May 032005
 

Picture yourself looking up at a blue sky peeking through a huge canopy of leaves on a perfectly clear day in Kyoto. As the faint sound of Japanese flutes recedes softly into the background, it’s gradually replaced by the unmistakable chatter of hundreds of spectators. You lower your eyes to catch one last glimpse of the traditionally-clad procession disappearing under a huge orange torii and into a nearby shrine.

You take a deep breath of fresh air and think about how lucky you were to have just seen real live samurai, riding fully clad on horseback with bows taller than themselves and quivers full of arrows swaying with their kimono.

Suddenly you hear a sound like thunder.

One of the samurai has turned around, and before you manage a blink he’s already traveled 100 meters and is directly in front of you. You hear a loud “CRACK,” you blink again, the samurai is off in the distance and a small wooden target barely the size of a paperback novel falls to the ground in two pieces along with the arrow that ripped it in half. You attempt to turn to catch up with him, but before your eyes can refocus two more loud noises assure all three targets have been shattered with perfect accuracy. With one last battle cry, the samurai disappears into the distance and the crowd goes wild.

Today was yet another one of those once-in-a-lifetime type of days.

Seems like I’ve already had enough of those for five lifetimes.

Thank you, Japan.

  11 Responses to “Golden Week 2: Archery”

  1. Yeah, well… today I.. uh.. PRINTED SOME COURT PAPERS. How do you like them apples?

    Noz

  2. awesome indeed! you need to consider writing a novel at some point.

  3. I put men who get paid millions of dollars to put an orange ball through a circle, on television.

    I love you

  4. And I proctored an 8b midterm in silence for 2 hours!!!!!

    (I can totally picture it….sounds awesome…great story)

    Andy

  5. I touched a dog’s anus.

  6. Yeah, that archery competition was really something, wasn’t it. I remember it like it was yesterday….

  7. HAHAHAHAHA……..ROFL Nick

  8. Jeff: For the first time, I beleive that you have everyone beaten with the most interesting job (eek! did i just say that??)

    Nick! 何で犬のおしりを触ったか聞かないけど。。。めっちゃおかしいわ 😛

    Dylan: Indeed, sir. I too remember it like it were yesterday. Or at least like I watched my videos of it yesterday 🙂

  9. The samurai pix are fantastic! What an awesome sight. Timewarp. Sometime I need to figure out what family the samurai sword of my Father’s originally belonged to. He disarmed a Japanese officer carrying in in China during WWII.

    And I don’t know if it is actually part of his job, but Nick’s up to some pretty interesting stuff, dontcha think?

  10. aw screw you guys I gotcha allz beat. I:

    1. Watched 4 NBA Playoff games in their entierty in a row; ELEVEN hours of basketball on TV.

    2. Cried at how sad my life is.

    3. Listened to numerous clients bitch and moan for roughly 92% of my work day about why they shouldn’t pay a $3 service charge they agreed to pay originally.

    4. Cried again.

    5. Held a philosophical conversation with digitally rendered characters as I played my new Star Wars: Episode III & Midnight Club 3 video games.

    6. Ate a hamburger.

    7. Cried.

    8. Coughed, then cried.

    9. Nailed 3 girls in the same evening, who were triplets, on the Olympic gymnastics team, AND lesbians!!!

    Okay so that last one didn’t happen :/

  11. I posted to show how meaningless and lame my life is while you doing all these cool hikes and explorations with all this gaijin -dojo- san- macadonaldzoo- SHOCK- kimono- beer stick -I share happiness by toast-sumo-ramen-gankeedeska-sakura-bamboo things.

    LOL! Like I said, what you are doing is so awesome and look at what I do. Put huge thugs that throw a ball through a hoop and make $10 million a year to do so, on tv. Further glorifying their already inflated egos.

    Yay to be me. (p.s. Connecticut SUCKS, DO NOT EVER MOVE THERE IF YOU READ THIS!)

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