No one was there, and I really wasn't sure how to use a Japanese DVD player (AKA I couldn't read the Kanji), so I turned around and left. My bike was parked next to the multi-purpose
field, and as I was unlocking my bike, I suddenly heard someone shouting. 30 seconds later, I heard it again. And again...and again...and again...until I finally started wandering around trying to find the source of it. I eventually noticed a little shed in the back corner of the field, and finally figured out that that was where it was coming from. I sat on my bike for awhile, just watching for awhile when I saw people coming out of the back of the shed, carrying bows and wearing Kyuudo uniforms. (Which, for those of you who don't know, Kyuudo is Japanese Archery)I had actually entertained the idea of joining the Kyuudo club when I heard that there was one, so after 20 minutes of totally just creeping on them from my bike across the field (and they
totally knew it too), I finally got up the guts to get closer. As I got closer I noticed the shed wasn't actually a shed, but a club house, with a main floor where people were shooting from, and a step up behind them, where all the other members were sitting in seiza ( a very formal, and in my opinion, painful, way to sit) and watching.I wandered around the back side of building, and lucky me, there were two people practicing out back, so I didn't actually have to disturb practice in the building. I talked to them briefly, asking if this was indeed Kyuudo, and could I watch. One of them brought me around to the side on the other side of the bushes that lined the shooting range and told me I could watch from there. We only talked briefly, since you have to be very quiet when watching Kyuudo and shortly after he had to return to practice, but he told me I could call him by his given name, which was Takashi, and was surprised that I was interested in Kyuudo. I asked him some questions, but seeing as he rattled off a bunch of technical Kyuudo terms that my dictionary doesn't have, I could only nod and pretend I knew what he was saying.
Japanese archery is more art than sport, and quite honestly, beautiful to watch. Everything they do, they do with purpose. Every move is intentional, ever hand motion, resting position, step, setting the arrow in the bow is done just so, in a very exact manner, and when they step out onto the floor to get into position to shoot, they do so in perfect unision and beautiful flowing movements. Only one person shoots at a time, and depending on what stage of waiting you're in, you have a specific position and way to hold your bow. The bows are bigger than regular archery, and I'm guessing they require a lot more arm strength, because even Takashi's arms (and he looked like one of the buffer guys in the club) were shaking when he had the bow pulled all the way back.
The targets are smaller than regular archery, and there are only two colors on the target - white and black, with black being the center. Someone stands at the end of the shooting range, and
every time the person shooting hits the target, they shout "Ataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" if they hit the target. And its a full body scream...like...they bend at the knees, use their whole upper bodies and scrunch up their faces while they do it. I didn't understand Takashi's explanation, so I had to google what and why they were screaming "Atari"...I still don't know why.At the end, once everything was cleaned up, the new members lined up, and one by one had to run out to the exact middle of the target gallery (and when I say exact middle, I do not mean this as a joke. They literally made people start over if they weren't exactly in the middle). the members then had to yell what sounded either like "Yoshi" or "Ushi" as many times as was necessary until the upper class men standing in the club house at the other end of the shooting range deemed their shouting good enough and acknowledged them. They then had to rattle off this super fast, super formal self introduction without screwing up, which, if they did, they had to go to the back of the line and try again. If they made it past the self introduction, they got to move onto yelling "Ataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii". If the upper class men didn't think they had done it just right, that also resulted in being sent to the back of the line.
The person who was able to get it the quickest and joined the upper class men was a girl who got it within three tries. Some got it between 5-7, but most were in the 8-11 range. One poor guy who was clearly sweating bullets had to do it 20 times (and yes I counted.) I was so tired of hearing "Moikkai" (One more time), and was trying to figure out what stick the president had stuck up in him (since he had the final say), but luckily, the guy finally got it, and I clapped for him along with everyone else :)
Practice ended after that, and I was asked by a girl who never actually told me her name if I wanted to join the club. Judging by how shiny and varied all the bows and arrows were, I'm assuming everyone owned their own, and since I wasn't really willing to cough up that kind of money for one semester nor go through the humiliation the first years had just gone through, I told her I don't think so, but I asked if I could come back and watch. She told me yes and when they practiced and I took my leave after telling her to say thank you to Takashi because he was busy.
I showed up two minutes late to practice the next day, thinking that since they were still
cleaning the club house and I was just watching I was okay, but clearly this was not the case, and I've been made an unofficial member of the Kyuudo club because the girl from the other day told me that I was welcome to come, but please come on time. I was kind of baffled by this, but said Thank you, and that I would sure to be on time on Friday. Apparently the Kyuudo club likes their little Gaijin mascot?Practice on Monday was a lot smaller, shorter and a little less formal and I actually got to talk to Takashi again for a little bit, and I think he said that if I really do enjoy watching Kyuudo as much as I say I do, that he would appreciate me coming back again. :) Yay for being an unofficial member of the Kyuudo club!
In other, non-Kyuudo related news, it turns out Arai-sempai from the Film Club joined my literature class, so I helped her understand the readings since our teacher was talking really fast and didn't really show a lot of interest in making sure she understood. I occasionally wrote notes on the readings for her like "He breathed his last" "no imi wa shinda"(it means he died,) I later had lunch with her and bunch of other JEK people in the JEK room and she said she really appreciated it :)
The JEK people were really nice, but it was funny every time one of them came into the room, they would just stop and stare at me and their eyes would flick to Arai-sempai and then back and forth as if to say "Uhm...care to explain?". Once they finally understood that I was an exchange student and that I was joining, they were a lot more chill with me being there and they were a fun group :) We had lunch together, they were mystified over my tortilla soup, watched some of Flight Plan and played with some weird plastic bubble kit and had a fun time. :) This may become my usual lunch hang out.
Oh yes! And I got a postcard saying that I can go to the immigration bureau and pick up my VISA! Now I just need to find a day that I have enough time to sit and play the waiting game at both the immigration bureau and city hall. Yaaaaaaay for not being deported!
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