Sayoonara Nippon, Fast Cars, and Vinegar

Yesterday we went to two museums. Apparently Handa City is world renowned for its vinegar. In fact, this vinegar factory has companies all over America.

I seriously went into this one thinking there was no way I wouldn't be bored out of mind. But then something magical happened...I was hearing English. There was a movie on "The Mysterious Powers of Vinegar."

Right now, I'll bet you're asking, "What ARE the mysterious powers of vinegar, Matt?"

1.) Preservation and Bacteria Control.

2.) Increases Appetite.

3.) Reduce Salt Intake

4.) Calcium Absorption

5.) Recovery from Fatigue

6.) Naturally Reduces Blood Pressure

7.) Reduction of High Levels of Blood Chloresteral

Mysterious, indeed.


Here are a few of us walking through the museum. Our guide is on the right side of the picture. The white paper she is holding is her english script which she referred to often. I didn't mind though, I was just happy to know what the hell was going on for once. :)



We also went to the Toyota Museum where I saw a whole lot of cars ranging in date of creation from 1903 to the present. We got a headset that allowed us to hear about everything we were looking at in English...very nice. It was cool...learned a lot about car history in Japan, Europe, and the US of A. They talked about culture in these areas and how it related to the production of these cars...I'm pretty much a genius now.

Here's the team with our tour guide outside the Vinegar Museum.

Here I am with one of Ford's Model Ts from back at the start of the 20th century. Brings back memories of high school history class. By the way, I look like the ultimate tourist with my museum audio guide and headpiece on. :)

I'm sure none of this is especially interesting to you...BUT I have not mentioned the most exciting part of the day, yet. Fridays are big soccer days for the guys at Aichiyo...this Friday was no different. After a few scrimmages, we decided to put a wager on the game.

We split up the teams so it was Japan -vs- Thailand and America (The United States of Thaimerica as we referred to ourselves). The terms: The losers by the winners ice cream from Baskin' Robbins. The losers get to "wash the stones" (note: reference to earlier blog entry) while the winners eat the ice cream in front of them.

We were outnumbered and the Japanese had more skill...but we played with passion and reckless abandon. Fueled by alternating chants of "Sayoonara Nippon" (Goodbye Japan) and "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream," we routed the more refined Japanese by a score of 5 - 0!!!!! The Aichiyo Gym was electric as we passed and weaved like warrior poets.

While we were playing, members of the colorguard were practicing some work on the side to the music of "Wind Beneath My Wings." So during the game, we heard this song approximately 50,000,000 times. Thus, on this special night, it became our theme song. We plan on taking footage of the game, adding "Wind Beneath My Wings" as the audio track, and putting it on youtube.

The Japanese have requested a rematch this Monday...The United States of Thaimerica will honor that request. Ice cream and national pride will be at stake.