Sunday, April 12, 2009

The Neighborhood

I left the dorm really late today.

Not having anything specific to do I walked to the elementary school that is behind our building. There are always kids playing baseball or soccer there on the weekends. It is just a dirt field. Like no grass, just really hard. Today there was a soccer practice of sorts taking place. I have heard the kids yelling all afternoon. It was nearly 5 and they were still there. There were three scrimmages going on. A few moms were watching. The kids looked so young.

Since they were nearly playing on concrete the ball moves really fast. I was actually surprised they could keep up with it. It was almost like indoor soccer, except there was dirt swirling around and getting kicked up. Not the ideal field. But the boys took it really seriously.

When they were finished, I took the train to a park I've wanted to go to in Kawaguchi. It is right next to the train station, but there are a lot of cherry blossoms and a huge playground there. If you go out the station from the east exit there are a ton of pachinko parlors, shopping centers, and the metro type side. The west exit leads to this huge park. There is a large field where people were playing badminton, baseball. Another substantial area had equipment for kids to play on. There were pathways to walk through the trees and past streams. It was really pretty. And the side the park shared with the trains was lined with sakura trees. I'm always amazed to find these little gathering places, patches of green here.

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