Badminton

Yoko invited me to play badminton with her and some of the other Kamikaifu teachers last night.  Sure, badminton sounds cool.  In my mind, it’s one of those sports that ranks in the same category as Frisbee, bags, and bocci ball: a summer-time BBQ, laid-back, fun sport.  Apparently, like ping-pong, badminton is one of those sports that everyone grows up playing … and excelling at.  These skinny little Japanese girls were ‘smashing’ the ‘shuttle’ with such experienced technique that I nearly threw my arm out trying to keep up.  I was gripping and swinging the racket so hard that I lost all ability to do anything else with my entire right arm for the rest of the night.  I’m not over-exaggerating at all when I say that I struggled to put coins into the vending machine and grip the tea bottle with my right hand.  It’s shaking as I type this, but it was SO MUCH FUN!!