have gotten this young-old dude back to being young again, if only in front of the computer screen and marvel.com… though I’m sure there must be some carryover…