Throwing Rocks
The Japanese Curling Team
I knew the Winter Olympics were coming to Nagano, Japan, but being busy with work and a new baby I never seriously thought about going. That was until about 2 weeks before the games Kaori and I were visiting our American friends, Bob and Barbara, and they made me realize that I shouldn't pass up the chance to see and Olympics especially when it was being held so close to where I live.
Kaori called and called the ticket sales telephone number for us and when she finally got through the only indoor event we could get tickets for was - Curling. We bought the tickets, but I felt pretty silly telling our friends, we are going to travel all the way to Nagano to watch people sweep. Bob and Barbara only laughed a little, but said they were excited anyway.
February 12th came around and we took the brand new shinkansen express train up to Nagano City. Actually the curling arena was in Karuizawa which was the stop before Nagano, but we thought we should see what the Olympic village looked like first. Well we didn't see much since the weather in Nagano was terrible. It rained the who time we were there.
First we got lost going to the famous shrine, Zenkkoji. We found that the shrine is really pretty far from the station and that taking the bus was better. On the bus we met a cool Finish Lady who was in Nagano to cheer on her speed skating neighbor. She must have been 190cm tall. The shrine was nice and we bought our fortunes and I tried to translate everything. The best part was that in the back of the shrine they had a tunnel to go through that was pitch black. First you must take your shoes off to go in, then you had to run your right hand along the wall until you found the "Key to Paradise" - which is kind of like a door knocker. When you find it and knock three times you get to go to heaven. I didn't find it at first and the woman ahead of me had to show me where it was. I wonder if it still counts...
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Grass Kazoos
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After that we wandered around the station and caught the train to the curling match. It was held at a remodeled ice rink and the place had around 1000 seats. We were hungry by then so we stopped for food at the snack stand inside. For entertainment there were some local ladies playing "What a friend we have in Jesus" on a leaf - no lie. It sounded just like a kazoo. We got our dinner of canned coffee cold rice balls and sat down wondering to each other what was happening on stage when one of the US women curling team members who was sitting nearby explained to us about the leaves. The women's team manager, Diane Brown, then befriended us and told us about curling. She was really nice, and even invited us to sit with the team during the curling match. The US team is really a family affair since her daughter is on the team and her husband's the coach. It seems that there are only 15,000 curlers in US so the Milwaukee, Wisconsin women's club was chosen as the Nagano team. We didn't talk so much to players since they were in a bad mood from being eliminated from the competition earlier that day.
Mrs. Brown tutored us in curling for 2 hours. I think I kind of understand the sport now. At the level that the Olympic curlers play at the game is all strategy. Often they play a game to a draw since that is the best way to win the match. It does look like it would be fun to try, but I bet it is hard to be good at it like golf.
The Japanese men's curling team was really young. The skip was only 21 compared to the other teams who's players were mostly over 30. They were playing the US and were leading, but we had to leave before it was over in order to catch our train home. I still haven't found out who won. A curling match takes 2:30 hours to finish.
What impressed me was that all the curlers are truly amateur. Many members of the US team had difficulty taking time off work to come to Nagano. They seemed happy just to have the chance to compete and spread the word about curling. Considering the bad behavior and attitudes of the "professional" ice hockey players it was refreshing to meet people who do their sport just because they love it.
by James Zivney
james@fcjapan.com
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