First day of summer vacation, and what do I do? Get up early for my students, of course!

I'm going to Tokyo today with a good friend of mine who is leaving Japan in about a week :(

Since it's her last weekend she said she wanted to go to Tokyo. So, although I've kinda been there a lot, I really had no choice but to go again ^^ darn! Tokyo! Man, that's rough.

Today is also the first day of summer vacation (FINALLY!), and of the regional baseball tournament. If I wasn't going to Tokyo of course I'd be going all weekend (or however long my teams last). BUT, since I'm leaving I figured I can't go. I was pretty disappointed, actually, since I've watched ALL of the tournament games the current Miya san nen sei have played in. I came to Japan right at the start of the second term in their first year of junior high school, which is when they can start playing in games. Also, I was really lucky that my former JTE at Miya was a coach on the team at the time, so it was easy for me to go; I was only able to start watching Kuguno play once I got Tank.

Anyway, in Takayama (and maybe the rest of Japan too, I'm not sure), after the tournaments associated with the first term end, the san nen sei (9th grade) have to stop playing in order to study for the high school entrance exams. So this will be their last tournament, assuming they don't get the top spot and go on to the prefectural game at the end of the month.

On top of this, after the san nen sei retire, there will only be 9 players left on the Miya team. There is a minimum of 10 players required to join tournament games, so essentially, this is also the last tournament for the entire team until the new kids come next spring and boost their numbers.

So there I was, 2 years of game watching under my belt, and prepared to miss the last one. And then last night at the end-of-term party for Miya JHS, while telling the baseball coach I can't go, it occurred to me. My bus for Shinjuku isn't until 130 pm, I'm not meeting my friend until 1, the game starts at 9am. I CAN GO. For the start, at least. Better than nothing...

Unfortunately, it's all the way in Furukawa, which is like, at least a half hour north of Takayama, plus. Even more since I live south of the city. And on top of that I don't know where the baseball ground is there. So I'm meeting the team at the school by 715 ^^

This time yesterday I had a nice, free, Saturday morning waiting for me. In which I could laze around a bit before meeting my friend and going to Tokyo. At the very least, I could sleep in.

Now I'm up at 530am, ha ha ha

PS it's currently raining. Won't that be ironic if I get myself over there only to find out the game has been postponed and I can't see it!