the chase begins. the chase continues. the chase ends.

Oh, this is so cool – Japan became the first country from Asia to win the Women’s World Cup :) How great is that! The Japanese girls beat Team USA 3 – 1 on a penalty shootout after both of the team had finished 2 – 2 in extra time. The Japanese defied the odds to lift the World Cup just 6 months after their country’s men had captured a record fourth Asian Title. Yes, we Asians tend to have a much shorter hands & legs, a smaller body frame – but with passion, determination, commitment, well-planned strategies & a strong will – we too can excel in everything we do. Japan has completed an astonishing run that overshadow any achievement made by an Asian football team at any level.

This is such good news for Japan as it battles to recover from March’s huge earthquake and tsunami that hit the country. The March 11th disaster in the northwest destroyed homes, left 21,000 people dead or missing and sparked a nuclear crisis; since Chernobyl in 1986. It has been a humbling event for everyone over the world. But I know that the Japanese will rise up to the challenge and build back their nation stronger than before.

Sometimes I wonder if we will ever stop getting bad news. I was completely shaken into perspective. Life is really short. We’ll never know when we would go for a holiday and wind up dead in a catastrophe. We’ll never know if a disease may suddenly strike us and change our lives forever. We’ll never know if there’s still “tomorrow”. This sentence has never felt more real to me than right now.