Other atheletic footnotes

Our first league game was last Thursday. Bunch of other players whom I have never seen before during practice showed up and we had a team of 15. I played just 7 minutes in the 3rd quarter (7 minute quarters). We won with a final score like 50-30 against another 6 guys all from our normal Wednesday night practice/pick-up.

Last Saturday was the Chuugoku Cup soccer tournament, with 6 JET teams from the 6 県s in the 中国 region. The team from Hiroshima-ken won the Japan-wide JET tournament: they had 2 ex-NCAA soccer players on their team, including a midfielder from Cal. Besides them, the players from Yamaguchi, Shimane, and Okayama are all HUGE. At the opening ceremony/info session, standing next to the other players, it was like the rugby teams (them) against table-tennis team (us).

At the info session, a guy from Hiroshima asked: "So when is the finals?" which is immediately followed by Kevin's question "Where is the first aid box?"

We lost our first game 0-1 to Shimane, after Adam kicked in our own goal after a ricoche. We won the second game against Yamaguchi 1-0 with a goal by Jon (pronounced Y-on, Korean). I played left mid and right back. My lack of skill was apparent because I have no skill and because I was around the ball alot. I took down a 6-8 guy in short shorts and tackled a hottie from Yamaguchi.

Shimane, the winner of our pool, went on to be destroyed by Hiroshima 8-0. Which is cool, and nobody really cared because there was a BBQ and huge party afterwards.

And I was hung-over on Sunday.