Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Apple Does Not Far From The Tree...

When in Japan, how does one take part in the annual flexing of our States' muscles, the match-up of the football season, the Dog-and-Cat fight, the, you guessed it:
THE APPLE CUP!


The WSU banner was hung outside, knowing that nobody would steal it, TP the house nor would I be made fun of for being a Coug fan when all was said and done.  At least, not by my Japanese neighbors!  I made German Apple Pancakes and cheap beer for breakfast and proceeded to paint "Go Cougs" on the cheering section's well-endowed mid-section.  Then, we searched for the live feed on the internet.
That all sounds rather serene until you realize that kick-off was at 9 AM Sunday morning!
I would love to say that going through the trouble of getting a live feed of the Apple Cup was worth it.  I suppose, if you are a Husky Fan, it may have been.  However, the Cougar's apple was not quite ripe yet.
The Versus feed went down with about 3:29 left in the 4th quarter, just prior to the hotly debated play (Did he catch it? Did he not?  I think "not"...). We were not sure if the Cougar's would pull through or "Coug It."  Given the fact that the term was coined after the typical performance of the Washington State football team, I should have been able to predict that the latter would be the outcome.   Regardless, the debacle gave us plenty of time to frantically search for a new feed.  We finally got the last minute or two to play in 10 second batches.  Justin TV does not support the idea of fans in Japan - they make them pay...  It was a good thing, in this case, that the last couple of minutes of a football game take longer than the first quarter does.  The whole experience definitely added to the suspense!

Coug Fan: Drinks too much, eats too much, writes on self and sits around in nothing but underwear. 

So,  will the Cougs repeat this scene next year?  One can hope this will not be the case.  Will we repeat this scene next year?  Absolutely!