Fri. Oct. 3 to Sun. Oct. 5 – Sober up! (Soccer in Nagano)

When you hear the word “Nagano,” visions of skiing and the Winter Olympics should enter your mind. But for me, Nagano-ken now reminds me of an amazing and hilarious weekend spent with my fellow FuJETs.

About 25ish FuJETs boarded a chartered bus on a Friday night. From Koriyama, the trip to Nagano takes about seven hours. We were heading there to play in an all-ALT(assistant language teacher) soccer tournament, which is held every year in Nagano. As you know, I’m not into playing sports… I was on the sidelines providing moral support for my fellow Fukushima Akabekos (that is, Red Cows. (The akabeko is a mascot from Aizu Wakamatsu, one of the bigger regions in my prefecture).

The ride there was pretty chill; everyone was having a good time. There were too many awkward conversations to remember! I tried to sleep off my cold.

When we got to the hotel, the girls claimed our room. Sadly, we chose a small six-person tatami room. The dudes took over two spacious rooms, which included beds. Oh, how I miss sleeping on a bed! (I sleep on a futon. The novelty has worn off… you’re supposed to store it away every morning, but I’m always short on time in the morning).

We’re here for soccer

So, we hit up the soccer pitches bright and early on Saturday morning. The view was spectacular. Immaculate soccer pitches dotted the landscape, while huge mountains surrounded us. We played a few games… and lost all of them on both days. We were the team that got excited whenever we actually touched the ball. Actually, I don’t think we were terrible… if we squeezed in a couple practices, I’m sure we would’ve fared well. The players were enthusiastic and such ☺ And I think we had the best cheerleaders, especially since the other teams were lame… and didn’t have any.

Some of my favourite cheers from the weekend include: “Don’t shake hands with the goalie!” (He totally took a leak on the field); “Sober up!”; “He hits girls!”; “You can be on our team!” (if our opponents were not-so-hot at soccer).

Off the field

We also had a lot of fun times off the field. The girl talk in the genkan (the front entrance of every room), everyone disappearing, “No!!! I gave him my number!”, the “random” dude who was lost and so on. Oh, and who can forget our theme songs? We kept playing them over and over and over. And over.

Fukushima – we certainly know how to bring the party. I think out of all the kens, we were the last ones still on the dance floor. (There was a big party thrown on the Saturday night in the hotel lobby). Loves it.

Boring, yet delicious: We stopped by a curry restaurant on the way home. (By the way, Japanese curry is the bomb). Mmm, oishi.