A Series of Fortunate Events: Entry Two
September 14, 2016 | Softball
This summer , senior Ali Aguilar had the opportunity to travel and play with the U.S. National Team and the USA Women's Elite Team. In this blog series she recaps her experiences during the summer of a lifetime...
Hey Dawg fans- I'm back! Or should I say, "Kon'nichiwa!" I just got back from Takasaki, Japan with the Women's National Team and it was quite an adventure! We went there for the second time this summer to compete in the Japan Cup which consisted of just three other countries: Australia, Chinese Taipei, and Japan. I hope you enjoy reading about my daily experiences while in Japan!We departed from Dallas, Texas on August 28 (yes that's my birthday!) and took off on a 13-hour flight to "Japanland" – it's not as bad as it seems…. kind of. At least in our case it didn't seem as long because it wasn't a full flight so we got extra room to ourselves along with snacks, movies, and, to be honest, a little bit of melatonin. At last we arrived in Japan on August 29th when our bodies were telling us that we should be sleeping because it's the middle of the night in the United States. However, we fought our grumpiness because we knew we were there to represent our country while playing the best sport of all time. We met our translator, Satomi, who was incredibly sweet and VERY helpful (since I obviously don't know how to speak Japanese.) When we arrived at the hotel a few hours later most of us just ate dinner and fell asleep so we could be energized for the next day.
August 30 On the next day at 5:45am I was wide awake. I look over and my roommate, Janie, is just as awake as I am. Starbucks it is!! Later that day we had practice in a shed somewhere in Takasaki City because guess what?! It was raining!! So I guess I brought a little bit of Seattle to Japan with me. After doing some BP, throwing, and defensive footwork we went back and called it a day because we had an exhibition game to get ready for the next day.August 31 It's game day against Team Honda, a professional softball team in Japan! But first, a few of my teammates and I decided that we wanted to go do something adventurous around the city. My teammate and Auburn senior, Kasey Cooper, asked if anyone wanted to go see a statue known as "Takasaki Byakue Dai-Kannon." So, Janie Takeda, Kelly Barnhill, and I took her up on the offer and then Satomi said she would go with us.. phew! So we took about a 10 min ride to the statue from the hotel. Once we got there it was really cool because we could climb inside and look out over the entire city. We also looked at shrines and had some great talks while walking on the wrong side of the road because, hey, we're American! In addition to this adventure that I failed to mention was that we got stranded trying to look for a taxi on the way back. Without our translator, Satomi, we would have had a LONG walk back to the hotel. We eventually made our way back just in time to get prepared for our exhibition game that night. We ended up winning 5-2.
September 1 After waking up early yet again, we had 1 ½ hour practice in the middle of the day at Jonan Baseball Stadium. We got to see some live spins which was good because a lot of hadn't seen live in 4-5 weeks (besides the game the day before), so we made it work! After that practice we got more comfortable with the feel of the stadium and headed back to the hotel. Even though we were tired, Janie and I decided to ride bikes around the city and we were juiced when we found out they were free!! We stopped at clothing stores, rode down ally ways, and said "Kon'nichiwa" to almost every single Japanese person we passed by.
September 2 The games begin!! We faced a tough Australian team for the first game of the tournament. It's always a battle between us and Australia but we fought to a 3-1 win. Val Arioto led our team on offense and Jess Moore pitched phenomenally to secure the win. It's always good to start off the first game of the tournament with a win!
September 3 Today was a great day to play two GREAT countries, Chinese Taipei and Japan. We knew these games were crucial to set us up for a good position to win the Cup! We beat Chinese Taipei 9-0 with a team effort on offense and Ally Carda's deadly pitching in the circle. Moving forward we also beat Japan in a close game with a score of 4-3. It's always a good day when you beat Japan, especially in their home country!!
September 4 The CHAMPIONSHIP. Of course, it's against Japan. I don't really want to talk about the score….. But I will. We lost 9-1. Although the game didn't result the way we intended, it was still great because I got to see Yuta Taniguchi, our 2015 softball manager. For those of you who don't know, he was a Japanese exchange student at UW for the 2014-2015 school year and ended up on our staff for that year. It was so nice to see him and get to hang out with him after the game! We ended up talking and hanging out so long that he missed the last train back to Tokyo & had to stay the night in Takasaki – whoops!September 5 Back to Cali I goooooo! This day was full of travel. We had a 3 hour bus ride from Takasaki to Tokyo, an 12-hour flight to Dallas, 2 1/2 hour flight to Salt Lake City, and a 1 hour 45 minute flight back to Sacramento. I was so happy to be home but I was also so grateful for the opportunity to represent the red, white, and blue this summer.
Once I came home & reflected on my journey to Japan aside from softball, I realized I learned quite a bit about Japanese culture. Their hospitality is like none other and they are
the nicest, most respectful people you will ever meet. However, what stuck out to me the most was learning about Japanese culture and how it has a presence in my family back home. My dad is half Japanese and his mom/my grandma (who passed away when I was a baby) used to live very close to Tokyo before she moved to the United States. I was excited that I could be fully immersed in Japanese culture for a couple weeks this summer. I came to the conclusion that although my dad didn't share much of the Japanese traditions with my siblings and I when we were growing up, he did hold morals and values that line up with Japanese culture. It was interesting to observe the way Japanese people would act and then compare it to my dad. From spending multiple weeks of my summer in Japan I became more understanding of my dad and how he has learned to be who he is! To me, that is very special and important because I would have been missing out on a part of who my dad was if I never traveled to Japan. Overall, this entire summer was an experience of a lifetime. I met some of the most fun, genuine, and hardworking people and I know that the friendships that were made will be a part of me forever. I have learned so much about myself in 3 short months this summer and I still have a lot of reflecting to do. That being said, I hope to get another chance to represent the USA again next summer, but for now my focus is set on helping lead the PURP & GOLD to Oklahoma City.
-Ali Aguilar
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