A brownish Christmas

I’m in Japan! …still. While everyone else is back home or traveling, I’m still at the edge of the known universe, writing New Year cards and losing relay races.

To be specific today was the Sadamisaki Ekiden, a relay race from the tip of the peninsula up to the next town over. I was originally entered as an alternate, but for whatever reason I was put in at the 11th hour. I had section 5, a 4.6km chunk connecting my neighborhood to the one on the other side of the mountain.

4.6km isn’t bad when it’s flat, and when it’s not so cold that my asthma acts up, or when I don’t have to wear a uniform with short shorts even shorter than my boxers. I ruined my team’s lead, getting passed by two people and almost a third at the end.

But it’s not all that bad. After all, in the Alternate Worlds theory of quantum mechanics there must exist some universe where I won. Or you could postulate a universe where I still sucked, but losing was considered a higher honor than winning. Or just consider this same universe under CPT translation, and it looks like I won going the opposite direction.

So. Racing on Christmas Eve. Yep, it’s a party around here. And I have work tomorrow. PAAARTAY!