Sports are not my friend

I played in a football tournament at the weekend. Yes, you read that correctly, I played in a football tournament. It was the eastern leg of the Assistant Language Teachers Japan tournament - so there were teams from around 24 prefectures. And what's more, the Fukui team came fifth, thanks in part to some sterling right back defending from yours truly. We made it through to the knockout stages, but we were eventually beaten by the champions, who looked like professionals. Well, when I say they looked like professionals I mean they'd bothered to get some T-shirts with their names on printed up.

Then on Wednesday I took part in the school marathon. It wasn't quite a marathon (thank God), but it was still 10 kilometres, and it nearly killed me. Now I have blisters the size of golf balls and a comedy limp. I'm meant to be taking part in an Ultimate demonstration as part of "Health and Recreation Day" on Monday, but now its likely to be more of a falling over demonstration. I'm loving these brilliant national holidays by the way - it seems like the Japanese will make up any excuse for a day off - a few weeks ago it was "Respect for the Aged Day" and before that we had a day off for the "Autumnal Equinox". Apparently that last one has some sort of religious significance, but when I called up my supervisor to ask what it was she didn't have a clue.

Anyway, I have to go and teach kids about poetry, so I'll see you later, Lew.

The non-stop football and drinking was too much for some...