Day #12 - Final Day in Japan, Skytree and Asakusa

After leaving what we all agreed was the second best hotel we stayed in over the entire trip, the Hotel Emion at Tokyo Bay (first being quite a discussion, but my favourite was the wonderfully picturesque hotel we stayed at up in the mountains near Mt Fuji), we headed into town to one of the most popular tourist attractions, the Tokyo Skytree. 

Nearly 700m high you get a sense of how large Tokyo is once you’re up in the sky decks of this unbelievable structure. Many of the photos on Flickr will show you the length and breath of this wonderful city that holds 24 million people, Which is unbelievable considering Australia only has 26 million for the whole of the country. Up there the boys enjoyed a few hours of just walking around in viewing out of the windows trying to pick landmarks that we have been to and trying to through the smog (or as they say 'fog'), Mount Fuji. Unfortunately I was unable to be seen on this day because of the haze.

We left there and headed down into Asakusa, another famous area in Tokyo that host one of the most magnificent temples in Tokyo itself. The Sensoji Temple and gardens are a wonderful representation of ancient Japan and their religion. Surrounding this enormous temple is some beautiful gardens and also markets food halls and other variety shops that gives this whole area quite a buzz. We were lucky enough to also meet a number of students from the local university that graduated that day and in tradition, they wore kimonos to pray in the temple. Such a lovely sense of tradition and modern customs.

After a few hours of exploring this area we hopped into the bus and finally headed towards Narita airport for our flight home. With many other boys very excited about heading home not many did get too much sleep even though it had been a very tiring week, most stayed up and watch the videos most of the flight home.

Some big thank you’s for the entire trip for;

* firstly to see Shiv Maguire for all her wonderful organisation prior to us leaving and insuring that we had ticked all the boxes and everything ready to go for this trip. 

* Secondly a huge thank you to the coaches Adrian Blundell, Grant Anderson’, Greg Norman, Leigh Holtsbaum, and physio Matt Brown. Thank you for their professionalism and their assistance during this wonderful trip. 

* Finally I’d like to thank also the parents and the boys for all of their help and support, prior, and during this trip. From the wonderful fundraising lunches, to the rugby supporters group that helped us and to all of those that did their bit in part to make sure this trip was sucked a success. Personally I’d like to thank you all for the opportunity to meet you, and work along side to make this a wonderful experience for the boys.

Now we move on to France 2023..... get your name in fast for another wonderful trip. :) 

Thank you for reading this blog, hope you have enjoyed it and the photos.....  over and out

Best regards,

Ian Browne

Day #11 - Joyolis, Ueno, and our Farewell Dinner

After once again a lovely buffet breakfast here at our harbour side Hotel, east side of Tokyo city, we jumped on the bus and headed off to give the boys a bit of a surprise,.... and indoor amusement park called Joyolis.

Completely indoors with many of the rides being either via virtual reality or ones that involve you sitting in a capsule and it moves around as you play the different games. The boys thoroughly enjoyed this and many of the different other aspects to this place in their three hour experience. To get a full understanding of some of the ride, have a look at the Flickr page videos that AB took. Thankfully I didnt attend this, (leaving this for Matty Brown, AB and Rye and Mimi), or I would have been ill for the rest of the day. 

Instead, Normo, Leigh and myself, along with our guide/host Toshi, went to the Tokyo Fish Markets for a few hour. Again photos of our experience are on Flickr.

Following the indoor Theme Park, we jump back into the bus and headed to the centre of the city and a large garden space, a little bit like Central Park in New York city. In the centre is the Emperor's palace, and wonderful historical Japanese building perched high on a hill, and surrounded by a moat.  We got the obligatory photo group photo in front of the Palace, but were quickly ushered away by many of the police/palace guards there, that seem to not like large group gathering.

From here we jump back into the bus and headed north to Ueno. A large shopping market area where the boys could do more retail therapy and also get themselves a little bit of lunch. Many of them picked up a bargain but they soon realised, unlike in China, bartering in Japan does not exist. The prices were as labelled, and there is no negotiation. Many of them again bought souvenirs and trinkets for their love ones so expect to have a pretty nice little present when they return.

We headed home mid afternoon back to our hotel for a quick shower and then headed off for our evening meal, a lovely buffet and farewell dinner. At the farewell dinner we are able to enjoy many of the local delights that we’ve had on our trip with a few new ones but the boys seem to always go back to either the desert bar, and also the curry bar, of all things.

At the end of the dinner we presented our hosts Toshi and his family with some small gifts from TSS rugby and from the boys. We also presented some funny awards which I’m sure the boys will let you know once I return home. All the photos of this night were uploaded to Flickr.

Tomorrow we leave the hotel mid-morning and head off to the famous Tokyo SkyTree which is a large observatory, approx. 700 m high. From there we have a bit of lunch head into a temple and market area. leaving for the airport around 5pm... and onto our flight home. 

I am not sure whether I’ll be able to upload photos from tomorrow whilst at the airport so I may have to do that once I return to Australia, also along with the final blog. Thank you for all the emails and texts of support of this blog and the photos. I hope you have enjoyed them and they will be a lasting memory for your son, of this unique and wonderful tour.

