Tuesday at work I found that every single one of my students was tired out and had trouble staying alert during their class. It was easy to find out why – everyone had stayed up until 3 a.m. the night before to watch the Japanese team play in the World Cup in South Africa.
The Blue Samurai’s squeaked out a victory, and apparently it was the first victory for a Japanese team on foreign soil. Anyway, this set off a media blitz and now everyone is excited for the team’s chances to at least make the next round.
Among all this excitement I found out that the next game for Japan is this Saturday. Unfortunately about a month ago we had scheduled a taco party with the Fukumi’s and the Yamaji’s. We’ll go ahead with the party, but I have a feeling that some people will be leaving early. Too bad the opponent isn’t Mexico – then we’d have a suitable theme.
Last night on the way home I stopped at ‘Kitano Ace’ in Tarumi, a small import food store to get some tortilla chips. The place had the usual stuff, but they also had a Hawaiian beer called Tsunami Lager. I’ve had it before a long time ago, and my memories were that it was a flashback to the American microbrews that I used to enjoy so much living in the USA. I bought a bottle for old time’s sake (and at 480 yen a bottle it wasn’t cheap), and drank it after getting home.
That was an old beer.
I don’t usually have problems with imported beer – it is generally pretty fresh, but this bottle was probably 2-3 years old. Completely dead taste, and the carbonation was sharp and astringent. Ugh. I think I’ll avoid that beer in the future. Or maybe that store.
