"Football" and its repercussions

Well, long time no post, gomen ne.

Truth is there's not a lot to report. Anna's trip was great. Pics to come!

World Cup Soccer has started and is already into the quarterfinals. I've gotten less sleep because of the whole thing. And, I've had to pick my way through figuring out who to support. Who I wanted to win in order of preference:

1. Mexico
2. Japan
3. England
4. Italy
5. Ukraine
6. USA

I know, I know, you can't do that, you say. Your allegiances can't span so many continents. But, only 3 of those teams are still playing, and they are all European, so that narrows it down. And by default, England is my top choice. I know my football obsessed British friends, foaming at the mouth and possessed by some strange demon during world cup season, will be very happy when they eventually win.

Go England!

OH right, and this whole soccer thing landed me on national TV in Japan. Was just talking to my buddy Take way up in Miyagi-ken who says 'Oh, by the way, we saw you on TV the other day'. Random. See, back in 2002, Tokamachi was the host city to the Croatian team when the world cup was held in Japan. So, Japan and Tokamachi happened to be grouped together in the first round this year in Germany. Meaning that there was supposed to a conflict of interest of who to support for Tokamachi people, but if you are Japanese and you support Croatia just cuz they trained in the mountains near here, then you are weird, in my opinion. Nearly everyone cheered on Japan at a big screening event for the Croatia-Japan match, where Martin and I and Amity and Keiko wore blue and sat in front of the NHK camera and drew attention to ourselves. And then we were on national TV.

Otherwise, it's hot, the cops yelled at us in the Jusco parking lot for skateboarding, and I'm still trying to figure if I can get home for a long visit this summer/fall. It's just plain been too long.

10,000 days old

I guess the short answer as to why I know it's my 10,000th day birthday is cuz I'm a nerd, but I guess it's cuz someone showed me a website a while back and I marked it down. So, Wednesday I'll be 10,000.

I think there are lots of websites out there but check this one out cuz it gives you lots of different totals for how long you've been alive.
http://www.timeanddate.com/date/birthday.html

It's like, totally, like, June already and stuff

Man, I really gotta keep up on this blog thing. The weather's been good, things are all thick and green again, and I'm surrounded by mini lakes of flooded rice fields again. Hot, humid, rainy season is soon upon us. The air conditioner in my car is dead. I'm worried.

School has been a blast lately and I've been having a lot of fun with my kids. I played hours of dodgeball yesterday and hours of basketball today, and a few days ago I played 'oni', which is the Japanese version of tag, but 'oni' really means 'devil' or 'demon', so instead of being 'it', you are the devil, and you chase people around, screaming. Sounds really satanic, but actually, it's just tag.

Speaking of things demonic/divine, we saw the Da Vinci code on Saturday cuz it was Yuko's birthday, and I actually really liked it. I didn't read the book so that probably helped. Also, I know very little about things Christian, other than from growing up in catholic New Mexico, where you learn that there are infinite ways to airbrush Jesus onto the hood or your car, or tattoo him onto your shoulder. SO when Yuko asked me to explain the history of Jesus Christ, western divinity, the apostles and Mary Magdalen (who's name I had originally confused with Bach's second wife, Anna Magdalena), I did the best that a half-Jew living in Buddhist Japan could do; I researched it on the internet and reported back later.

P.S. Anna's coming to Japan Wednesday so that's awesome! Will probably meet up in Tokyo. Also, I will put up pics from Dad's and Ely's trips soon.

P.P.S. I'm turning 10,000 days old on Wednesday and I'm going to celebrate.