Trials & Tribulations of a Baller

Its hard to believe that 2 months have gone by already! I am now well and truly settled into my work routine and am enjoying it a lot. The last couple of weeks were pretty ordinary as I watched my savings dwindle, so I couldn't wait for my first payday this week! After some slight difficulties with the bank, I managed to get my hands on my "hard-earned" yen and went on a mission to spend some! But before I did that, I had to find the fabled "Michael Jordan Court" in Tokyo. My previous searches for this Holy Grail of Japanese Basketball Courts had been fruitless (finding a place in Tokyo with vague directions ain't too easy!), but on this day I was determined to find it or build it if it was just an urban myth! After mapping out a section of unexplored Shibuya terrain, I set out to find Japan's "Rucker". One hour later, no luck,heading back to the station...."wait, whats this street?"....and there it was, the unmistakable sound of a basketball court. The "Michael Jordan Court", opened by His Airness in May 2004, is a caged court, about 2/3 the size of a full court. MJ has left a message for the kids at the courts entrance next to a cast of his Gorilla sized hands! A few kids played down one end and I played the other end with a Japanese cat who had a pure J. Finally! Found the court. Got my fix....'bout to get some more real soon....To celebrate I went and bought a pair of shoes, Jordans of course, to commemorate the day!
Next mission: I had been eyeing up the tallest building in Japan for a while (kinda hard not too when I see it every day!) and decided it was time to see how high it really was - from the top. I just hoped there would be no earthquakes while I was up there!
The aptly named Landmark Tower in Yokohama, is 70 stories or 273m high! The observatory is on the 69th floor and has a 360 degree view of the city, stretching for up to 80km! To get to the top I got to ride the fastest elevator in Japan (45km/hour), which had trippy lights in the roof and made my ears pop. Needless to say the views were awesome, as you can see from the pics. Unfortunately it was too smoggy to see Mount Fuji, except for a faint outline, so I hope to go back on a clear day to capture that view.
My day ended on the same note it started - basketball. I went to the local community gym for the Friday nite basketball (it is only on Fridays and I normally work Friday night, so it was my 1st and maybe only chance to play there). Here, I was introduced to pick-up basketball, Japanese-style. About 50 players arrived at the starting time and proceeded to shoot around on the 2 courts for 20mins. Then the dude in charge blew his whistle, said something, and everyone moved to the walls to follow the dude leading the stretches! Well, I had stretched, so I just chatted to the only other gaijin there, a Canadian guy. Then the whistle blew again, a few more words were shouted and everyone was into layup drills! I didn't come for practice but I was getting it! Anyway, after a few minutes we stopped and made teams of 5 (3 Japanese guys, me and Canada made up our team) and the "tournament" began. A whiteboard showed what teams were playing and what teams were on duty (reffing and scoring). Games went for about 10 mins
each. Our team kicked ass in our 1st 3 games and tied our last game (boys were getting a bit and1!). It was pretty cool playing that system, because everything was so well organised. After the games I was recruited by a player who wants me in his weekend team, starting this Sunday. So after 2 months of virtually no ballin' and no luck finding a team, I hit the jackpot -MJ court, pick-up game at the gym, recruited to a team! This Sunday I am playing for the team that recruited me from 9.30-12.30, then have practice with another team (which my friend Risa found for me) from 6pm-8ish...which team to play for?...take my pick! Anyway, Im gonna be buggered on Sunday, coz I'll be out supporting the AB's v England on Sat Nite (11.30pm local time, Live), but it's all good!


MJ's Suction Cups!; Inspiration; The next Jordan? Doubt It!



Air Jordan; Air Trotter; Random Pic:Marcus, J-Girl? & Me, drinking Beer on Train! I Love this place!

The Beast aka Landmark Tower; Minato Mirae; Tokyo in the distant smog


Beautiful; Yamashita Park, Yokohama Stadium & My Work; My bedroom....it's not always this messy Mum!