Local judoka Sayaka Matsumoto has had some time to relax and watch the games since her competition last Saturday. Here is her latest dispatch from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Friday, August 15

Today marks the last day of judo competition, with the men and women’s heavyweight divisions.

I’m sure you all know, but my teammate and roommate Ronda Rousey took bronze in the women’s 70kg division two days ago! Watching her was really inspiring for me. She fought really really hard and I thought she was going to win the gold, but bronze is just as good as gold. Now that she’s done, we can really enjoy the games!!!

Yesterday after Suzuki lost we were all bummed, so we left the tournament to go find an Olympic Store. We ended up going to this shopping mall where I bought many items for cheap. (I can’t disclose what I bought because one of the items is Stephanie’s birthday present.) Bargaining with the ladies in the stores is exhausting for me, and I’m sure it’s exhausting for them too.

Today we are planning to go to the tournament, watch the judo for a bit, then go shopping some more at the silk market.

Tomorrow Ronda and I have tickets to go see men’s water polo. Should be interesting to watch seven-foot-tall men try to drown each other. Why is it that all the water polo men look the same??

Sorry I don’t have that many interesting things to say, but hopefully after we shop and go to the Great Wall, I’ll have more updates.

Talk to you guys soon,
Sayaka