Undokai like weekend

It was a sports filled weekend for me. Saturday was the monthly soccer tournament. This time was a bit different than the rest. Joining our team for the first time was a friend who is a linebacker for his American football club but rarely plays soccer and another was a coworker of mines. Both of them were actually very effective having scored a goal each. The funniest moment of the game happened when I was waiting at the sidelines and the referee said this about the linebacker turned soccer player "Man, I can't believe how big that guy is. Its crazy and he is running so fast!" Unfortunately with the Japanese Hulk on our side, we had similar results as the past tournaments coming in 3rd place... out of 4 teams =P The good news though though is that our team is getting better and I think its just a matter of time that we can get first place. For myself, my stamina is improving and I am starting to get a bit better. I think my skill level moved up from "Suck Badly" to "Somewhat sucks". Later that night, my friends and I ate at a Steak Cafe and ended the night playing Wii Sports at my place.

Sunday was my first time playing basketball competitively with another co-worker who invited me to play with his team in Saitama. This was also the first time I ever went to Saitama. Taking the train there from my place was not so bad, about 45 minutes via Sobu/Chuo line. He picked me up from the station and we went to the recreation center. The recreation center was huge. It had about 3 full court games going on in the main arena. I was used to playing in elementary schools where the court length is a bit smaller than the normal full court, so this was refreshing. After about 15 minutes of warming up, we started the game. I was a bit nervous because I was already sore from the day before, but I made a scoring impact early on in the game. The key word is early because even though my team was leading by 15 points in the first half of the game, we lost by 30 at the end. These guys were so fast and the game was 1.5 hours long. Whenever I had the chance, I tried to slow the tempo of the game, but usually it was a run and gun type of deal. Regardless, it was fun and I had a great workout. I hope I can play competitively again.

Today, I am sore as hell, but I love this feeling even though I can't move very well. I hope I can keep this level of activity up so I can lose the excess pounds and finally be in shape again.