See you back in Australia

IB

Day #10 - Shinjuku and the Wallabies v Wales.

As has been the case for the last two nights when the boys have been billeted the boys have returned the next morning full of enthusiasm and enjoyment of the experiences meeting a new family and making new friends. This was the case once again this morning at Sagami HS, where the boys were fare-welled by their abilities and their families before we set off heading towards Tokyo.

As it’s one of the largest cities in the world it’s understandable that the traffic here in Tokyo even on a Sunday like today is quite heavy. We are getting used to travelling around in a bus together and getting on and off very quickly has become second nature to all of us over the past 10 days.  As was the case today we pulled up near the mega-store for the Rugby World Cup and had to race off the bus before our bus driver got a parking fine. The mega-store is in the middle of an area called Shinjuku and it was full of rugby enthusiasts shopping for the latest Rugby World Cup clothing. Our boys didn’t miss out and purchased quite a lot of stuff at premium prices unfortunately. As this is the World Cup it’s usually the only chance you’ll get to get these items.

After having lunch in one of the largest sport stores in the world which was five stories high and full of sporting equipment we grabbed all the boys once again hopped in the bus and headed out to Tokyo Stadium. The stadium is located about an hours drive from the centre of Tokyo West but as use as I’ve said before you would never know it because the high-rises just continue as far as the eye can see. We got to the stadium and immediately hopping off the bus you could hear the atmosphere already starting to build with music, laughter and people having a good time from the forecourt of this stadium itself. We let the boys have a look around the fan zone before we all headed off to find our seats and prepare ourselves for what was to be a close match.

As most would’ve seen we feel we were fairly hard done by, by the referee on some of the decisions and also potentially the Australian coach may have made some selection mistakes particularly in the first half. But let’s hope the final three games will show promise heading towards the finals.

We got out of the stadium reasonably quick and back into the bus and headed to our final hotel destination which is over near Tokyo Disneyland. It’s a lovely hotel and what a nice way to finish what has been such a wonderful tour. We have two more days of sightseeing around Tokyo before heading back to the coast on Tuesday night and arriving early Wednesday morning. More tomorrow…

Best regards,

Ian Browne

Day #9 - Sagami and Game day!!!

Today was one of those days where you felt that you had absorbed the culture of Japan. The boys today were able to intermingle with students from Sagami high school in a way that I haven’t seen them interact this entire tour.

It started with a japanese calligraphy display from a group of young ladies that welcomed us to their school. They were all a part of the Japanese calligraphy club called kenji. From here we were taking into a classroom and enjoyed making fans for our loved ones with Japanese kenji writing on each side. Many of the boys love this and enjoyed learning something new from the morning activity.

Lunch was served in the dining hall of a Sagami HS, and then it was time for game.

The under 14‘s had not had a victory this tour but today played out of their skins, and really displayed athletic ability not seen during this rugby season. Even though we were down at half time the under 14‘s stepped up in the second half and insure a win for us on the last game in the tour. It was a very proud moment for all of us particularly as this school so one of the best rugby schools in Japan. Below is the scoreline,

The game v Tokai Sagami HS were ;

 Sagami U14

1st half - try, try, K

2nd

Final Score - 12

TSS u14

1st - Rameau try,

2nd - will Carter try, Emerson R try, carter try, Dwyer K

Final score - 22

Man of the Match- Lachlan Murphy/Emerson Rameau

In the opens match today they certainly knew they’d came up against one of the best side in Japan. This side push them to limit and ended up scoring quite a few tries against our tired yet enthusiastic defence. The school line below indicates how the match went.

TSS Open

1st - NIL

2nd - Vousty try

Final score - 5

Sagami

1st - try, k, try, k, try, try, k

2nd - try, k, try, k, try, k, try, k, try, k

Final score - 61

Man of the Match- Syris Schmidt

After a wonderful post match celebration we are both schools made speeches about the game and then we watch the final few minutes of the Ireland versus Japan rugby match. It was a great match made even more special for us being in Japan at the same time and with our hosts at Sagami high school.

The boys are now at their billets and will enjoy what has been a wonderful experience for them staying and being hosted by families each of the three nights on this trip. Tomorrow we head back into town and prepare ourselves for the Australia versus Wales match on Saturday afternoon.

Best regards,

Ian Browne

Day #8 - Gotemba & Tokia

We woke this morning to lovely blue sky look out the window you could see Fuji is nice and clear. We took this opportunity to get a few photos of the mountain is with you later in the day it would cloud over. After quick on scene and then some breakfast we are on our way again down the mountain from the hotel towards a beautiful lake area which was called Lake Ashe. A beautiful area with any glacial water is coming down into it and also a lovely place apparently to fish so Mr Holtsbaum told everybody. According to Dr Google Holtsbaum there was a pike trout salmon and bass all available to catching this lake.

