World Cup news

Japan won their first game in the 2010 World Cup (being played in South Africa now until 11 July, in case you didn’t know).

Japan defeated the African country of Cameroon with a score of 1-0 in the first soccer match for both countries’ teams in this years soccer World Cup.

The Japanese player Keisuke Honda was voted as the game’s MVP as he scored the only goal in the match.

Keisuke Honda (of Japan's "Samurai Blue" soccer team) scoring the only goal in Japan's match against Cameroon, 2010 June 14.

In other World Cup related news…
Islamic militants in the African nation of Somalia are apparently in charge of parts of that country and have imposed numerous, strict and outrageous laws…including making it a capital offense to watch the World Cup soccer matches on TV.

A group of the militants forced their way into private homes of people who were watching the Germany-Australia match.
The executed two of the soccer fans and arrested thirty others!

No country should oppress people like that.

How to improve the World Cup…use binoculars

The 2010 World Cup has begun. The World Cup is the international soccer championship games.

(I wrote this post about a drink Pepsi-Japan released recently in honor of the World Cup.)

I don’t think soccer is a very exciting game. But I remember seeing on TV here about ten or so years ago a soccer game organized by the famous Japanese comedian Beat Takeshi that was much more entertaining than how the game is usually played.

He made all of the players wear binoculars strapped by their faces. It was quite funny. Beat Takeshi always has excellent shows even today.

Of course someone put it on YouTube.

This is how soccer should be played:

Samurai Blue ガンバレ！

First of all, my blog reached the 400,000 hits point today. At the current rate of over 2,000 daily hits, my blog should reach the half-million hits mark by late July.

Thank you to everyone who visits my blog.

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Do you like サッカー (soccer)?
Personally, I don’t care for it much…but I know the “World Cup” is like the “Olympics of Soccer”.
The World Cup is an international championship soccer competition and it’s very popular around the whole world (except America 😉 ).

The 2010 World Cup is scheduled to begin on 2010 June 11. But currently there are some kind of “pre-World Cup” international soccer matches going on.

Tonight the Japan soccer team (nicknamed: “Samurai Blue“) is scheduled to play a game against the Korean soccer team in Saitama, Japan.

Ad for Japan's "Samurai Blue" team's soccer match against Korea this evening.

Here’s an Adidas Japan TV commercial for the Samurai Blue / World Cup:

ガンバレ日本！ (Good luck Japan!)

I ♥ Beer

I like beer! Especially 麒麟ビール (Kirin Beer).
I drink a can or two everyday with dinner.
I even like 発泡酒 (low-malt beer), which is popular in Japan because it’s taxed much lower than regular beer…and therefore cheaper. (Actually, all of the beers mentioned in this post are 発泡酒 (low-malt beer)).

My favorite beer is 「麒麟淡麗」 (Kirin “Tanrei“):

But I’m not picky. I’ll drink any* beer.

麒麟ビール (Kirin Beer) is currently selling my favorite 「淡麗」 (“Tanrei“) beer in special cans for the upcoming 2010 Soccer World Cup which will be hosted by South Africa. (Japan co-hosted the 2002 Soccer World Cup games with South Korea, by the way.)

The special “2010 Soccer World Cup” edition 麒麟ビール (Kirin Beer) cans show the JFA (Japan Football (Soccer) Association) logo.

Kirin "2010 World Cup" special-edition beer cans.

Another beer that I like is the fairly new 「麒麟ストロングセブン」 (“Kirin Strong Seven”), which has 7% alcohol level (compared to the usual 5.5% of regular Japanese beer)!

Kirin "Strong Seven" Beer with 7% alcohol.

* I said above that I’ll drink any beer. There are exceptions…I don’t like lite beers or non-alcoholic beers. 麒麟ビール (Kirin Beer) has recently introduced one of each into their line-up. I won’t be buying either of these!

One is their new lite beer called 「麒麟ゼロ」 (“Kirin Zero“).
It’s called “Zero” because it contains 糖質ゼロ (zero carbohydrates) and カロリーオフ (low calories). It’s also only 3% alcohol.

"Kirin Zero" lite beer. (No thanks.)

The other is 「キリンフリー」 (“Kirin Free“). This is a ノンアルコール (alcoholic free) beer.
It contains “0.00% alcohol“.

Kirin's "alcohol-free" beer. (Not for me).

Have you ever tried any of these? What type (and brand) of beer do you drink?