This week marked the official end of league for this year. I’m sad that we won’t be bowling again until the 9th or, it’s amazing how addicted I’m becoming to this game. Now, if only I had the scores to reflect my passion.
The end of year party was, just like last year, awesome. This time around the event was held at a hotel in Tsukiji on the 32F of the New Hankyu Hotel. One of the members of the league happens to be a part time chef at one of the restaurants there and cut us a great deal. Not only was the food good, but we had an awesome view overlooking sections of downtown Tokyo and the waterfront. As nearly everyone one of us commented, it was a little out of our league (no pun intended there, seriously).
Poor disbanded 12-X is no more, however. We parted ways at the party, got our group pictures and participated in our final event as a team. Come next season we’ll be scattered like so many bowing balls in the wind, with Peter and I landing with Miyoshi-san and Louis joining forces with Okada-san and another. It will be another “rebuilding” year for my team I’m afraid, but Miyoshi-san and I hope to bring Peter up to speed a bit on using a curving ball and nailing down some consistency. My major goal for the next season is very, very simple. Just have fun. Within the last couple of weeks a combination of my studying as well as learning that the world is not going to end if I bowl poorly has significantly increased my scores. I’ll see if I can keep like smiles when my average takes a dive again. I hope to also learn a lot more from Miyoshi-san this time around. Last time I was on his team, he really didn’t have much to tell me, but it was probably due to my approachability. I think my primary goal should help this as well.
Funny little story happened on the way home. Just as I was boarding the train in Shinjuku, I get this call from none other than Peter. I immediately thought something was wrong with the servers so I picked up quickly. Turned out Peter was instead distressed over getting just a tad bit tipsy and then proceeding to leave his for a night at the hotel. He needed help tracking it down, so he asked me to give Miyoshi-san a call, which I did. But her phone (this is the older sister Miyoshi now), just continued to ring so I left a stumbling, semi-coherent message in Japanese for her. Strike one, so I went to plan B, call my bowling parter and see if she was still at the hotel. Upon calling her, she picked and I began explaining the situation to her. Much to my surprise, just after I finished telling her about the missing bag, she thanked me profusely for worrying about her. She thought I was talking about her bag! (possibly) Then she said she had to get on a train so we said our goodbyes. Strike two. Finally, it hit me that I could give the hotel a call instead. When I reached the front desk, they sent me through to the restaurant where we had the party and as soon as I got on the line, they assured me the bag was safe. I relayed the message to a much relieved Peter.
But the story continues! After getting out of the shower, I happened to see that Miyoshi-san had tried to call me back, but left no message. However, my bowling partner had also called AND left a message. I listened to her on the recording once again thanking me for my kindness and worrying about her. I have no idea what she heard in my call to her, but certainly cracked me up later.
All in all a great night out with some very compassionate and wonderful people. I’m very proud and happy to be a member of this league. Even if it does mean accidentally receiving undeserved praise.