1981 ~ 1987
Elementary School Days
I went to "Ryokuchi Shougakkou" in Toyonaka city. It takes 10 - 15 minutes to go there. I used to wake up around 7:30 and go to school by 8:00. I used to play soccer every morning be fore class. That's why I woke up early, and many other class mates, too. Guys came to school, play soccer, and then, took the class. I didn't like baseball because the ball is too small and it's a real pain in the ass if you are hit by the ball. I have experienced it when I was 8 years old or so. One day, I and my brother were playing baseball in a park nearby. Suddenly, an old man came up to us and said, "Let me hit the ball and you guys catch it." So we did. But, when he said those words, I noticed that the man was drunk. It was not dark. The sun was still up there. After catching the ball a few times, it was my turn to catch. The man hit the ball and the ball was coming straight to my face. I moved my left hand to cover my face as quickly as possible watching the ball getting closer and closer, bigger and bigger. When I came to, my nose was bleeding. The ball hit my nose. The man ran away in a matter of a second. Man, it hurt really hard. That's why I don't like baseball. That's when I started to hate baseball.
One day, when I was in 5th grade, I got interested in basketball. I didn't know that there was a sport that's very cool and fun. My frieds and I gathered and made boy's basketball club. I don't know why they didn't have boy's club even though they had girl's. So, we thought that we shouldn't let only the girls have fun, and we made one for the guys. We used to practice three days a week. It was the time when my height grew up, maybe 10 cm a year till I got to be 180 cm. It didn't stop. I know that I grew only vertically. In other words, I could have grew horizontally if I didn't grew vertically. (Nowadays, I gave up gaining weight. I just can't.)
Well, we practiced hard. We could tell that we were becoming better and better. We ended up in the 3rd place in Toyonaka city. I still have the medal in my house. Those were the days, huh?
When I was in elementary school, there was a TV program called, "Yoshimoto Shinkigeki." It used to start at noon on Saturdays, and I loved it. I used to go home as soon as the class finished to watch it. You might dout that I liked "OWARAI" but it was true, and I still love it. You can tell that I'm from Osaka. Surprisingly, I did "MANZAI" several times in front of my classmates. That was really fun and I felt good when I saw my friends laughing.
