Catching Up: Sports Day

This past weekend the University of Tsukuba had its annual Sports Day(s). Basically, there are athletic events all around campus ranging from soccer to futsal to exhibitions by clubs (gymnastics, rifle shooting, etc). I entered the "beginners" volleyball tournament with a group of friends. While I and some of the others were definitely beginners, we did have a few players that are actually pretty good and played in high school before. I don't feel too bad though because a lot of the other teams were like that as well and the "standard" group were all monsters who were over 6 feet tall or something. Tsukuba is very sports-oriented and sometimes known as "the Todai (basically, Harvard) for sports."

To prepare for the tournament we had some practice matches a week ago with another team named 7 Piece. We were pretty nervous at first because it was the first time we played as a team but we did well, beating 7 Piece's starting lineup once as well. After that we were pretty confident that we could do well, but...

It is pretty painful to say, but we were unlucky and had a bad draw. We lost our first match in a 66 team single-elimination tournament to a team that ended up third. To tell the truth I feel like we could have beat them if we met them later in the tournament but since it was the first game our lack of experience showed. To make matters worse the game was back and forth at first and we were leading 12-11 when I was taken out in order to let others have a chance. Normally this would not have been a problem but...our opponents were simply too good. They went on a 6-0 run and the game was basically over as it seemed like our players lost confidence. As usual, watching from the sidelines was very frustrating; you always want to be out there to help the team, especially when you know that you are better than someone on the court.

In retrospect the decision to take me out was probably a bad decision, but I can't really blame them either. I am no doubt a beginner with regards to volleyball and honestly, the purpose of the tournament was to have fun and not focus on winning. We did not expect to meet such a strong team in the first round and in theory, it is best to let everyone get some playing time early on before having your starters play the whole game later on. And my inexperience does show when I am on the court. It was just so frustrating because we honestly thought we would challenge for the title and for a few things that happened later.

7 Piece had their match right after ours and I stayed to watch them. Their opponents...were crap. They only had 5 players, some who played barefoot and in jeans, and were true beginners. 7 Piece destroyed them 25-3, with all three points coming off errors. I really felt that we were unlucky in drawing such a strong team, but that feeling only worsened when the tournament ended and 7 Piece emerged victorious. 7 Piece was a good team but they are also a team that we knew we could beat from experience. If we played them in the tournament I feel like we would have had a better than 50 percent chance of beating them, but alas, we were unprepared in he first round and never got the chance. We were so close, even if it did not appear so. It kind of stings when a team you beat just a week ago ends up winning the entire tournament.

So yeah, like most people we decided to drown our sorrows with alcohol, haha. People comment that the only things you can do in Tsukuba is go to nomikais (drinking parties) or karaoke. And no, I am not becoming an alcoholic; it was only the third time I drank in Japan and I never got drunk. In fact, the other kept on commenting on that fact when I tried to stop some crazy, alcohol-induced stuff. But, I have to say any relief that you get from drinking last only a short while. I am still disappointed but the results (though I still enjoyed the experience overall).