Chusotai

I have to work Saturday and Sunday this weekend because it's Chusotai, the city-wide junior high school sports tournament.

It's a pretty big deal, especially because it's the last competition the 3rd grade students will play in in their JHS career before entering high school.

I thought yesterday, being Friday the 13th, would be an unlucky day. It turned out that today was even worse. At 8:43am, while I was in my apartment getting ready to go to the sports stadium, another gianormous earthquake rolled through our city.

It was scary and lasted what seemed like forever. A few things fell. My hands couldn't stop shaking even after the earthquake had seized.

After that, I went to watch the students play sports. =)

Unfortunately, the bad luck streak continued. I went to watch the baseball team, soft tennis team (yes, such a sport exist in this country), table tennis, and soccer team play from my school and all of them, except for one lost. I saw many students (including 15 year old boys) cry. It was a bit sad.

I knew that whatever I was able to mutter in Japanese wasn't going to be enough to bring them out of their slump, so I just ended up walking away with a mere nod of encouragement. Sigh. Sad, isn't it.