Kaonashi Ga Suki

I hope you all had a great Labor Day Weekend. I sure did. It’s a shame that it was so short though.

I spent Labor Day weekend (and birthday weekend) with my boyfriend and his parents. Since it was a very short holiday, we didn’t get to do much, but we made the best of things.

One of the cool things we did was that we attended a sheepdog competition. I’d never been to a sheepdog competition before, but I do know something about it from watching the movie Babe. Sure enough, it was very similar. All the dogs were border collies, and their task was to herd a small flock of sheep (5 sheep) through an obstacle course in 15 minutes. The course was laid out by a small hill, and obstacles included several gates that the dog had to herd the sheep through. At the bottom of the hill stood the dog’s owner, giving signals to the dog using a special whistle. Also at the bottom of the hill is the sheep’s corral, the final step of the course.

I have to say- those dogs work hard! They run around the whole time, trying their best to keep the sheep together. According to the announcer, one of the ways the dog is judged is according to consistency. The dog is supposed to stay on one side of the sheep -left or right. The dog isn’t supposed to switch sides, though I did see several of them behind the sheep. The wind made things additionally difficult, since it made it hard for the dogs to sometimes hear their owner’s whistle. This happened to one contestant, and as a result one of the sheep separated from the rest, didn’t enter through one of the gates, thus losing points for owner and dog. Another major problem is speed. Although 15 minutes seems like a long time, it actually isn’t. Many contestants didn’t get to the final step of herding the sheep in the corral.

Another cool event at the sheepdog competition were the Classic Highland games. These games are traditional Scottish sports, and from my perspective, most focus on throwing very heavy things. Whoever tosses the item the highest or farthest was the winner. We started chatting with one of the contestants, and he explained that some of the items tossed were large tires and beer kegs. One contestant, a retired Army man, threw a 116 pound bullet shell! I wonder how far that bad boy flew!

Since the Highland Games are specific to Scottish culture, most of the contestants wore traditional kilts. However, they were also wearing shorts underneath, which is a good thing considering that sometimes their kilts would twirl up as they spun and threw an object. I don’t exactly want to see some big, hairy 6 foot tall dude with tatoos and a gut going commando. And although most of the contestants were men, my bf’s dad said that he saw a woman participating in the contests! I presume she was no dainty little flower.

The event we got to watch was the sheaf toss. Using a two pronged pitchfork, large, burly men in kilts fling a 16 pound sack (hay, I assume?) over a bar set 20 feet. According to the contestant we were speaking to, the highest score during that day was 30 feet. The contestant, who himself was 6′3″, noted that this particular person was several inches taller than him.

It’s events like this that make me realize the diversity of people. We tend to assume that, because we live in the same state, the same city, that everyone is the same. We tend to assume that everyone likes the same kinds of sports- basketball, football, soccer, baseball, etc. We tend to assume that everyone has the same hobbies, the same culture. But we do not. We have different likes and dislikes. We have different interests and tastes. There is really something for everybody.

A few months ago my bf and I went for a little nature walk around Pasadena. We stumbled upon a group of people with bows and arrows. They turned out to be some archery club. It never occurred to us that people would like archery so much that they formed a club. Furthermore, the archers weren’t just a bunch of old guys- there was a teenage girl in thegroup.

Another time I was walking to church and passed by a park. I saw a small group of young Indian men playing what seemed to be a variation of baseball. For example, instead of a bat, the batter used what looked like a flat paddle. And instead of running around a baseball diamond, batters ran towards the catcher of the other team. It turned out that this game was called cricket. I had heard of cricket before. I knew it was a sport, but didn’t know anything else about it.

Have any of you encountered a sport or some type of tradition that you’d never seen before?