Go Lakes!

Last weekend I was down in Yasu to see Shiga's brand new professional basketball team, the Shiga Lakestars, in action. While it was no NBA, it certainly was a great game. We were up against the league leading Ryukyu Kings from Okinawa who were 9-0 at that point.



The first quarter was very sloppy on Shiga's part. Rebounding was terrible, they couldn't get the ball inside, and were moving it poorly around the perimeter. Down 14-33 at the end of the first quarter things were not looking good.



I'm not sure what happened after that, but the team game alive after the poor 1st quarter. Nailing threes, getting the important rebounds, both defensive and offensive, and controlling the tempo of the game much better. They went 20-3 in the second quarter to finish the half down by 2 at 34-36.



The second half of the game, they played just like the second quarter. The action was tight, and while the Kings were still ahead, one of the players decided to showboat on a break and ended up slamming a dunk into nothing but back iron. It reminded me of the jam that Jordan missed in the All-Star game. Everyone was loving it when the ball flew back to center court.



Shiga took over the lead and held on to a comfortable 6 point lead to finish the game 81-75, handing the Kings their first defeat and improving to 4 and 6 themselves.



The 52 game season runs until April, so you can bet I'll be going back to check them out. Quality ball at a quality price (2000 yen for 2nd floor, 3000 for 1st floor, 6000 for court side) and it's right in my backyard.

Halloween

With the help of my mom I was able to order and ship a Dark Knight Joker costume to Japan for this year's Halloween festivities. A buddy of mine who teaches with me in town was kind enough to go along with my theme and dressed as Batman. Aaron and Ken from Kyoto, as well as Sho an Komo from Tokyo made the trip out to Shiga for the party as well, and a good time was had by all.

The costume was fantastic and went over well both times I wore it. People kept saying how creepy I looked, and some people even had a hard time looking at me. I thought I was a shoe-in for the scariest costume prize at the JET Halloween party, but Sarah Palin beat me by a vote (good thing it didn't happen that way yesterday too). I can't complain though cause it was an excellent night and weekend. One of the best Halloweens ever even if I do say so myself.