Kozo's Thoughts

Howdy blog readers! I haven't really had anything to write here recently, my life has boiled down to work, debate, and Tokyo Swallows baseball. There's other stuff, and I'm having a lot of fun, but nothing interesting enough to write on this public journal.

I've been going to Jingu stadium and catching baseball games whenever I can. I've met some great people, and despite some gut wrenchingly painful losses, I've been having a good time getting out of the house. In the course of going to games and running my mouth about baseball, I was asked to become a contributor at Tsubamegun, an English website dedicated to the Swallows. I hope that I can reach an audience with my thoughts on baseball, and to further hone my writing skills. My first post is rather auto-biographical, and may be of some interest to some of you.

I wasn't doing a very good job updating this thing before, and I don't expect it to get any better now. If you're dying to read words produced by me, go check out Tsubamegun!

I've never been one to miss a Canada vs. Japan match in anything. Unfortunately these matches tend to be one sided for one party. The last Canada vs. Japan I remember watching was in Olympic baseball when the Japanese team thumped the Canadians 9-1 in the preliminaries, and 11-2 in the bronze medal match. But being a national of both countries I dutifully stayed up 'til 3:00 to watch Canada vs. Japan in women's curling. I ended up watching a great curling match that kept me interested 'til the very end. Japan won 5-2 in a match where Ayumi Onodera (the Japanese skip) didn't have to throw a single draw. The Japanese took control early thanks to some key misses by Canada and amazing hits by Onodera. The Japanese made it interesting in the last two ends when they started missing shots but they picked it up when they had to.

Now Canada really has to win out to ensure a spot in the playoffs...

Game Report #7
It was a heartbreaker at the Big O this afternoon, as the Expos came back late but let it slip away in the ninth. Livan Hernandez pitched well after giving up 2 quick runs in the first, while the Expos were shut out by Pete Munro for 6 innings. Despite 3 errors by his infield Munro was able to keep the ball on the ground, and kept the Expos from scoring. Finally in the scored a run in the sixth and 3 runs in the seventh, giving the Expos a 2 run lead. Hernandez put two runners on in the ninth. He was spelled by Luis Ayala who promptly let 3 runs in, costing the Expos game. So the Expos' 7 game winning streak comes to an end.

Record of the Expos when I'm in attendance: 3-4 (Still not a winning record)

Other Stuff
I had dinner with Josh, Nate, John, and my folks. Good food and conversation all around. It's nice to have inter-generational talk... Life is good!!!

Also the US Olympic Basketball team lost to Puerto Rico today. It was the first loss in the Olypics for the USA since the "Dream Team" concept was introduced in 1992. Carlos Arroyo (the Utah Jazz point guard) played a beautiful game for Puerto Rico, go teamwork!!!