soccer

akira (behind the lense) rented a car and brought us out of the city, to watch the iran - japan soccer game at the place of mori, his iranian friend.

tomo (soccer freak, second from left) came all the way from osaka for the event - first he had considered flying to tehran... to get us in the mood, mori (left) dished up persian sweets, fruit and tea.

after the match (iran won 2-1, decent match, deserved winner) we watched the video of moki's wedding. for more then ten years, moki used to live with mori, in this same tiny room north of tokyo, but he returned to iran last year. akira went to teheran for moki's wedding, mori couldn't... one day, rather sooner than later, mori will return too. here you can download akira's documentary about moki and mori.

caroline (right) runs a macrobiotic table d'hôtes in brussels. through wwoofing she spent a month at different organic kitchens around japan to master the gentle arts of kaiseki, food cutting and presentation, slow food, and even chaji, the traditional tea ceremony. a very effective way to discover japan in depth - appetizing stories from the fascinating west. caroline was frying tamagoyaki at the time last week's earthquake hit kyushu, in a kitchen only a couple of kilometers from the epicenter. "het begon met een diep gerommel en dan begon alles te beven in de keuken, we moesten ons vasthouden aan de muren. alle glazen en borden vielen uit de rekken en het duurde enkele minuten. het was een grote ravage want echt bijna alles was gebroken."

next game for iran is against north-korea - soccer along the axis of evil... and next one for japan is bahrain.