Monday was `Sea Day` in Japan, so of course I went to the sea. (So does that mean I have to work hard on Labour Day? I hope not).
I went to Mihama, in Fukui, which you already know about if you read my blog regularly. Which you should.
The water was clean - great! Unfortunately for me, the beach was also clean, so it was difficult to find enough wood for a campfire. When I come to the beach at other times, there is usually lots of wood on the beach, so I can make a huge fire. A huge fire is necessary when you go camping. The bigger the better. It`s common sense.
What did you do for Sea Day? Did you go to the beach?
I had intended to support Holland in the final, but after about 10 minutes of watching, I decided to support Spain instead. I don`t mind cheering on the `underdog` (= the team everybody expects to lose) but I don`t like dirty tactics & bad sportsmanship, and Holland played one of the dirtiest games of football I`ve seen in a while. They received so many yellow cards I lost count, & although they only received 1 red card, it should have been 2 or 3. Look at that tackle in the picture - can you believe he only got a yellow for that!?
I`m glad Spain won. Congratulations!
By the way, did you notice that the Japanese referee from the Holland v Brazil game was the `4th official` (the guy who holds up the Lost Time sign) for the final? I guess this was a kind of reward for his good performance, which I mentioned on this blog.
Mariko is a long-time student of Ichinomiya Teragoya. She has excellent English skills, she has an excellent English teacher (that`s me), she has excellent taste in English-speaking holiday destinations (she sometimes goes to Noosa, near my hometown of Brisbane), & now she has an excellent husband (but he`s not English, he`s Japanese). Congratulations! I hope you have a wonderful life together. And thanks for the bottle of wine which I won at bingo at your second wedding party - woohoo!
When I was walking near my house I saw a bicycle in a waterway. It was rusty & covered in rubbish, and - I guessed - damaged. Nevertheless, I wanted to rescue it & try to fix it.
And I did! It took a while, but it was fun.
However,if I use it, there is a chance I`ll be stopped by the police, and maybe they won`t believe that I found it & fixed it. Maybe they will think that I stole it & I`m lying (because I have a big nose). I don`t need that kind of trouble in my life.
So I don`t ride it; I just keep it in the garage. One day I`ll probably throw it back in the waterway.
On Sunday I went to an exhibition of art by Spanish surrealist Joan Miro at Kiyosu City Haruhi Art Museum 清須市はるひ美術館. Do you know him?
He`s an interesting guy, because he has a girl`s name. Also his art is interesting because it looks like a small kid did it, but he`s an adult...
Actually (maybe you can guess!), I don`t like his art much.
However, I`m interested in art, and especially printmaking e.g. etching, engraving & woodblock printing, which is what Joan Miro usually did. Besides the exhibition, the museum also had an interesting display of art printing equipment & decriptions of different art printing methods. I enjoyed looking at that.
Do you often go to art exhibitions? I recommend it. Even if I don`t really like the art, I always feel positive, creative & motivated afterwards.
At an izakaya or barbeque I usually drink beer, but when I have a nice meal, especially pasta, I prefer wine. A bottle of cheap wine in an Italian restaurant is usually about 2000 yen, but recently I found a family restaurant where a 500ml carafe of wine is only... 370 YEN! Wow - that`s cheaper than beer! And it tastes okay (but I`m not very fussy).
Of course the name of the restaurant is Saizeriya. It`s a chain, so there`s probably one near you. Do you often go there?
There have been a lot of bad refereeing decisions this World Cup, so it is good to see somebody do a good job. Congratulations to Japanese match referee Yuichi Nishimura - & his linesmen - for their performance in the Netherlands-Brazil game. I also like his `low-key` (calm & relaxed) style & manner. Other referees` actions are sometimes too energetic & theatrical - they look like they are doing Michael Jackson dance moves or something.
Did you know:
Referees tend to run 12 miles during a game - five more than the players, according to data from the U.S. Soccer Federation.
On Saturday I went to Gifu`s salsa party, and enjoyed some cold beer, hot food & super-hot dancing - wow! Thanks Rosa & Mitsuo (in the above photo) for the amazing salsa dancing demonstration. Rosa also demonstrated some basic salsa steps, which we could practice. I didn`t dance, but I should have. After, I regretted not trying... Next time I`ll try!
It was a great night, and everyone had a good time. I also enjoyed chatting with various students from Gifu & Ginan Teragoya.
Gifu`s next event is `Rock Night`, and the band `God of Thunder` will play live. I`ve seen them before and they are AWESOME! Please come and check them out. The party is on Saturday, 24 July, from 6 - 8pm. See you there!
The group stages are now over, so we can say goodbye (& au revoir, & ciao!) to 16 teams.
Some of these teams will be very disappointed (France, Italy) but others, like New Zealand, can be very proud of their performance.
Of course I`m disappointed that Australia is going home. We always seem to have bad luck with referees in World Cups, but of course a lot of other teams have suffered because of bad refereeing decisions too.
From now on, if the games are still drawn at 90 minutes, they will go into extra time, and then penalty shoot-outs! Agh! So stressful!
I`ll probably go to Sportscaster bar in Ichinomiya to watch the Japan-Paraguay game on Tuesday night. How about you?
In English, we have a saying which I like: "One man`s trash is another man`s treasure."
Japanese beaches are a great place to find interesting things that other people think are trash, but I like to collect and keep. Sometimes I even make things from them. Because they come from the sea, they have usually been washed clean, so I don`t really think of them as `real` rubbish like the stuff you put in your rubbish bin at home.
In the picture above, you can see some things I collected last week when I went to Mihama Beach in Fukui. Do you recognize any of them? Have you ever picked up these kinds of things from the beach, maybe when you were a kid?
Anyway, this is the first in an intended series. I hope you enjoy it.
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