Making an impression as a Gaijin

So on one of my trips to the host family's house, the weather was nice and there were a lot of kids playing outside in the street. Since Osaka has massive urban sprawl there aren't a lot of large open spaces, so its quite normal for kids to play out in the side streets that have very light traffic.

So anyways, it became apparent that we were all going to go out and play around outside, and interact with all the neighborhood kids who quickly gathered round me, as having a real live Gaijin at play is by far a unique experience for most of them. My heart grew happy to think of the wonderful impression I could make for all Gaijin kind on these impressionable young minds, who would always remember their friendly Gaijin playmate when they were 8 years old or whatever. World peace and all that.

Imagine how my heart fell when the father of my host family invites me to play a little catch with their baseball.

Let's just say, I'm not the most sports-inclined person to ever grace the green Earth, and while I gave it an honest try, I learned just how badly I suck at throwing baseball. Something I'm already practicing on remedying so that in the future I won't embarrass myself in front of a neighborhood full of international children looking at me as an example of all America, and quite possibly all of the European countries to boot.

(My sincerest apologies to all the Gaijin whose image will suffer for my ineptitude at sports.)

I'll try to start posting more regularly, as there's tons of stuff I keep thinking would make a great and interesting post, but then I completely forget about and only can remember when I'm not at home.

Frustrating, that.

Fondest wishes to the Western World. Eat some nachos for me, okay?!