Basketball?

Zankoji Temple
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Who knew that in Japan I would be tall enough to be on the pro team?

We ended up in Nagano for a couple of days to watch one of David's friends, Andy, play basketball.  The game was in one of the ice skating rinks built for the 1998 Olympics.  It was very interesting to see the differences in playing styles betweeen Japanese and American players.  Andy's team won their first two games, which makes them the number two team in Japan in their division and means they will play in the national competition next month.  Pretty cool.

Guardians
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We stayed in a Japanese-style Ryokan for the night after partying with the basketball team.  It was a lot of fun!

It also happened that we were in Nagano for the 300th anniversary celebration at Zankoji Temple.  It is a temple where supposedly the first image of Buddha to arrive in Japan is housed.  Although, nobody  (including the last 37 emperors) has seen it in several hundred years.  In honor of the anniversary the temple and all of the grounds were lit  with all different colors and there were thousands of people walking through.