Chie and I spent almost the whole day watching Football. Christmas Eve is always packed with games and since game time is afternoon or evening US time it will be the day after in the morning Tokyo time. Though we could not watch it live we could follow the Raider’s game live on the Internet. We WON \(^o^)/
In the evening we were too exhausted to cook. So we again went for yaki-niku. It was (almost) as yummy as the other day 🙂
Monday morning and we basically just got up, packed the car, and went to the airport. The flight back was long. And it felt even longer as we had two babies close by that took turns in crying their guts out. Luckily once I put in my earplugs to watch movies on my iPad I could hear nothing of the cries.
Game days can be sunny and beautiful and fun and wonderful and… And terrible. Well, all the sunny and fun part we had until the game started. We had wonderful food at the tailgate party, and we had a good time eating it and talking about the upcoming game.
But once the game started it was pretty clear we were not going to win. Every part of the team lacked confidence. QB Boller was starting for the first time since #1 QB Cambell is out for the season with a broken collarbone (injured last game). QB Boller started with a couple of run plays before he tried his first pass… Resulting in an interception TD.
The best (or worst part) with getting a TD against you is that you get the ball back after the kick-off. This resulted in a few more run plays before the next pass… And interception. On the following drive Chiefs scored. The game had almost not started and already we were down 14-0 🙁 And so it continued.
Whatever could go wrong went wrong. And it felt like we had already lost before we went out on the field. I think there are a few reasons for this: 2 weeks ago Al Davis (founder and owner of Raiders) died; a week ago starting QB Cambell got a season ending injury when he broke his collarbone; the leagues leading RB McFadden was injured and could not take the load off QB Boller; and QB Boller as well as the team knew that using him as the QB was just temporary as QB Carson Palmer had joined the team a few days earlier but not in time to get ready for the game.
The first half was so terrible that the new QB Carson Palmer was coming in during the second half. Even though he only had 3 days to prepare. You could see the difference in speed at once. Though the timing and coordination between him and the receivers were not there yet. But it is promising. Maybe in 2 weeks when we have our next game. Raider Nation are crossing their fingers.
We stayed the whole game though it was painful to watch, and though many people left already before the 4th quarter. Once the game was over we went to Ricky’s were we had something to drink. Ricky and his wife is very friendly and gave us a mixed appetizer platter and the first round of drinks for free. We had brought them some gifts from Japan as well. We stayed at Ricky’s for a while watching a game on one of the many TV screens, eating, drinking, and trying our best to forget about the game.
Saturday is college football. The first few years we went to San Francisco to watch football we always went to either Stanford or Berkley to watch college football live. One year we were lucky to watch last years Super Bowl MVP, QB Aaron Rogers, in action at Berkley. But the last few years it has been to hard work to fit everything into a weekend. So Saturdays now are for finalizing grocery shopping for the tailgate party, watch a football game at Ricky’s, then go back to the hotel to prepare for the tailgate party.
Returning home from Ricky’s to prepare for the tailgate party we shortly stopped to buy some groceries we forgot during the morning. I took the opportunity to make rabbit ears on a Halloween skeleton 🙂
I must say it was a bit scary. Just a minute before the skeleton had mysteriously moved without anyone being close to it. I was the only one daring to take a photo with it 😉
Day off today. We are going to San Francisco… Well we are going to SF only because there is no airport on the right side of the bay 😉 But our destination is Coliseum, the home of Oakland Raiders. Hopefully we will beat KC Chiefs on Sunday. Just Win Baby!!!