Oceanshaft

Last Saturday, went with the guys from church and a whole lot of other people as well to the beach between Shikanoshima and Uminonakamichi. Main activities for the day were shell-picking (clams were in abundance), beach volleyball, beach soccer, and just walking up and down the beach. Thank God the rainy weather broke and it was cloudy for the time that we were there. A bit too cool to swim though. Waiting for the end of the rainy season for that.

Of course, we had various dishes involving clams the next day.

Watched Czech play Italy, slept for two hours, and awoke for the match between Japan and Brazil. What can I say? Brazil played sublimely and Ronaldo is getting back on form. Kawaguchi made a string of fine saves but was finally beaten and the gates swung open. Perhaps Maki shouldn't have been substituted, as pace was sorely lacking from the Japan side in the second half. One exception was Santos, who continued to try and attack. At least things picked up a bit in the last 10 minutes or so.

Best play goes to the little passing game back and forth between Ronaldo and Ronaldhino in front of the Japanese goal. Didn't turn into a goal though.

Question : was that Roberto Carlos who tried to cheer up Nakata post-game, after he had been laying on the pitch for 5 minutes or so?

Saw some magnolias blooming one or two days ago and got some shots of them today. It's the first time I've actually seen a magnolia flower, and I didn't realise they were so large. Charming flowers, large but not gaudy.

Spain beat Ukraine 4-0! A goal from a corner kick, a goal from a free kick, a goal from a penalty kick and a goal from good passing. The last especially was stunning.

To those of my friends using MSN spaces for their webpage/blogs, just like to tell you that for some reason I can't leave comments on your posts even though I have an MSN (hotmail) account. Probably because I'm not using Internet Explorer. But I'm still reading your posts. Yup.

Spotted this insect in school today. My first thought was that it might be a wasp since it had caught another insect, but the shape seemed too longish for a wasp and a little searching cleared up the matter, identifying it as a species of robber fly. Even found the Japanese name シオヤアブ. Couldn't get too good a picture of it as it kept flying away when I got too close, so in the end I just turned up the zoom, stretched out my arms slowly and snapped.

For all those bored folks out there who like me, always wonder about the names of plants, vegetables, etc., this page is useful when you only know the name of a plant in one language but feel some obsessive need to also know it in others. For English/Chinese/Japanese. Wouldn't say it's completely accurate. にら/韭菜 isn't exactly "leek" but "garlic chives" or "chinese chives" or "chinese leek". (I know because I once spent a considerable amount of time looking for the appropriate English name)

Yes, yes, nitpicking I know.

Watched Germany beat Costa Rica 4-2 last night. Great match, lots of great goals. Costa Rica's goals came from beating Germany's offside trap, very nicely done. Great first and last goals by Germany too, powerful shots. Germany had many chances, the Costa Rican goalkeeper did a good job keeping the score down to 4.

Homeless feeding with the church today, probably about 150 homeless people were at the park. Our pastor was telling us that to some people, the homeless were lazy and not worth helping. But even though there are homeless people who choose to lead such lives, there are also those who lost everything after falling ill and losing their jobs, or through some other misfortune. We don't judge or choose who to help, because we know they are all valuable.

It's true, the homeless people are of all types, some can speak really fluent English as well. As for the attitudes of the public towards them, I just recall an incident related to me by a Filipino friend who's a painter. He had a small exhibition of paintings held, and a few of his paintings were of the homeless around Hakata. Some Japanese who saw the paintings were angry and told him that he should not have painted such subjects as it would give a bad impression of Japan to outsiders. It's sad that that should be their overiding response. Of course not every one acts in such a way, but was just reminded of this today.

As a side note, two more of my friends are expecting.

Recently I tried chocolate with 99% cacao content. Have seen them on the market in Japan for some time now, by Lindt and Meiji as well. Although the past few years seem to have seen an increase in the availability of dark choclate, it still doesn't seem that popular in Japan, so perhaps these high percentage bars are just a fad? Regardless, I bought a bar of Meiji 99% cacao and found it to my liking. It's bitter, alright. Not the strong immediacy of bittergourd though. It's a slow seeping bitterness as the good taste of chocolate melts through your mouth. It fact, it's as if the bitter notes of dark chocolate have been distilled. But it's chocolate. True chocolate.

Try it. You'll find out if you like chocolate, or you just like sugar and milk.

The rainy season still hasn't reached northern Kyushu. Seems it's been delayed, and these few days the weather has been fair and sunny. Won't be long though I guess. And after the rains, summer will burst forth. Woohoo! Can't wait to go swimming in the ocean.

Have been playing Nethack these days, it's quite addictive...