---

On May 21st a bunch of us woke up after 2.5 hours of sleep on a hotel floor and dragged our butts up north to Yoshida Guchi, where we met up with 15 or 16 other volleyball teams to roll in the mud.. and play a few games of baa-ri baru (lol.. Japanese can't pronounce "v" or "l"). Needless to say we were a little rough after dancing and drinking until 4am, but, it was worth every moment of it! What a day! .... and how many people really get the chance to have a volleyball tournament in a rice field? .... What an experience!

I will admit, when I first arrived (a little late) and saw the other teams trudging through 10　inches of mud, and covered from head to foot, I was pretty sure that there would be no way I would actually be brave enough to get down and dirty with my team. I have never been a fan of having dirty hands, so the thought of having so much mud on me was anything but appealing! I bought my special ninja-looking mud shoes and headed off to the changing tent where I proceeded to dress myself in the stylish clothes from the dollar store which Casey had picked up for me. Even though my brain was barely functional at this point, I did have enough sense to realise that Casey had bought me a white t-shirt, which was unavoidably going to get wet, to wear infront of a large crowd. Great! Something else to look forward to!

When it came time for my first match I was removed from　my original team and moved to a team of guys who were in need of another female player. At first I was not too fond of the idea of playing with people I didn't know (especially in my hungover/grumpy mood), but it ended up being a lot of fun and the guys were very entertaining to play with! As for the fear of my wet t-shirt and the mud.... the t-shirt became muddy (and therefore anything but see-through), and the mud (although disgusting) was a lot of fun!

I think we played 3 games that day, and I enjoyed almost every moment of it (I have to say "almost" because I was definitely not happy when I got it in my eyes and mouth). Hopefully there will be another mud-volleyball tournament next year!

P.S. I was removing mud from my nose for 3 days after the tournament.. and mud from my ears for 7 days! Haha.. everyone knows I am amused by the little things!

HIGHLIGHTS OF MUD VOLLEYBALL 2006: Great weather (sunny and 28 C), and getting to meet people from the other kens (prefectures)! Fun times!

---