Soccer

Over the past month I've been playing soccer games on the weekend with the Aomori United ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) Soccer team. These were in preparation for last weekend's big tournament in Nagano, where teams from all over this half of japan went to compete for a chance to play in a national ALT tournament in the famed Saitama stadium.



Well, we did so-so in the tournament, but we had a great time. We won half our games the first day, barely qualifying us for the playoffs on Sunday, but unfortunately we lost our first game Sunday morning.



This trip to get there was a grueling 10-ish hour car ride (I lost count to be honest). Luckily we went in Satoko's new car and were able to enjoy such DVD features as Meet the Parents, Seinfeld, and a Japanese movie called Swing Girls about a nearly all-girl high school jazz band (the one boy in there really lucked out).



In between games was the regular sorts of tomfoolery among us ALTs. At night there was a big party that I was too tired to enjoy for long. Overall, a great a trip. And now, a picture of Alex with mushrooms in his nose.