back from the rain to the snow

today i am exhausted. it's monday morning, 8:29 am. i am at saruhashi, my 'bad' school. my lessons here are much easier to get through when i'm genki because i usually really don't care how evil the kids are being and i just kind of have a mental shrug and somehow the lessons seem to turn out alright. or, actually, i don't care as much when they don't go well. but when i am tired everything is that much harder. since i have spent the past seven years or so fighting the natural shyness of my personality (as natalie so elequantly put it of herself!), when i am tired i don't always have the energy to do this and i act defensively.
however, my energy levels are a product of a great weekend spent supporting the niigata ALT soccer team in saitama. the japan-wide tournament hosted the top 8 teams from the Nagano tournament (eastern division) and fukuoka tournament (western division) held back in october. our boys placed third in nagano, and have been practicing several days a week since then. the top two teams to play the championship game would play in saitama stadium - possibly the best soccer stadium in japan and host of the 2002 world cup.
we (the team and supporters) took a bus down to saitama friday night (about 30 minutes north of tokyo). the boys played through the freezing rain all weekend to qualify against fukuoka to play the championship game - which we won! we are now the japan-wide champions. i especially feel quite proud since i know most of the teammates quite well - three of them live in my town and several others in niigata city.
i also managed to see dave and pascal (who live in tokyo) for a fun night of izukayas and nomihodais.
i think yoko's trying to get me back for a weekend of loneliness as she insisted on waking me up this morning at about 5:30...er er ERRRRRRRRRR, er er ERRRRRRRRRRR! (anyone like roasted quail?).