Decades ago, I was at the age of thinking, no, KNOWING I was the hottest bicyclist in the neighborhood. I mean, I could go wherever I wanted to go, and whenever I wanted to go – with an approval from my mom.

So, on one summer day, two of my friends and I decided to pedal as close to the Itami airport as us 4-footers were capable. And it seemed like we had pedaled miles, or kilometers after kilometers of distance before we finally foot-braked our bicycles on the grassy embankment right next to the landing path. And when I say “right next to”, I really mean right next to the landing strip.

We were afforded a quick breather, and there it was! A dot, which could only be seen by kids with 20/20 vision, quickly morphed into the familiar frontal view of  an airplane which is flying straight at us!

KWHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENnnn!!!!

With squinted eyes,  we half-ducked but looked up while palming our ears to prevent pieces of brains bursting out. All the while this honk of metal capsule hovered above us with perfectly pitched squeak followed by the Doppler effect.

We turned around in unison to witness the touchdown.

That was freaking close!

A moderate size of Kandô was had by all of us.

After several more rotational neck exercise at the airports’ front lawn, one of us suggested throwing rocks at the plane.

Why? Please, there’s no why back then. Or Google.

We each picked up a rock about the size of a golf ball. And soon after, here comes the metal bird flying straight at us. At this point, I was wondering if the pilot could see us three determined little-pricks, each equipped with a rock in our hands.

Just when I thought I saw the pilot, I swung my right arm upward. The organic golf ball goes up, but before it kissed the belly of the airplane, the gravity blocked its path.

None of us made it.

Didn’t matter, we were merely “calibrating”.

Now we knew just how much harder we needed to throw. After all, we didn’t want to puncture the bottom of an airplane by throwing it too hard. My mom would have been pissed.

Three of us lined up again side by side with rock in our hands like some sort of dual is about to happen.

Minutes later, our metal nemesis broke through the blue sky. We clenched our fist to warm up the golf ball. I did the mental countdown which deemed to be completely unreliable as I found myself throwing the rock in the air as the countdown was immaturely ended around four.

We whipped our heads up.

Tink! (followed by wah-wah-wha-wha echo slowly dissipating)

Three of us let out the hugest roar.

That was the purest Kandô I felt.

Here’s the map for anyone interested in North Osaka area:

http://www.mapfan.com/m.cgi?MAP=E135.25.45.8N34.47.37.5&ZM=12

ShibataBread VideoCast Season02 Ep09 from ShibataBread Video Cast on Vimeo.

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ShibataBread teaches his wife yet another simple way to turn your average Japanese into a cool Osaka dialect. Mrs. ShibataBread makes a comeback with another segment of “Kawaii Japan.” ShibataBread kicks off the Japan Tour in November 2011 and is looking for a drinking buddy. Kanpai!