I slept in and loved every second of it. Yesterday was so much fun, but it was a long day. We spent the whole day exploring Fukuoka City and only scratched the surface. I'm already looking forward to going back. I'm adding a Soft Bank Hawks game to my list of Upcoming Adventures & maybe even the Cats Club event featuring Kygo music.
We shall see.
After my coffee I packed up and headed out to explore the south side of Orio station. I wondered around for about 2 hours. I walked down side streets, through tunnels, across a bridge in the jungle ... I was all over the place.
There was the huge set of stairs I came across. I climbed them all the way to top, crossed the bridge, and saw my city from up above. It was spectacular.
On my way back towards my apartment I decided to extend my exploration and finally check out the University across the street. I always pass it on my way to school and on my walks to Hallo Day. I eye it every time. I've always stopped myself from going onto the campus because I haven't been sure if I am allowed to go in. There are always security guards standing around and the last thing I want to happen is to have an incident where I'm trying to apologize in English and broken Japanese. So, I've always just walked by. But today something was different.
I realized that if I don't at least try and give myself a chance then I know for sure it will be something I'll say in the future was a missed opportunity. And that's what the whole point of this experience is:
try new things, push myself, learn, and do what I actually want to do.
I crossed onto campus and surprise ... nothing happened. There was no guard running to stop me, no siren, no loud speaker saying, "Get off the grass!". Nothing. And I'm sure everyone reading this would have told me the same thing, "Nothing's, going to happen. Just do it."
"In Search of Deeply Cultivated Knowledge"
Being on campus made me nostalgic for my college days. Which makes what happened next even more special ...
I ventured past the soccer field, the baseball field, and some small practice fields, all the while hearing the sound of tennis balls. Somewhere a group of people were playing. I just new it. So I followed the sound and ended up at the bottom of a staircase. The courts were on the rooftop!
I walked to the top and sure enough there were 5 hard surface courts with a dusting of sand on top. There were tons of guys hitting -- probably around 20 or so. There was only 1 girl and she was on the court directly in front of me playing doubles with 3 other guys.
I didn't mean for them to see me. I just wanted to watch and honestly was shocked that I had even found the place. While I was peeking through the screen a guy showed up in front of me.
Me: "Konichiwa!"
Him: "Haha. Konichiwa."
[Through gestures and broken Japanese/English we came to the understanding that I would watch.]
I watched through screen for about 5 minutes when another guy showed up. He spoke a little English. We talked through the screen for a while and then he invited me inside to watch from the sidelines. I was so excited! I walked in and we sat down together to watch the girl playing doubles. Their match was so good. You could tell they all loved tennis and were having a blast. Every once in a while they threw in some English and I couldn't help but laugh.
We watched for a while and tried to talk to one another. We even added each other on Twitter. I think that's what's so great about social media and Google translator, it really does bring people together and helps close the language gap.
I was having the best time when it got even better. They looked at me, stared at my workout clothes and running shoes, spoke among themselves, and then asked,
"Tennis? Tennis now?"
I told them I didn't have a racket and then one of them said,
"Oh. Here. Present."
[Which meant I could borrow a racket.]
Of course, I said YES. I walked over to the benches with my new Twitter friend and he gave me a Yonex racket to use. We started off with mini tennis and then moved to the baseline. We hit for about 20 minutes and kept long rallies. So much so that even some of the players were yelling, "Long rally!".
When we finally stopped playing I told him THANK YOU and that I had a lot of fun today. When I said bye to everyone I said, "See you again!" and felt like I was at back at the junior high schools.
I think we'll get to hit again and I am looking forward to it! I cannot wait!
Today did not feel real.
It felt kind of magical.
