Aug. 7, 2008
Yee’s Photos From Tokyo Before Heading To Beijing
While many college students use the summer to relax by the pool, go to the beach and work as waiters and waitresses, members of the Georgia Tech Softball Team are making full use of their time. Some are traveling the world, while others are getting a head start on their careers with some unique and interesting internships or jobs. RamblinWreck.com will give you a feel for what some of these student-athletes are doing with “Summer Diaries.” In part seven, Jen Yee checks in one final time on Team Canada’s last exhibition stop-Japan. The Canadians played a couple more exhibition games, but also had some time to relax and sightsee last weekend before they made their way to Beijing. Check back to www.ramblinwreck.com throughout the Olympic Games for full updates on Yee and former Tech stand-out Caitlin Lever as Canada looks to medal.
Softball Summer Diaries Part VII: Yee Spends Time In Tokyo Before Arriving In Beijing This Week For The Olympics
August 4, 2008
Hello again. We’re getting down to it guys, we leave for Beijing tomorrow. We just played our last game today against a Japanese pro team, now it’s off to the big show. It’s getting exciting now, and I feel really good, I’m definitely ready to get started.
The last couple days here have been pretty fun. We’ve since moved out of the city of Sendai and now we’re outside the city of Chiba. I don’t know the name of the town but we’re pretty much staying on a mountain in the rainforest. I’m just waiting for some sort of wild carnivorous animal to jump out of the bamboo one day on the walk back from the internet room to our cabins we’re staying in. At first I was annoyed at the fact we were staying in cabins instead of the hotel down the street, but after another earthquake a couple days ago at 5am, I’m not so annoyed.
The other day we went into Chiba to watch a professional baseball game. Baseball is like a religion here, and I’ve never had so much fun watching a game before, not to mention we got to go on the field before the game and meet Bobby Valentine who manages the Chiba Marines. Watching baseball isn’t the same here, it’s not like in the states where you just sit there and drink beer, there’s organized cheering going on in which you’re expected to participate in. We were all given a cheer flag to wave around, only when our team was on offence though, no cheering allowed when your team is on defence. There was a guy in the middle of us with a microphone and he would yell out which cheer we were to do. The cheers didn’t vary much so they were easy to learn, usually it would consist of the hitter’s name combined with “Let’s go!” or “Katabasi!” which means hit it hard in Japanese. There was also a team song that everyone knew and they gave us balloons to let go when the song was finished. Check it out
We’ve also made a trip into Tokyo. On our last day off the team took the train from our hotel into the city. Some went to go see the temples, and waterfront and others hung out in the city. Tokyo kind of reminded me of New York City with all the billboards and flashing lights. It was a fun and tiring day, and a good day getting away from our hotel on the mountain.
Well, Japan’s been great, but it’s time to say goodbye. It’s been a long 8 months coming, but I think we’re more prepared than ever. I can’t wait!
