I had a strange experience watching the NHK News this evening. (NHK is the Japanese equivalent to ABC.) One of the lead-in bumps featured a man chanting something. It took me a moment, but I realized he was saying "Kamaishi."

"Oh hey," I thought. "I've heard of Kamaishi. I wonder how they're doing?" Kamaishi was heavily damaged by the tsunami.

It turns out they were doing a piece on their rugby team, the (now somewhat ironically named) Seawaves in their opening match of the season.

"Oh HEY!" I thought. "I know those people!" Okay, not really know, but I have heard of them, and got to know about them through Fresne's friend's post about her experiences of the tsunami in Kamaishi. It was surreal seeing these people I read about from a friend of a friend on the nightly news, wondering if any of them were people she had mentioned.

In case anyone was wondering, the Seawaves won. Which is very cool, since a lot of people went to watch them play as a distraction from the difficulties of current daily living.