Ok. So we had 2 soccer games. The first was the A-team (lulz) against their A-team, or what we from the states would call varsity. That was full 45 minutes halves, and the Hokudai team ended up winning 4-1. Yayy. It was super cold during the whole game though, and rained periodically. It was still a really good game, and the A-team got the job done.
The second game for the B-team (junior varsity) was only 30 minutes halves, but it seemed to get colder as the minutes ticked on. I didn't get to go in in the first half, but that's OK. We were up 1-0 at half, and it was a pretty close game. about 15 minutes into the second half though, I got the OK to go in, at left center back. The team runs a formation of a 4-4-2, with the back 4 (defenders) running a flat back 4. Now thanks to my coaches in high school, I have a pretty good idea of how to run the flat back 4, however the biggest part of maintaining a good defense is communication, which normally isn't a problem, but when everyone is yelling things in Japanese it tends to get a little tough.
I've become familiar with the most basic soccer terms in Japanese, such as time, turn, man-on, left right forward backwards, but the flat back 4 really requires the two guys in the center to really maintain close communications. I would like to think I did pretty well. We didn't let them get any shots on goal, and they only had a few chances past midfield against us.
Then it started to hail. Yay. I asked another guy was hail was in Japanese but I totally forget what he said. According to Google, the word is Hyou, pronouned he-yoo. It was still really fun though, I haven't played soccer in inclement weather in quite some time and it brought back a lot of fond memories.
So the game went on, and we were still up 1-0, when disaster struck. We had just moved up the left side of the field but lost possession of the ball, and their team was on the counter. The far left back had been part of the attack before we had lost the ball, so he was too far up to defend and I had 2 guys coming in full speed towards me. It is pretty much impossible to guard 2 guys, so I tried to steal the ball from the first guy, he passed it to the second, who passed it to another guy, who scored. Darn.
We ended up tying 1-1 in the end, but it was still a lot of fun.
The first picture is just an action shot. We are in green and their are in red. This was before it had started to pour.
The second picture if of some of the other first years during the varsity game. We were all pretty cold, so we had been jogging around and doing whatever we could to stay warm.
After the game I asked the captain if it was OK to take a team picture, so he made everyone get together and we got a really good picture.
And now I will explain Purin.
After the game, some of the second years took me and some of the other first years out to eat. Gotusandesu! We went to this super cool bbq place where you payed at the door, then went up to a buffet of raw meat. Grabbed whatever you wanted, and then returned to your table which was extra large because it had a grill in the middle. So you sit around usually 6 people to one table with this cool grill in the middle and you grill out, inside! I really loved it. They had different kinds of beef, some sausage, pork, and rice and some other fried stuff. It tasted amazing.
The dessert counter was just as packed. They had cake, ice cream, slushys! Even a cotton candy machine. So I helped myself to a couple pieces of cake, some ice cream, and a coffee for dessert. It was truly stuffed at this point.
However my Japanese friends had other plans. One of them came back with a tray full of Purin, or pudding. Now Japanese Pudding is a lot more like jello than it is pudding, but its pretty runny jello, not very stable. And my friend demonstrated that with these particular cups, there was a small tab on the bottom that you popped, which released the pudding from the cup, which then allowed you to squeeze the sides of the cup and shoot the pudding into your mouth. Well of course this all takes some skill, which means....YOU CAN RACE!!!
So I was already stuffed full of grilled meat, rice and dessert, but I couldn't pass up the chance to get in on an eating contest. So after watching 2 of the other guys race a couple of times, I decided to give a try. I totally botched my first try, but it was OK, because I would have many more. I finally got the hang of it on the 3rd cup of purin, and was able to beat my opponent! However my stomach was beginning to get upset with what I was doing to it hehe. After a couple more races, everyone was pretty stuffed, but not before we had gone through 46 of these small cups of pudding. The following picture is us in front of place after we finally decided to leave.
Oodalolly oodalolly golly what a day.
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