Tokyo Weekender Magazine

So I got back from Vietnam yesterday, around midnight.  I've spent today doing work stuff, uploading/downloading/reloading/side-loading photographs, going to the gym (I lost 4 kg's!) and generally catching up on all the stuff I should have been doing instead of eating frogs.

When I got back I had this magazine on my doorstep:

I didn't take the pictures this time.

 It's an article I wrote for Tokyo Weekender magazine last month, you can check it out by clicking here.

I've not read it since I sent it in, nor have I looked too carefully at the pages in the book - if I look at it and find a phrase I don't like or a spelling mistake then there's no changing it.  It's better to have the image of what I've written in my head be my truth, there's just no way I won't find something wrong with it if I do have another look.  Ignorance is bliss.

On an unrelated note I'll get the photographs done and put on here soon.  The computer is working on archiving, resizing and converting about 80 gigs worth of pictures and videos, and that's going to a NAS over the world slowest network connection so it's taking a while.  The jpg's will be ready by tomorrow (I accidentally off-loaded all the storage to the NAS, so every picture has to be pulled back onto the PC, edited, then saved back to the NAS which is monumentally innefficient) at which point I'll have a look through and decide which ones I want to work on and which ones can be stored away, never to be seen again.

I think I'll probably used about 200gigs by the end, with video editing (video editing is a black hole of storage usage, the space is gone before you even realise you needed it) and image manipulation (I think that's what the cool kids call photoshop these days).

Anyway, the pics will come slow and steady over the coming days/weeks (read: months).

Tokyo 7's

So I went to the Tokyo 7's this year.  The weather was better than last year, but not by much.  I didn't get to see the finals for reasons that I can't remember, but one of the guys had a friend who was taking pictures inside the press area, so I accompanied him while England were playing.  I got to see one of the finals against Argentina, and the team collect their trophy.  It was super nice of him, and it was a pretty unique experience.

Earlier I'd accompanied another TGRFC member to the press conference and got to ask the captains of Fiji, Samoa and New Zealand some questions.  They are all incredibly boring people.  Their answers were so dull that I can't even remember what I asked them.  God they are boring people.  Seriously.

Anyway, onto the pictures!

This is the legend Dan Norton.  I'm pretty sure he scored in that game, as he scores in most.  I believe he's the overall leading try scorer, not just for this year, but ever.

This is one of the Argentinian props.  I met him outside the hotel, and we had a quick chat.  Him and one of his colleagues were impressed by how clean Tokyo is.  They were real characters, and genuinely nice people.  Good luck to them in the future!

I took a few pictures of the crowd in such a way to make it look crowded, but by the other pictures you can tell that very few people turned up.  When the world cup rolls around, Japan is going to have embarassing attendences.

Another of the England flyers breaks out from his own try line.  Luckily a fight broke out right where I was standing, so they didn't advance very far, and I could take a number of pictures.

The man of the year, eating ramen.  Not healthy!  How will he get the award this year if he's fat?

This is the stereotypical shot of the Japanese team being beaten.  I mean playing.  I mean playing a losing.  By a lot.  It would be better if there were more people in the opposite stands, but they'd all be foreigners anyway.  No one in Japan likes rugby.

Tagged just before sneaking into the corner.  This picture is cropped pretty heavily so the quality is quite poor, but I like the three key members being mostly in focus and centre of the frame.

Another black and white of Dan Norton.  He really is the man.

The presentation of the shield or plate, I forget which competition they won, I only know it wasn't the important one.  Gutted.

Some More Rugby 7's

On Sunday I competed (with a team called Den Den something) in another 7's tournament.

This time, our win/loss ratio was 50/50.  We played four games, but were punished time and again for sloppy tackling and poor team fitness.

To be fair, it was a team of oldboys and youngsters, a strange mix of big and small, fast and slow.

I didn't realise it, but the pitch we were playing on was rather small.  I took one restart kickoff, and promptly put it over the dead-ball line.  Whoops.

That, and a couple of handling mistakes in our loss to the eventual winners, gave me roughly four errors for the tournament, or one a game.  Not too impressive when you consider the halves were only ten minutes long.

But I tackled.  Oh lord did I tackle.  Everything that moved was a target, and it annoyed some of the locals immensely.  On a number of occasions I tackled someone as they were passing, and they kept yelling out for a late tackle penalty.  They don't know how to play hard here, they just complain a lot.

The refereeing was also awful, which is a shame because two more 'mistakes,' (that I haven't included in my tally) came from terribad decisions.  In one instance I was tackled without the ball, which then hit me on the head.  The ref gave it as a knock-on.  Good job referee.

The second incident arose from being tackled, the tackler didn't let go of me so I couldn't release the ball.  The ref gave me as holding on.

I recently read an article detailing how a new universities league will revitalise Japanese rugby, except they're missing basic standards of refereeing, facilities and uptake.  Before you start planning the national team, how about ensuring a grass-roots base?

Way to build your pyramid with the spiky bit in the ground, Japan.

In total I scored roughly seven or eight tries (I think) and kicked 75% of the conversions.  I was at 100% until the last two, at which point I was so tired that I spooned them terribly.  I have no shame in saying that I was absolutely, positively knackered by the end of the matches, and could barely walk for a good twenty minutes. The highlight of the day was one of the old boys hunting down an opposition player on the wing, and tackling him with enough gusto to dislodge the ball.  The opposition in that game were university students.  Well done to that man.

It's now Tuesday, and I still ache.  Must.  Get.  Fitter.

Then again 15's isn't so challenging in that regard.  Good fitness training and experience all round I think.

Rugby 7's

So I helped coach the Musashi University team on Saturday.

No one spoke any English (in a squad of over 30 players, in a university setting no less) which was rather disappointing to say the least.  It made things difficult, but we soldiered on.

They are (supposedly) in the same league as some other serious opposition, the likes of which professionals are picked from at a later date (they follow the american system where schools and universities are the primary source for new talent, not academies.).  As such, I expected an extremely competent display from the team.

I probably set my expectations somewhat too high, but overall I was disappointed with numerous factors in their play.  I fear I wasn't able to get across my feelings of encouragement, nor the simple ways they can improve.

In an added twist, the team we beat by sixty or seventy points while playing for the Tokyo Gaijin team, were the opposition for Musashi.  It was a training session, but one in which both teams competed.

Simple thing like turning their bodies towards attacking players when initiating switches, (leaving them chronically exposed to bone breaking tackles) or sending four players into the same defensive channel while in attack (meaning they slow each other down, and make it incredibly easy for the defence) were compounded by their lack of simple defensive patterns.  They knew only one form of defence, which was easily broken by a team three times their aggregate age, and one quarter their pace.

Perhaps I'm being somewhat harsh, but I honestly expected them to thrash their opponents ninety percent of the time.  Proceedings were decidedly equal among the backs, and only the pace of the youngsters gave them an edge.

I have since sent them a couple of extra defensive practices, along with a simple trick for offensive teams, that's become prevalent in the past couple of years (inside balls away from first and second receiver.)  This simple ploy has netted me a number of tries this year, and works (in Japan) from first phase ball (although the rest of the world uses it later, when defences are stretched.)

On the plus side, they had an exceptional scrum half who was able to feed the forwards balls that put them through gaps in the opposing line.  It's just a shame he can't replicate that in the backs.

I have no idea how strong the forwards are, as I was primarily concerned with the fast guys who spent as much time looking at themselves on shiny surfaces.

Too much hair-gel for my liking.