We arrived by bus at the dorms about 4:30 p.m. We carried all of our luggage into the building and took the elevators up to the third floor. All the other international teams were also coming in. We were on the same floor as the team from Korea and Mexico. We had 25 people and only had four rooms to stay in. I bunked with my Monroeville teammates and Mr. Fontes. We were glad to be back together again. We found our room and then the chaperones left us there to go to a reception. We all talked about our host families. Tommy said his family could speak English. I showed him my sweatsuit that the Kishi's gave me and I accidentally locked my key in my suitcase. I swore. Luckily, I had my phone card in my other bag so I called my mom and woke her up. It was 2:30 in the morning there. She said she had given Mr. Fontes the spare key. Whew! We played soccer in the hall until the grownups got back and Mac yelled at us. We went down to the cafeteria for dinner, everything they served was cold. I only ate the rice with chopsticks. Everyone hated dinner. We came back to the rooms and laid around and most of the team wrote in their journals. I played Gameboy before I went to sleep.

Tommy Briley having fun at the dorms

Friday, March 28
Woke up at the dorms, went downstairs to eat at the cafeteria and had burned eggs, rice and apple juice. It wasn't very good. The Tournament officially begins today at 10 a.m. with a game against the Omiya Wings. We took the team bus back to Omiya Stadium to play Kotaro's team. Most of the kids on the Omiya team were host families for our team. The Kishi's stood and waved to me from the stands. We tied 1-1. And Kotaro scored the only goal. After the game, we took lots of pictures with both teams. It was cold and rainy, and a lot of the kids on the team, including me had colds. Before our next game, we waited in the locker room where it was warm and dry and watched Omiya play Saitama through the windows. We had an awful box lunch of cold spaghetti with meatballs, that were hard as rocks. Omiya lost their second game. Max came up with a great chant for our team that went something like “Who are we?... All Stars, What... All Stars... Who... All Stars. which the host moms all chanted during our next game, in broken English. It was great. We ended up losing our 4 p.m. game to Saitama 4-0 in the cold rain

We took the bus back to the dorms. We all wet and cold, it was horrible! We all took showers back at the dorms in our swim trunks, cause they were public showers. Except for Mr. Freedman, he was naked. We played a little soccer in the hall until some Korean boy took a poop right in the middle of the hall. His team was all laughing. Mr Freedman had to clean it up. So much for our soccer game in the hall. We took the bus to the Urawa Royal Pines Hotel where there was a big welcome reception. All the teams were there and they had Kodo drummers playing on a stage. I stood back by the food table because I was really hungry. Finally, they put out the hot food, (there is a God). I ate roast beef and french fries while everyone watched the show. As soon as the drum show was over, I saw my teammates rushing towards the food table. I got back in line with them and loaded up with spaghetti and more roast beef and fries. I sat at a table with Kotaro and the Kishis', they were happy to see me. Everyone took pictures. Later that night when we were back at our room, Tommy Briley tried to place a phone call from the phone in our dorm room. Mr. Fontes told him to push 9 to dial out. Tommy dialed 9 then his phone number and said it wasn't working, “hello, hello,” Tommy said over the intercom, Hello, do you hear that, Hey, Hello, Tommys voice blared all over the hallways from loud speakers. He quickly hung up before the guards came up. Oops. We all laughed.

They called them Soccer Mamasans, Here is the whole group of us. I'm on the left in the front row, Kotaro and Takahumi are right behind me.


Saturday, March 29
Friendship games begin at Kawaguchi Aoki Park. The field was real muddy. With the pressure off, our team we could enjoy ourselves a bit more and played a very good game and tied a very good national team from Korea 0-0. We ate a cold, disgusting meatloaf hamburger sandwich while watching another game and waited to play our second game that day. We played another good game against China but we lost 3-2 We got back to the dorms took showers, played Quintz (a card game), and had a quiet evening

After our last game with Korea.

Sunday, March 30
One more friendship match against another team from Korea and we lost 2-0. From there we took the bus to the Saitama Stadium to watch the semifinals and the finals. On the bus ride they passed out another box lunch. I skipped the cold noodles this time. Saitama Stadium was huge and beautiful. I wish we could have played on this field They even showed replays on the scoreboard. Me and Adrian both skipped the lousy box lunches and were really hungry. We went to the concession stands at the stadium and caused a big ruckus trying to order food. The lady couldn't understand us and we couldn't understand her. We ended up spending 1,000 yen on 2 corn dogs, 2 cokes, and a can of Pringles. All the teams in the tournament were there and I sat with the Kishis for a while. The championship game ended when a player from Japan scored a great goal by kicking the ball with a flip kick instead of heading it into the goal.