Upon leaving this area we headed down the hill into Gotemba, and visited a wonderful Peace Park. Within the park there were lovely manicure gardens although Matty Brown tells me the trees grow like that naturally. I’ll leave you to be the judge when you look at the photos. There were also some temples and a bell the boys enjoyed ringing which symbolised interest to the spiritual area.

We left here and the boys were super keen to get some retail therapy so we took them to a premium outlet shopping centre where they spend a couple of hours wandering around the stores buying up on the cheaper items like shoes and clothing. This for them I think was the highlight of the day.

Mid afternoon we headed off to Tokai University where we met the head coach and assistant coach of the rugby union team here. A very successful team in Japan also coached hear by Grant Andersen who is on our trip helping us with our boys. We got to visit the home facilities of the rugby team but also have a look around the campus at all of the different departments. With 18,000 students at this university it is one of the biggest in Japan. Probably the highlight of the visit to the campus was going to see the judo team training in a purpose-built facility. As we watched we found out they were world and Olympic champions training in front of our boys and this was a very special moment. But then next door the kendo team started training and if you look at the video on Flickr you’ll understand that this also was a very special moment for all of us involved.

Well strolling around the campus we ran into old boy Noah Scallan who at now has been at the university for two years on a scholarship and playing here for the seagales (yes that’s the actual name) rugby team which is the universities rugby club. The name of the club was in reference to the sea wins the come off the Pacific Ocean nearby.

After a few hours at the University we headed over to our hotel dinner and the boys in preparation for tomorrow at a team meeting and then off to an early bed. The game tomorrow Will be played at Tokai Sagami High School which is nearby to the university. You will notice the address is on the blogger for all those that are here in Japan to come and watch.

Game day #3 - Saturday 28.9

Venue:
Tokai University Sagami High School

3 Chome-33-1 Sonan, Minami Ward, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0312, Japan

U14s - approx 2pm

U16s - approx 3pm.

Day #7 Odawara and Hakone

Firstly I’d like to commend the boys, we have now been here for over a week and their manners and behaviour have been impeccable. We haven’t had much trouble at all and they have listen to all instructions and thoroughly enjoyed assimilating into the culture here in Japan. It’s wonderful to see.

Another part of this trip has been the billeting and each boy gets quite excited now about the opportunity of meeting new families and going back to their places. Last night the billeting was excellent and we had no problems with all family is very grateful that our boys could stay with them for an evening. Our boys were treated once again very very well, and greeted us with heaps of stories about their night away.

After collecting all the boys this morning from their billets at Kugayama HS, we traveled south down around the Tokyo bay to an area called Odawara.

How to many years ago was the one of the capital of Japan being the gateway to Tokyo for many of the international shipping routes they brought goods and spices to the country. Today we visited at Odawara castle which was an outstanding example of traditional Japanese temple and palace for the original royal families here in this country. We spent a good couple of hours strolling around the grounds and looking at what was a wonderful structure. Finally enough it was the base for the Wallabies as well over the past week prior to them moving up to Sapporo to play the game last weekend. They now have moved into an area in Tokyo which we hope to visit them this coming weekend before the game.

For lunch we went to a local shopping centre and the boys enjoyed a good hour so just wondering around and looking at all of the different specialty shops there and also grabbing some of the local delicacies. Many of them tried ramen which is a noodle and broth mixture, that comes with light vegetables and beef or chicken. Delicious....

Following lunch we hopped on the bus once again and travel for about an hour and a half up to an area called Hakone. This area is it the foothills of Mount Fuji which we will visit tomorrow. We had the wonderful pleasure of being able to take all the boys today to a waterpark nothing similar to what we have in Australia. The boys had an absolute ball for over two hours running down slides and visiting all the different and unusual pools. One of these pools was the coffee pool. The guy there every couple of hours gets the guests to go to the pool and sit as he explains about coffee and then he sprays it on all of the gas within the pool. Another one of the great features at this waterpark was a small pool where you put your feet in and fish come and nibble on your skin. Just about every boy enjoyed or tried this as it was very unique and certainly quite an unusual feeling. Personally I didn’t really enjoy it as much, as most of the fish in the tank seemed to be eating something  on one of my feet and the sensation was quite unusual.

Our time in the waterpark ended and we hop back on the bus and headed up the hill to our location for the evening. A wonderful resort where once again we were spoiled by an incredible dinner in a buff a where the boys thoroughly enjoyed trying many of the different delicacies on offer. Have a look on Flickr to see what I mean.

Another highlight today was having all the boys "DRESS" for dinner. In each room here (Tatami rooms again), the boys had a traditional robe, and we all wore this to bed. Photos again are on Flickr.

tomorrow we head over to Mount Fuji and hopefully will get somewhere near one of the base camps to be able to look out over the area. It has been off and on quite cloudy but fingers crossed tomorrow it will be a clear day. Just another note the area that we are in now is very volcanic and has many springs but also there is a warning at the moment for a live volcano. This will pose any problem problems for us as we are quite safe but it’s actually quite interesting that the boys got excited by the fact that they may see a volcano explode... which is unlikely to happen.