Hallo!

Hallo folks!
Had a nice weekend this weekend. Saturday night was a karaoke party for Yanni's birthday. We had about fifteen people, and karaoke'd for about 4 hours. My big hits included "Cotton Fields" by CCR, as well as an assortment of raucous GnR songs and my signature bit, Nirvana's "All Apologies". And of course, "Sweet Home Alabama". Representin tha southland, baby!
The next day started waaay to early for my taste...9am on the dot. K and I went into Nara prefecture to visit a very old and famous temple called Hasedera. It is one of a very few teaching temples of the Shingon sect of Buddhism still operating in Japan. Reputedly 1300 years old, it is built up the side of a hill and surrounded by lush gardens and forest.
The gardens of Hasedera are famous for hydrangeas, which were in full bloom and quite beautiful. In fact, they reminded me of the big hydrangea next to the back door at mom and dad's house. I remember dad pouring coffee grounds on the bush to make the flowers change color (the color of the flower varies with the pH of the soil). I told this story to K, and later to K's parents, who all thought it was funny.
After Hasedera, we went to K's parents house for dinner. They had been given a nice slab of Matsusaka beef and a big fish, and were keen to lay out a nice dinner. So they did. I got to cut the head off of the fish, which K's mom then turned into about three different dishes...sashimi from the fillet, soup from the difficult to eat parts, and what you could call 'ribs'...the middle part that was left after the fillets were removed...which she boiled in soy sauce and which was fantastic. We ate and ate and ate...and drank daddy's favorite sake, whose name escapes me. After dinner, he gave me a bottle of sake from the same company, but the premium stuff. He said he preferred the cheaper stuff..less pretentious...but that this bottle was extremely good. It is in fact a Daiginjo sake, about as fine as they come...but perhaps a little foofy for daddy's taste. I was instructed to drink it with friends, but most of my friends here don't particularly care for the sake...oh well, their loss!

After dinner, K was exhausted, so we went back to her place, relaxed for a little while...then I went up to my friend matt's house to watch the England vs Ecuador game. Kind of a downer...the game was stultifyingly dull... all the women were asleep within 15 minutes of the kickoff, and us fellers were yawning up a storm as well. Everyone had a long weekend.
I slept and slept yesterday, went to the camera store only to find that I had forgotten the film from Sunday, went to the art store, the grocery store, and then back home...bath, dinner, bed, Italy vs Australia, bed again.

Italy vs Australia was a strange game. The Australians ran all over the Italians, but just couldn't finish. The Italians went a man down early in the second half, and just kind of played a waiting game... which really paid off for them seeing as their goal came at the very end of extra time on a penalty kick... I dunno about that call..it was definitely a foul, and a flagrant foul...but it just seemed too perfect...a made for tv ending with Totti driving it in with no time left on the clock...like the Football Gods would not allow upstarts like the Aussies upset a proud and storied team like Italy. Or maybe they were just lucky. who knows.

Saturday is England vs. Portugal. Go team!