Hi Everyone!

Sorry it’s taken me longer than expected to pump out this update. Things have been busy, and I’ve even had a few visitors since my last email!

Kanagawa – We played in Kanagawa, near Tokyo, the last weekend in January. We actually stayed in the same hotel where we stayed for the Grand Prix Finals in 2008 which was cool, its always nice to see something moderately familiar. Our hotel was really nice, but there was an unfortunate slipup on one of the signs just outside the lobby. The Kanagawa weekend was also great because I got to see Gen Kawakita, who used to be one of the assistants with the US national team & is now one of the assistant coaches for Japan’s National team. Gen has always been the homie, I’ve known him since I was 16, and he was always the coach that would stay with you after practice and serve those 1,000 extra balls you need cause your passing just didn’t feel right that day. It was so nice to see a friendly face!

To read Cynthia Barboza's full blog, visit her blog at http://cynthiablogboza.blogspot.com/2010/02/mass-update-5.html.