FIFA meal at McDonald's: What a trip

By Ed Piper

I just bought my eighth FIFA World Cup meal (July 18) at McDonald's, and I want to share my experience writing my first blog entry on my new electric table (assembled yesterday).

Aaahhh (sigh of disappointment). I received another Bebote Gimenez (presumably from Mexico) souvenir cup (cheap plastic, with the figure's image in a painting on the outside. In the six weeks of the soccer tournament, I also got three--not two--Ronaldinho (Brazilian, I suppose) cups. Neither played in the tourney, to my knowledge. That was a bummer.

I wanted more variation among the nine available designs. (I got five.) I was telling people at my local McDonald's (always got them at the same outlet) that in the old days, cups or whatever else the promotion was were out in the open, and you requested the one you wanted.

In this age of collector's items in sealed packages (example: baseball cards in protective sleeves--I bought cards when I was a kid with the gum staining the back of the back card), each of the World Cup containers came in a white sealed bag. After receiving each one, I would open the bag inside the store, at the counter, to see what I got.

What a groan I let out when I got yet another Ronaldinho. Ugggh. Plus when I received a cartoon character, I had to have an employee explain to me who it was: Grimace. I still don't know who he is. What does he have to do with the World Cup?

Imagine how my nutrition went down the barrel. I never drink sugared sodas. On these eight purchases, I selected Sprite, since you either choose a drink or you get nothing.

Then five Big Mac's. The last three, I've ordered the 10-piece Chicken McNugget meal (the first one tasty and tender; the last two not so). I'm making a comeback body-wise! (I won't even comment on the nutrition value of seven medium French fries orders.)

By the way, the electric table is working great so far. I have it elevated to its top height, 46.5 centimeters. My hands and wrists feel a little strained during this entry, as I arch down to the keyboard from a standing position. (My keyboarding level is higher.) (Plus, I love the cool breeze blowing in the window on a hot day.)

However, my right hand is severely cramped after holding my drill to insert 20 or more screws during the assembly of the table. Ouch. I never do that kind of work!

My strained leg and back feel much appreciated--as I'm not aggravating those conditions further while I work. I hope it will be a long and fruitful relationship.

Samurai Japan: Movie review

By Ed Piper

I just watched the two-hour "Samurai Japan WBC" movie on NetFlix, consuming a very un-Japanese dish of three scrambled eggs in tortillas two-thirds of the way through, and I'm reminded of my most recent interaction with someone concerning Asian culture.

In a trip to see Shohei Ohtani (stay with me, here), I talked for three innings, standing, shielded in the shade on the Upper Deck of Dodger Stadium with a white (though culturally Jewish) American who was seeing his first Dodger game in years, having just spent six months in Taipei on an internship, I think.

He was glad to be back on American soil, having grown up in West L.A., I believe, very much in reactive mode to the "shame-based" culture of Taiwan. He called Taiwan the "Disneyland" of that part of Asia, with beaches, showy culture, very "surface" in his short experience there.

Though only 24, I believe (I'm 72), this young man has traveled to many parts of the world, including Israel (though not on a "birthright" trip, as he called it) and many countries in Europe. So he's not a newbie on travel or exposure to cultures other than his own secular Jewish upbringing.

I've forgotten his name (this visit occurred June 17, and here I am writing a month later), but he was so filled up with being around an environment in which "you don't do anything to make yourself look bad", you don't stand out, that he was done with travel for a while.

Which brings us back to the Samurai program. As you recall, the Japan team did not win this year's World Baseball Classic--Venezuela did--but the movie immerses you in a subtitle-reading mode (for two hours--my brain is tired--I don't speak Japanese except "MLB", "Acuna Jr., "meeting" (they use a lot of words from outside the culture).

What did I learn that was new? Power-hitter Seiya Suzuki of the Cubs and Ohtani are long-time friends and associates. Suzuki sported frosted tips in his hair during the WBC. He clubbed a few homers right behind Shohei's leadoff home run-hitting antics.

Ohtani has a thick, lush movie-star-type mane of hair, which flows prominently. Reinforced was the fact Japanese fans revere Ohtani and adore the other Japanese baseball players in the same manner.

Connecting to my earlier comments on my conversation with the 20-something West L.A. fan, I sensed some of the conformity Asians comply with, the military discipline their country has a history of. You don't see Asian males with long, outlandish hair, none with tattoos. I know that the film is aimed at Japanese fans, so though they show Suzuki's knee injury at the start and later in the movie--"the triumphs and tough spots" of the Samurai Japan team's WBC campaign--it is very much the fan piece, lots of puff that fans will enjoy, kind-hearted kidding and joking among team members.

There is a lot of camaraderie on the team depicted in the film. Of course, different from my experience but something I'm aware of, team members bow as they shake hands, kind of a mix of Asian and Western adaptation.

Earlier this year, a South Korean-born male who grew up in California shared his analysis that Japanese are staid, resistant to accept new ideas, in his view, compared to South Koreans, whom Japanese (he said) regard as kind of entrepreneurs, go-for-broke business people who will try new ideas. This man, whom I have known for 20-plus years, said it is very hard to get Japanese to try new things. The Confucian way says stay with the tried-and-true, tradition, don't veer another direction, off the beaten path.

Both Japanese and Korean traditional cultures are so different from my own. In those cultures, both these observers said, you don't do something that will shame your family and your ancestry. So, standing out by doing something differently from anybody else is a big risk, and carries the possible consequences that you will not only look foolish yourself, but shame your whole family line as well.

My mother was born and grew up in China until 15 years of age, but as a white American--though learning a perfect native Chinese accent from her nanny, or ama (she was called), which she retained until the day she passed away at age 64--she very much embodied the mores of Western culture. Those mores of individualistic culture were passed on to us three kids, reinforced by the modeling and teaching of her life partner, our dad, who grew up in good old Toledo, Ohio. "Go west, young man," and all that.

*  *  *

 The athletes depicted in "Samurai" are not your average human beings. When they hit home runs--Ohtani and Suzuki, especially--they make it look like a video game, like you just walk up to the plate and bash one out of the park. That is not easy, or normal.

Even Shohei's Samurai teammates watch the public, ticketed (probably cheaper than the World Cup this month!) batting practice that was held in the Tokyo Dome with wonder, as he hits shot-after-shot well up into the outfield stands.

Amateur track: USATF All-Comers meet at CCA 7/8

Photos by Ed Piper

Steve Magers, 62 years old, clears

10'6" on his third and last try early

in the men's pole vault. A blow for

the older generation!

1600-meter girls race - the first

track event at 6 p.m. Two younger

girls on the same track club, who

are friends, chose to run together.

Leala Burbach, a junior at Pinnacle

High in Phoenix, easily clears 9'6".

She and a track club teammate

spent the week in California -

the teammate cleared 17'9" Sunday

at the former Olympic Training Center

in Chula Vista. Leala has only been

vaulting for six months. She spent

eight years in gymnastics, a key

for vaulters.

Leala, on her approach.

A USATF official goes over the procedure

before the start of the boys' high jump.