Nagano Soccer and the Fukui Fist

Fall has quit possibly become my favorite season, since I came to Japan. The summer humidity and heat passes, but the says stay sunny. I'm happy greeted with the return of my favorite conbini food-- pizzaman and kurryman. Halloween is close at hand, so I get to weird out my Japanese neighbors by putting up pictures and figures of ghosts, spider, bats, and witches all over my windows and doors, and ... the NAGANO SOCCER TOURNAMENT!

Every October, Nagano hosts a two day soccer tournament. Teams from all over Japan (but mostly the east side) come and compete. From my first year in Fukui, I have always gone to the Nagano tournament and this year was no exception.

Well, ok there was an exception. This was the only year we had actual practices that the teammembers attended, the first year we got actual uniforms-- well the tops, and the first year we kicked ass on the first day of the tournament and qualified to play in the "Cup" the following day.

The tournament is always a ton of fun, but this year was truely amazing. We had a great team, played hard, and did great. Our first day we played three games. The first game was verse Chiba. The game went into penalty kicks to decided the winners- after the score was 0-0 after 2 halves. The other team started first and then we'd alternate sides for who kicked. On our last kick it was still 0-0, Chiba had failed to get any shots, and so far we missed our first two. It was all on Naomi. We cheered from the side. She took a breath and shot. GOAL!!!!!! We won our first game.

From there the day continued to be great. We won one more game, but lost one, too. Everyone played hard and had fun-- and we really bonded as a team and as friends.

After a day of soccer, we went enjoyed a hot bath in the onsen, followed by dinner with the Fukui boys-- who were also kicken some ass on the men's pitch, and then it was time for the party.

Fukui did it up right, not only on the pitch but on the dancefloor too. Fukui was out on the dance floor till the end of the night, as is tradition. We laughed, we danced, we drank, and then we partied some more.

The second day the 16 teams were split into two tournaments. The top 8 teams played for the "Cup" and the weaker 8 teams played for the "Plate." This was the first time the Fukui girls made it into the Cup tournament and we were determined to give it our all. Unfortunantly so was the Onnabelieveables team. They won it 3-1. They had some amazing talent (like the girl who shot the corner kick right into the goal) on their team, and we put up a good fight, so no one was too crushed. When we found out that Onna took the Cup and that we were the only team they didn't shut out (we got the only goal in against Onna the whole weekend)-- it confirmed what we already knew-- we have one kick ass team. Big thanks to all my soccer girls--- Laura, Bronwen, Steph, Amiena, Mari, Naomi, Sarah, Melanie, Kate, Katie, Mirta, and Maya. I love you all-- thanks for an awesome weekend.

Watch out Japan, the Fukui Fist will be back in the Spring and next time we're leaving Nagano with both the men's and women's Cup!!!!