Soccer Lovers
Brazilians are known as world class soccer
lovers. If Brazilians have brought anything to Japan in the past
decade they were samba and soccer. Among the Japanese, soccer
is becoming a very popular sport, even in small communities such
as Oizumi. Only last year, Japan saw their national soccer team
qualify for the World Cup in France.
While in Oizumi I had 
the opportunity to watch a junior
soccer match between Nikkei-Brazilians and Japanese. The Nikkei-Brazilians
had formed a soccer team so their children could play representing
their community. The Japanese team was very disciplined with fancy
warm-up routines and elegant soccer uniforms ironically featuring
the Brazilian national colors. The Nikkei team had been missing
some players and were a little less organized. It was a very exciting
match with the Japanese taking the lead after the half but after
a tough fight the Nikkei-Brazilians came out to win 8-6. One of
the Nikkei team members said to me after the match, `The Japanese
are getting good, but they still have a lot to learn.' It was
extremely interesting to see the two different societies that
we had been studying battle it out in competition.
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