You might have heard that some of the world's best soccer players had a little match yesterday. Japan won the Women's World Cup 2-2 in penalty kicks, the first time they'd beat the American women's team in 26 tries. The Japanese team includes a player, Karina Maruyama, who'd worked at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
If you let yourself care about sports, and I do, sooner or later you'll experience a loss that really hurts. For American fans, this is certainly one of those. As Roger Angell wrote about the 1999 Mets' heartbreaking loss to Atlanta (first team I ever cried over!), thank you to the American women's team for giving us something to care about so much.
The wacky, smart J-List guy writes that the Japanese team has picked up a nickname back home, Nadeshiko Japan. Nadeshiko is the classical word for a pure, beautiful Japanese woman, he writes. "It certainly is a ray of happiness for a country who's had a rough time of things so far this year."
And to all the uglies blowing up the Twitter with anti-Japanese racist ranting, please get a grip.