Soccer

Yesterday when my host mom and I went shopping, we picked up some grapes. This morning for breakfast I had some. I took one and I ate it and then my host mom told me I ate it wrong. I guess with their grapes you do not eat the skin, just the inside (similar to Concord grapes). So I sucked out the insides and it was very refreshing. The grapes were delicious. They had more flavor and were smaller than the ones in the U.S. After breakfast I went for a run. When I got back, I took a shower and straightened up my room. I then had rice balls, more grapes, and melon pan for lunch. I explored the city a little before I had to go to soccer. Soccer started around 4:00. I got there and I introduced myself to the team. We started practice immediately after that. I did not have soccer shoes, so I had to borrow another kid's extra pair. The coach said he was surprised at the size of my feet. He told the team and they were all surprised too. Only a couple kids had feet around the same size and one kid had an an extra pair for me. So we started practice and I was doing very badly because I haven't played in a while. In between drills I got to talk with some kids and as practice went along, more talked to me. Some were trying to play games like saying their name was something it was not to trick me. Towards the end of practice we started a scrimmage. A little into the scrimmage my calf muscles were starting to pull; most likely because I ran, rode my bike, and now played soccer. I played until I reached the point were I felt I was about to get a charlie horse or something, lol. So I went to the bench and talked with the coach and the 3 soccer managers. My coach's English was okay and the three managers' English was actually rather good. They tried talking in English to me, and I tried talking Japanese back. I gave my coach beef jerky that I brought from home and he shared it with the managers. The managers' names were Ami, Shiori, and Natsuki. When practice ended I had a bag of Nestle assorted chocolates that I gave to the team. I also had some pins and pencils from Troy, Michigan that I gave them. The candy went very fast and they were happy XD. I took a picture with them and then everyone left. I would be going to practice the next day and maybe play in a scrimmage against another team Sunday.