Soccer Tournament - Day One

Today we went to the soccer fields.  It was cold this morning but at least it stopped raining (it rained the entire first day we were here).  We set out to the fields at about 8am for the opening ceremony.  All the players from all the teams lined up.  We laughed since our girls are the tallest of all the teams - by a long shot.  They put our team right in the middle and it was quite a site.  Two japanese players spoke and then Dahlia did.  She spoke in Japanese and did a wonderful job.  There was no rain today, but the wind was cold and biting.  It wasn't too bad for the players, but I think the parents put on every single layer we brought.  Don't worry, Brad was still in shorts!

The Sanvino team parents set up a tent for us, brought over chairs and made sure we felt at home.  All the parents thought we were going to lose weight in Japan by eating so healthy, but the host families keep brining us so much food to try it feels like all we've been doing is eating and eating!  They brought us breads for breakfast.  One was a special bread made here in Arao that is made with Mango.  It is sweet, but not sticky or sugary.  We all really enjoyed it.  Then there was a basket of cookies, crackers, and candies.  To drink they made sure we had hot water for tea and apple milk.  You read that correctly, apple milk.  It is a juice box with half milk and half apple juice.  The girls loved it!  For lunch, they brought us bento boxes.  Trays of food with, rice, fish, chicken, and some cabbage or veggies.

The girls were scheduled to play three soccer games today.  The first game they played the other team scored in the first minute!  We thought, wow this is going to be a long weekend.  However, our girls got  their heads in the game and the final score remained 1-0.  The parents dubbed that first a goal "Welcome to Japan".  The second game had to be cancelled because the other team was sick and forfeited so the girls decided to include the players from Japan and decided to split in half and scrimmage themselves.  They had a lot of fun and the score was 1-0 with Mari getting one in.  The third game was tough.  By that I mean the other team looked about 8 years old and the goal keeper was definately smaller than 9 year olds Bailey and Cameron.  Our girls scored a goal and then started passing the ball to each other making sure everyone touched it.  The final score was 3-0 and our girls felt badly about it - like they were beating up on them.  The other team was gracious and glad that they got to play us.  That concluded all the games for the day, but we weren't done yet!  The Sanvino team is not in our bracket and so we will not play them.  But after the days games were done, we decided to play each other. We even mixed up the teams so they were each half Trebol and half Sanvino.  All the kids had a great time.  Such a great time that the coaches decided to join in!  They proposed another game of kids against coaches and siblings.  Then the laughs began and the coaches realized their teams weren't as winded as they had hoped!

Sheri and Mae made it today and they got to the field in time to see the final game and the fun ones.  We are all now back at the hotel to rest for a couple of hours before we go to dinner at the host families homes.  It has been great and tomorrow the weather is supposed to get even better.  If it warms up, the cherry blossoms will bloom and we may have a party to celebrate!

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