Tommy, Adrian, me and Ranjeet from the Monroeville Jaguars
at the new beautiful Saitama Soccer Stadium, Japan

We got back to our dorm rooms later that day and decided we didn't want to go to the cafeteria for another cold, lousy dinner. So Mr. Fontes and Mrs. Feiler took Vince Adrian, Tommy and me to McDonalds. We had to walk down a path and through a park. I gave them 2,000 yen and got a burger and fries and no change! We ate there and walked back in the dark. At about 8 o'clock, a boy from the New Zealand team came up to our floor looking for some mates to play soccer with. We noticed he was wearing a Mexico jersey. He said he traded for it. This is when all the trading started. I ran down to see the team from Mexico and traded some pins but didn't get back much. Then I pulled out my Mac shirt (a blue and black polo All-Star shirt with my name and number on it) I traded it with a boy from Mexico for his goalie jersey. Then I went downstairs and traded my grey 2nd team jersey to boy from China for his jersey.Then traded a soccerball the Kishis gave me for a Mexico jersey from a boy from China. Shirts were flying all over the place. I came back upstairs and traded my China jersey with a New Zealand kid and then traded my Mexican goalie jersey to Chinese boy for his Goalie shirt. I then just gave Chris (our goalie) the Chinese goalie shirt for playing so well. Chris was definitely the All Star of our team and he hadn't been able to trade for anything. Somehow, Ranjeet ended up with the entire China uniform. Thats what happened Sunday. What fun!

Monday, March 30 -THE LAST DAY
I woke up and ate another lousy breakfast at the cafeteria with the team. We packed up all our suitcases and took them down to the parking lot to wait for the bus to the airport. All the host families came back to say goodbye. We played frisbee and kicked balls around with everybody until it was time to go. The New Zealand team was doing their cool jungle chant, so we did our team chant one more time. As the bus was pulling out everybody was waving goodbye. Ranjeet threw his All Star cap out the window to his host family. He said he really liked his family a lot, too! The bus ride to the airport was about 2 hours. My host family, the Kishi's were following the bus! They were weaving in and out beside us smiling and waving. Before we went to the airport the coaches wanted us to stop at the big FIFA store for souveneirs. Halfway there we had to turn all the way around and go all the way back to the dorms because one of the adults forgot something. Everbody was mad, We wouldn't be able to pick up souveneirs because of him. Even the Kishi's turned around. We drove all the back to the dorms. Then while we were headed back to the airport, they picked up another box lunch. I didn't even want to look at it.

We finally got to the FIFA store with less than 20 minutes to shop. I quickly picked up a bunch of stuff, including a nice team Japan jersey. We stopped at a rest stop for a bathroom break and the Kishi's stopped there too. We finally got to the airport and checked in. Then I saw my host family again. They had followed us all the way to Narita Airport. They were the only host family that did. They must have really liked me. They followed me through the airport, buying me things as they walked behind us. They would stop at the little shops, then run up to me and give me what they bought. It was really funny, up escalalors, through doors, the whole family. I really love them.

We had just ordered ice cream and our flight was called, some of the team boarded with ice cream still in their hands. I sat by the window, and we quickly took off. I swear I saw the Kishi's car below with them still waving goodbye. We flew right up over the ocean and I watched it all disappear, it was all gone.

At 10,000 feet the Harry Potter movie came on the screen. After the movie I skipped the airline food and just ate some candy that some of my teammates had shared. It had gotten dark real fast, I slept most of the way as the plane rumbled into New Jersey. It then got light real fast then it started to get dark again! We got to New Jersey and boarded the smaller jet to Pittsburgh. I had to sit in the back by the really stinky toilet. I slept again. We finally arrived in Pittsburgh about 8pm, 12 hours after takeoff fom Japan at 5pm the same day. From the plane I saw my family waving from the same gate we had left from. We came up the hallway and everbody was clapping and cheering for us. I hugged my mom. I was tired, hungry and glad to be home. We picked up our luggage, said goodbye to my teammates and headed home. It was over.

All Star comes home, Pittsburgh International Airport

I learned a lot about the wonderful people from Japan. I made a bunch of new good friends from my team, I hope I will see you guys somewhere again. It was a great experience. I would like to thank everyone who made this trip possible. Thanks Mom and Dad for trusting in me to go all by myself. Thanks to the Saitama Sister City Committee for organizing this awesome trip. Thanks to anyone and everyone who helped fund our journey. Thanks, Mr. Fontes, for taking good care of us over there. Thanks to my team for all their support. But most of all a big domo arigato thank you to the Kishis for welcoming me into their home and having me as their guest. I will never forget you.

Dan

Look a present from the Far East

PS if I ever go back I will pack less and bring more money

I got this email the day of my 12th birthday.

After I came home from Japan, my parents sent a box of goodies to my host family as a thank you. We sent a box filled with presents including Captain Crunch cereal, pistachios, Sarris chocolates, beef jerkey, cigars, a Pirate cap, a Pitt t-shirt An Icharo bobble head, a Hello Kitty Pillow and a bunch of other stuff I thought they might enjoy. I also sent a picture of me wearing the warm up they gave me and wrote a note thanking them for being so nice to me. Believe it or not, the postage was $50 for the 11 pound box!

There are also rumours that the Kotaro's team may be coming to Pittsburgh. I'll keep you posted