What a great weekend! On Friday night the girls soccer team from Yamanashi went to dinner at this great Italian restaurant in Kofu. The meals were kind of expensive but the portions were so large that we just decided to split dishes which cut costs and leftovers. It was good. 12/14 of us were there. It was really nice to all be together for the first time. The bonding began at dinner and continued on from there. I stayed at Katie's house and drove up with her and another car full of people first thing (5AM) Saturday morning. The drive was about 3 hrs and we were doing 120km/h just about the whole way there! The guy I was following was FLYING! At one point, I was like "nah dawg" I have to risk getting lost because he was really speeding around these curbs.

We arrived in Nagano around 8:30ish dropped our bags changed clothes and went out on the field to warm up.Since we had 14 girls from Yamanashi and we were playing 6 a-side the team co-ordinators wanted us to have 2 teams of 7. Our teams were Yama Mama's and Mama Yama's. We had a cheer, pom poms, matching outfits, and headbands. My team was pretty good although we went 0-4. The first day we played 3 games and on our field it seemed like the more serious set of girls were there. The other Yamanashi women's team went 1-1-2. They were good and really seemed to gel as a team early which helped out.

Out of all the teams we played the girls from Osaka were the most bitchy. They complained about everything!!! Rules, offsides, rough housing (when they were the roughest of all the teams we played), so when my team played them in our last game of the day on Friday we were already down 0-2 so we decided to forget winning and take them out. We were tired of hearing them whine and run over people all day. So that is exactly what we did!!! It was soo fun too! I playing defense and basically trying to take this one big girl down the whole game. My teammates were so funny because they were encouraging me to be mean!! It was so funny...I stole the ball from the big girl like 4 times and she kept coming at me the same way...I figured she'd learn but apparently not. I think they were getting mad about me tripping them and stuff so one big girl came down and took me out! I got up right away but my head was spinning. I was literally seeing the little stars that spin around the cartoon characters heads! I had to sit out for a second or two but I got myself together and watched the last 2 mintues of the game. It was a lot of fun.

My friend Erica came down to hang out with the Yamanashi folks and they really like her too. They said she was funny and that I should tell her to come down to our prefecture to hang out with us sometime. There was a party that night at the hotel we stayed in which was a lot of fun. The DJ had a lot of hip hop but got stuck on house music too long. Our team "SAID" we weren't going to drink much because we still had a game to play Sunday morning....but it didn't quite work out like that. Someone found our goalie in the bathroom drunk and one of our forwards was caught kissing on some randome guy in the back of the party. Our girls were done to say the least. As for me...I had 2 cans of Chu Hi (which is like flavored beer), two glasses of wine (different brands), one beer for the toast of the party, a cup of sake, another can of beer because I was the last one to hit the floor for GRENADE!!! (tell you about that later), and some rum and coke that my friend Charlie KEPT making me drink. I was definitely done that night! But what surprised me the most was that in the morning I was good. I wasn't sick or anything...and I usually can't mix at all so I was lucky. Erica had everything I had except the Chu Hi and her no-having-tolerance self kept saying "I want some more to drink, I'm not drunk yet" I am learning that when she says this...She's DONE!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an announcement to make. I, Eboni Staton, met a black guy in Japan!!!! Don't get to excited...he has a girl friend and lives about a million hours away..but it made for a nice weekend. Out of the 500 people at the tourney there were 5 black women and 3 black men. When I came downstairs Saturday morning dressing in my uniform (looking cute with my French braids and bandana tied around my head might I add) he looked so shocked to see me. We exchanged pleasantries and went off to our respective fields to warm up. He wasn't the cutest thing but by the end of the dance (and after many many drinks) both Erica and I thought he looked much better. He was a little cocky and was like "I'm the only black guy in here, I know you want to dance with me" And just for that I let the negro dance alone until his Jamaican groupies came along. Who I might add were dressed up in Rave and Rainbow clothing while everyone else had on jeans and t-shirts. Go figure?!

GRENADE-drinking game where you have a "Grenade Master" who during the night will periodically call out "GRENADE" and everyone has to get down on the floor all the way. Not just hands and knees...all the way! If you don't hear the grenade master or you are last to get down...you have to down whatever drink it is you have in your hand...if you don't have a drink in hand, they will get you one.

Sunday morning was quite a sight!! We had one more person in our room than had been there all night. A guy from our prefecture that we all know didn't have anywhere to sleep so when Erica and I went to bed, he came up and stayed in the room with us and the 3 other girls who were in our room. The hotel we stayed at was Japanese style so there are tatami mats on the floor and futons, blankets, pillows, and sheets in the closet. Its much more economical this way because you can fit many more people in the room. All 14 of us were so beat up from Saturday's activities that we WANTED to get put out early so we wouldnt have to continue playing. Our wish came true! Both teams lost in the first round and went to go watch the end of the boys tournament.

I had a GREAT time! I definitely want to go back to Nagano when YETI has their ski trip in February. Hopefully I'll be able to go back before then. I really enjoyed myself with the ladies and gentlemen of our Yamanashi group. We were by far the most outstanding-ken and had the most fun. I didn't mention the game of strip soccer did I??