Volleyballs and water bottles.

After a long weekend in Matsuyama, it was time to settle back down to life in Johen. And what better way to do so than over a few games of volleyball with my Japanese friends? Turns out what I'd thought might have been a permanent fixture was, in fact, just a seasonal competition - the final of which was on Wednesday. Sadly, we - the Ainan Yakuba (Town Office) Volleyball Team - didn't finish in first place, but that doesn't mean that we didn't have a blast!

I've never been the sportiest of people - as my abilities on the court soon showed - but even I got swept away in the hype of it all on the few occasions I found myself scoring a winning point. There are few things capable of inducing the same immediate rush you feel when you score a point and everyone cheers your name and runs on the pitch to high-five you.

Although we may not have won the tournament, there was a prize that the Ainan Yakuba team did pick up: that for the most number of aces scored! Obviously I can claim not a shred of the credit for this, since I think I only scored one myself, but the fruits of our team's success were shared by all! At the end, we found ourselves presented with an excitingly large, wrapped box. I asked Shogo what he thought it might be and he replied "Beer?" with a hopeful smile. The reality was a little less exciting...

Yup, our prize for all that hard work was 50 bottles of Evian's finest. Well, it's certainly the healthier option...