masculine camaraderie
At 10:00 this morning, I took a two-hour private tennis lesson from Coach Ito at the Asanogawa Gymnasium in the northern part of Kanazawa. How to use backhand slices and spins in a compact way, how to hit a ball with a high bounce with a backhand, backhand high volley, etc. I got it. There was another man in the lesson who was about the same age as me and had relatively little tennis experience, but he seemed to have adapted the practice menu to suit me. It may have been a bit advanced for him, but by the end it seemed like he had gotten used to it, so I thought he was great at it. I felt the goodwill of the coach and the masculine camaraderie between tennis lovers. The lesson ended at 12:00 and we both left the court, but then a group of energetic moms came in and said hello to each other. This one also had a slightly sweet voice that conveyed the friendliness of being a fellow tennis player. It was refreshing and felt good. It was a small thing, but it was something I didn't come across in my early retirement years.