Nagano Footbal Tournament

so... last weekend i played in a football tournament in a town called nagano. i met a few teacher friends through a mutual friend, and twice a year there is a football tournament, there are 4 qualifying groups across japan, east,south, north, west. i think its mainly teachers who play (99% of white folk over here are teachers). last weekend was the eastern qualifyers. there were 18 teams, and the tpo 4 go through to the finals in saitama, that final is played in the saitama stadium that hosted the 2002 world cup semi final. anyway, there are 4 games on saturday, and 3 on sunday. apparently niigata got through to the saitama final for the past 2 years. unfortunately this year we only had 11 players. so that everyone had to play all 7 games (40 mins per game). nagano itself is a beautiful setting up in the mountains, 3 hours drive away from niigata. we managed to amazingly win all four of the saturday games without conceding a single goal. saturday night there is a big party in a nearby hotel, where all the teams mingle. needless to say it was a pretty cool night, and despite an unfortunate event with a locked room, a fire alarm and a quickly sobering yorkshire bloke, it went off uneventfully. the hotel where we stayed was caled an onson. an onsen is a kind of spa, where there is a large room, with a smal pool with very hot water in it, which is natural hot spring water, where you get naked and sit in and relax, these are amazing things, really relaxing (and of course not mixed!) and are great for tired legs. the place is a ski resort in the winter, and the rooms are basically tatama mats where 6 sleep in a room on mats. (see photo). sunday we got up early ish, and we were al very tired....some were incredibly hungover...some were trying hard not to throw up on the side of the pitch! anyway, after a tense penalty shoot out (we were all to tired with too stiff legs to run!) we managed to win the quater final, and then also the semi final. so we got through to the final but we were all shattered by that point and lost the final, BUT as we came second, we qualified for the all japan finals in saitama in january, which was incredible.....all the guys were really nice and hopefully ive made a few more friends.
in other footbal related news, sheff utd got there first win of the season! again, as there is no football on tv i missed it, really disappointing as in malaysia they show more football than in england, yet as soon as sheff utd get in the premiership, im in the only place in the world that doesnt show it!! i think that missing the blades in the premiership ranks as one of my top 5 things that i miss about the UK...