{"id":2585,"date":"2015-01-15T17:39:16","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T10:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=2585"},"modified":"2015-01-15T17:43:13","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T10:43:13","slug":"table-tennis-in-the-snow-11415","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=2585","title":{"rendered":"Table tennis in the snow!  1\/14\/15"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today is the early day for our \u201cayi\u201d. She arrives at 8:00 am, right on the dot. I worked a little longer on the computer until she began to clean around my area, and I loaded up and left. I\u2019ve been trying to find an indoor place to play table tennis, with no success. I found three spots on the map that looked promising, table tennis clubs that look like they\u2019re based in buildings. I take the train over to the first spot, and no luck. I walk up and down the block, in front, and in back, looking for something that might indicate a table tennis club. I\u2019m even looking for people carrying gear, or gear bags. Nothing! Drat!<\/p>\n<p>Not too far away is my regular outdoor club, so I walk that direction, thinking I\u2019ll check around that area before getting a taxi to one of my other possibilities. As I get closer, I walk by a park full of 40 \u2013 50 men sitting around tables playing Mahjong. (no women?). It\u2019s 10:30 am, -2\u00b0C, and no wind. Just up the street, I can see people playing table tennis. Sure enough, they\u2019re out in force. Lots of players, and the temp is below freezing? As I\u2019m watching, debating how badly I really want to play, a light snow begins to fall. I\u2019ve posted a video with a couple of the players, and you see the light snow falling.<\/p>\n<p>Video link:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/3j3ccqt0xzjakiy\/15.1.14.Table%20tennis.MOV?dl=0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">I eventually decide if they\u2019re tough enough to play in the cold, then so am I. I walk in, find a bench, and look for a single player. Eventually a lady walks by, indicating if I was interested in playing, and if I had a net. I pulled out my net, set it up, and began to play. It wasn\u2019t long before I was debating whether to pull off my coat or not. It was a fun morning, and I did ok after several months of \u201crust\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2137.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2582\" src=\"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2137-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_2137\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2137-300x224.jpg 300w, http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2137-1024x765.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2137-624x466.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2136.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2581\" src=\"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2136-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_2136\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2136-300x224.jpg 300w, http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2136-1024x765.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2136-624x466.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After finishing, I jumped in a taxi and headed toward my next \u201cclub\u201d. It was near Judy\u2019s school, so I decided to eat lunch. Judy couldn\u2019t get away today, so I enjoyed some local Chinese food from the BISS neighborhood restaurant by myself. Afterwards, following my map, I went looking for the next possible indoor club. Again, no luck. I\u2019m sure the schools have places for students to play and train, but an \u201cold <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">foreign<\/span> geezer\u201d wouldn\u2019t necessarily be welcome. I\u2019m about ready to give up and get geared up for cold weather play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is the early day for our \u201cayi\u201d. She arrives at 8:00 am, right on the dot. I worked a little longer on the computer until she began to clean around my area, and I loaded up and left. I\u2019ve &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=2585\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2585"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2588,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions\/2588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}