Chargers @ Raiders at Halftime

Football season is here again. Day off today to watch Monday night football.

First game was Bears @ Patriots. Brady was back after a knee injury. Looked rusty in the beginning but came back and ended as the “old” Brady scoring 11 points for a win in the last 3 minutes.

Directly afterwards the San Diego Chargers @ Oakland Raiders game started. First half just ended with a surprisingly strong Raiders. It’s 10-10 after the referees stole a TD from Raiders. Boooooo!!! 😡

It’s Football Season!!!

Finally it’s football season again! It started already on Saturday with the seasoning opener between Tennessee Titans @ Pittsburgh Steelers (10-13). Tonight we can watch some other games, currently Chicago Bears @ Green Bay Packers.

But tomorrow it is Raaaaaaaaiders! Monday night football in USA, but Tuesday morning football here in Japan. Chie and I have taken a day off to watch the game live 😀

Raider Nation Japan Pre-Season 2009

Just before 3 pm the first Raider Nation Japan member knocked or our door. Actually, Mash-san used the bell but it is a better flow in “knocked on the door” than “rang the bell”. More poetic… Or something.

After Mash-san, Black Panther-san and Moonlight-san arrived. And finally the guest appearance from Club Leo, Ryo-san.

Once everyone had arrived Chie started cooking. First Japanese dishes. Then Chinese dishes. Everyone ate and was happy.


Chie preparing delicious dishes Mash-san & Black Panther-san

Between the dishes we watched Raiders games. The first pre-season game of the season against Dallas Cowboys. Then a game against Tampa Bay Buccaneers from last year. And finally we watched the game against New York Jets that we visited last year.


Part of Raider Nation Japan watching football It's Raiders football!!!

Everyone had a great time. At 10 pm the last guests left. Chie went to bed. And I tried to live up to being the best guy in the world by doing the dishes.


Sofa dressed for success

Raider Nation Japan at Yoshiman

After work I went to Tokyo Station to meet Jimmy and Emma. They came back from Osaka by the Shinkansen train. And I was helping them to find their way to the Sawanoya ryokan in Nezu area.

We met at the Yamate-sen platform and continued with Yamate-sen to Ueno station. From there it is just a 20-30 minutes walk to the ryokan along the Ueno park.

Once they safely had reached Sawanoya and checked-in I continued to Nezu station and onto the Chioda-sen to Hibiya. 5 minutes walk and I ended up at Yoshiman restaurant where Raider Nation Japan had a meeting. Eating and talking.


Chie, Moonlight-san & Kurihyu-san at Yoshiman in Ginza

As always we talked mostly about the Raiders. Now the focus was on the poor results of the last few years and what we need to do to prepare for the next season starting in September.

As always we had a fun time. Despite feeling miserable about Raiders performance.


Mash-san at Yoshiman in Ginza

Raider Nation Japan

Met Mash-san outside of Yoshinoya in Yurakucho at 4 pm. It was really cold in the wind and we had to wait for a while before every one arrived. From Yoshinoya it was a 5 minute walk to Sanshuya in Ginza.

Sanshuya turned out to be a quit cheap Japanese restaurant with good food. We had many different things to eat and talked about Raiders and football.

Newcomer & Mash-san Shimura-san and his wife

At around 7 pm we continued to The Rocks, a bar/redtaurant in Ginza. Here we had more to eat and more to talk about. Although the subjects were still Raiders and football. And as always, the newcomer fell asleep.

RNJ newcomer

Around 10:30 pm I was back home. As you may have noticed I then updated this blog. Not only the look but also a new version of WordPress. And now I am writing this blog with my new iTouch Christmas gift from bed 🙂 Good night!