Olympics

Today I am Beijing, running the men’s marathon step by step. The Japanese TV station I am watching is showing the entire race, uninterrupted by a single ad. As the men pound their way though the Forbidden City, I not only get to see each one run his race but also I get to see this famous Chinese landmark. The pace is incredible! The leaders have been doing about 3 minutes kilometers and have how many more to do? A pack of ten men are leading. Spain in the only non-African country represented in the group. During the last few weeks I have watched more hours of TV than in my entire life till now! There has been so much Olympics coverage and here it’s more like being there, they show lots of the events real time, live, without interruptions. Yesterday I saw some amazing synchronized swimming performances by teams from China, Korea, Japan, America, Spain and Russia. I’m not sure who got what medal but they were all incredible. I have never even seen this sport before, let alone had an opportunity to see the entire routine of numbers teams. I’ve also seen entire soccer games. The Japanese women’s team has done very well. Oh, the lead pack is down to 5 men, two from Eritrea, two from Kenya, and one from Morocco. Beijing, (Peikin, they call it in Japanese) is filled with flowers and tree lined boulevards. But I bet it’s hot. I used to run and I can’t imagine having to do this many kilometers on hot pavement! My knees hurt just watching these guys. I think of all my friends who also run, or used to run. Perhaps you are watching the same race on your TV sets right now, thinking the same thing.


Luckily lots of sports words in Japanese are just English words, so I hear things like “chioto haiyai pace desu ne” , meaning it’s a bit of a fast pace isn’t it and “ Corsu no speedo de…” , which means “about the course speed”. It’s fun trying to figure out what the announcers are saying, as there is a running dialogue talking about the runners, (no pun intended) their previous records, their ages, and other stuff I totally don’t catch, but it’s good practice listening to it all in Japanese.


On Friday night I went with a couple of fellow students to a kaiten-zushi restaurant. You may have heard about these sushi restaurants where the offerings are circulating around on a conveyor belt and one just picks up the plates you want to eat as they go by. This was cheap sushi, a 100 yen (less than a $1) a plate, with usually two pieces of sushi or three pieces of a roll per plate. There were also desserts and drinks going by. We sat in a booth and the belt passed by at the end of table. There was also a second layer belt for special orders on which a little shikansen train (bullet train) went by. To order something that you didn’t see going by on the regular belt, you used a touch screen at the booth and could order different sushi, tempura, even noodle dishes, drinks and desserts. When your order was ready the train would stop at your booth. You took the plates off, pressed a button to say you had them and the train moved “out of the station”. It was all so cute. While the conveyor constantly circled with new offering, the little bullet train continually zoomed by with other people’s orders and we would ooo and ahh as they went by. Lucky Amelia was with us and could read the menu. I would have been lost. In all, I spent about $5 and was full. It wasn’t top quality, but it wasn’t bad and the price was right. Also, it was fun. I liked the free green tea that you made at your table where a hot water spout and cups were right at your fingertips. I have yet to go to a real sushi bar and get the really good stuff. Sorry I don’t have pictures of the restaurant, maybe next time and there will definitely be a next time!