Super Happy Fun Time in Japan

We touched down on June 1st (the Canada U20 rugby team) for the start of our 3 week tour of Japan.  We are situated in Fukuoka which is about an hour and a half flight from Tokyo.   We are staying at the Japan Airlines Hotel which is right on the ocean and boast 30+ restaurants and about 60 floors.  The staff here are absolutely amazing hosts even though I have no idea what they are saying (my Japanese to English dictionary is useless here).  When you travel you always hear stories of the ugly Americans speaking super loud to try to get their point across, and when that doesn’t work, they slow down the message and talk even louder.  I have to admit, I have done this everyday without noticing it until I’m done.  For the most part, our translator Jason is with us which is an immense help.  He is a Kiwi transplant based out of Tokyo and is with us the entire trip.  He has been great help with teaching us about the Japanese culture and getting us whatever we need without a hitch.  I strongly recommend that if you get a chance to travel, you make Japan a must see.  We are staying in one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world, yet our bus only plays tape cassettes and there are very few atms or places that accept credit cards.  I woke up early yesterday to go for a walk about so I missed my wake up call that is set through the TV (it sounds like an air raid siren and scares you out of your slumber).   Our wake up was for 8am and I got in the room at 815am, the TV was on, there was a phone message and within 2 minutes of me getting in there was a knock at the door.  Because I have failed to turn the TV alarm off or answer the phone, a bell boy came to my door to make sure I was awake!  Little do they know, I’m the most anxious man alive and set 3 alarms myself!

So, before I move on-here are a few tid bits that I have noticed about Japan:

1.) There are a lot of Japanese people here.

2.) I have not stopped sweating since I have arrived here, even when it rains!

3.) I have had the best americano, french bread, pizza, salad and hamburger I have ever tasted and have not had one grain of rice yet.  The hotel must adhere to strict nutritional standards set by the IRB (international rugby board) so we have not had any traditional food as of yet.

4.) The culture of respect is unreal.  They bow everywhere you go and so hello every chance they get.  They have bent over backwards for us in every possible way.  Before we left for our first game against Australia, the entire staff of the hotel had Canadian flags and waved us off on our departure (when I say entire staff, I mean 200 plus people)!

5.) The bathrooms are hilarious.  It feels like you are going to be riding a space ship every time you sit down.  There are a lot of functions to the modern Japanese toilet, all of which I am scared to use!  The mirrors in the bathroom only fog up around a 1 meter square area above the sink when you shower so you can see yourself if you choose to shave or brush your hair or teeth-unfortunately the area that doesn’t fog up is at my navel and meant for the average Japanese adult.  The shower has a low and high setting as well, the low goes to about my knees and the high goes to my belly button. 

6.) The culture of sport here is amazing.  We are right next to the Fukuoka Hawks Baseball stadium.  We are going to a game in the next day or two.  Jason said that the opposing fans take turns standing up and cheering while their teams are at bat.  So, for big games, half the stadium stands and cheers for an inning while the other half is dead silent, then they switch.  It is highly offensive to cheer out of turn.  How would that go over at a Yankees game?  We are training at a Seinan University which is a 20 minute bus ride from the stadium.  On the way you will see highschoolers doing physical education on dirt fields.  It is amazing to see 300+kids running around on the dirt all doing set games or physical activity.  At the University there are 3 artificial turf fields, One lined for soccer, one for rugby and one for American Football (that’s right-football! they play 8 on 8).  There is also five grass tennis courts and a track with a dirt in-field.  What is interesting to see, is that while these other teams are training, they are constantly yelling and screaming.  This is not an exaggeration! They practice for at least 3 hours a day and there is always groups alternating yelling and screaming.  Not at each other, but I’m guessing as a means to keep moral up?  The weight room in the facility is tiny and not very good by our standards, but it has served us well-the only thing that is a little off is that you have to take your shoes off and keep them off while you work out.  They have little slippers you can put on, but unfortunately no one on our team is smaller than size 8 so we are unable to wear them.  Bare feet and socks for the weight room! 

7.) I am a side show freak here.  Due to the politeness of the culture, they try not to stare.  I actually didn’t really notice until I was going for a coffee with one of the coaches and he was trailing slightly behind me.  I could hear him laughing and I asked what was so funny?  He said you should see the stares you get the second they are out of your peripheral vision.  I hadnt noticed anything until he mentioned it, but I have not walked past one person that doesn’t make eye contact, look away when they see me notice and then turn and look again when Im out of sight.  Ive had several women come up and bow and touch me and several kids come up and say hello and touch me. 

8.) The TV is punishing here.  10 Japanese channels and one English channel-BBC news, which is not much better. 

9.) In social settings pouring yourself a beer or Sake is a sign of alcoholism.  Some one is supposed to pour for you.  This just meant that we have to all be on the same page and sit next to each other when we go out so you can get a pace that we are accustomed to.  Although we have no real time to go out, we did go for a few beers the other night just to get out of the hotel and talk about the upcoming training sessions. 

10.) When the cleaning staff comes to clean your room, they CLEAN your room!  You could eat off the bathroom floor.  I quite often hide things behind my desk to see if they will get it, and they do !

Ok, enough about Japan and a little about the Rugby.  We played Australia the other night and got thumped.  Its always tough as a coach to watch your team get beat, but we cant beat ourselves up as players or staff.  Im not making excuses, but the top 8 teams are unreal.  Australia is composed of 14 professional players and out weighs us by 10kgs a head.  Our guys have gained on average 5 kgs since we assembled in November, but its still not enough.  For those of you that are not rugby fans, it would be the equivalent of us playing Australia in hockey.  We do not have pro rugby in North America and that makes things tough as well.  The Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans and European teams have full academies and University sides for athletes to compete in, and they are well funded!   Again, Im not trying to make excuses, we lost to a better team (badly),  but I think our supporters should know what we are up against when we play on the world stage.  Our goal is to place in the top ten this year, we met our goal of 12 last year and hope that we can move up two spots so we can qualify for next years tournament in Argentina. 

No more excuses-we play Wales tomorrow and Tonga four days later.  Wales came fourth last year and will undoubtedly be another tough match.  The coaches are working their butts off watching film and analyzing the games to come up with the best game plans.  The kids are well rested and hopefully recovered enough for another physical game.   I am proud of these guys for doing what they have.  They will make mistakes and may falter a bit, but the effort is unreal.  We have set performance goals for each game as opposed to outcome goals, focusing on little things that make the big difference.

My final thoughts:  Japan is nice.  Nice and Hot!  I will keep you posted on our next game or two and fill you in on some of the site seeing we have done (only 1 day so far to Nagasaki).  It was a great experience for the guys to see.  It was heart wrenching, but I dont think this generation has any idea what happened or why it happened at Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  There were some very graphic pictures and details describing the carnage and it knocked us all back a bit.  Nagasaki is now a beautiful city and has come a long way in recovering from one of the most monumental war catastrophies in history.

Yours in Strength,

Joe