Weekend in Fukushima/Samurai photos

Most of my computer time today has been eaten up, once again, by uploading photos. I’ve posted some of my favorite ones here on this post, but there are about 170 that I posted on my Facebook profile. Sorry if we’re not friends, but you can search me out if you like.

I spent yesterday and the night before in Fukushima city. Friday was fairly low-key as we had to wake up Saturday morning for soccer practice. I mentioned briefly before that I would be playing in a soccer tournament in Nagano next weekend. JETs from around the country put together teams to play in a tournament in Nagano. Our team is representing Fukushima prefecture. Apparently, last year, our team scored 2 goals over the course of 4 games – while giving up several. This year, the team is looking a bit better and we are hoping to maybe win a game. Either way, it should be a lot of fun.

Yesterday, about a dozen players from our team met up at a field in Fukushima. It turned out that we had arranged to play a game against a Brazilian team based in the city. It had been a while since everyone on our team had played soccer (myself included). I didn’t even have proper soccer boots with me. A friend gave me a pair last week, but they were a bit to big – and on closer inspection, they also turned out to be rugby boots. I had to play in my running shoes, which, although highly inconvenient, managed to get the job done on the field. I bought new boots today – Japanese made, “Mizunos,” which hands down, fit way better than the Umbros I tried on. The salesman showed quite a bit of pride when I picked the Mizunos and made it a point to tell me they were Japanese. This might have been why he gave me a discount membership card – although maybe they give them to everybody.

Everyone had a good run that day, and the Brazillians were a good group of guys – with the exception of one player. This guy would go to the ground clutching his knee/ankle/head/back/wrist after any and all contact with our team. We gave him the foul the first half a dozen or so times, but eventually ignored him. The other team didn’t seem to have a problem with this. In arranging the match, their captain mentioned to our captain that if a certain player showed up, they would most definitely lose. We figure that this was the guy.

We finished the day off with an all-you-can-eat barbecque at a park nearby. The event was put together by a group that go by the name “SickTeamDotCom,” although few people seem to know what this means or what the group is about. Don’t bother searching for them on the Internet because they don’t have a site up yet. This didn’t stop people from buying a ton of T-shirts though. I think that it is generally beginning to be understood that the team has been assembled to facilitate the having of good times in Fukushima. In any event, the team did an amazing job of putting together the barbeque and I’m looking forward to the next one.

Overall, the weekend was a success, although I’m sore as hell today and I managed to get a good gash on my knee from our soccer game. I’ve had puss dribbling down my leg for the last two days, but it’s starting to finally scab over.

These photos are from the Samurai festival in Aizu.