Two Days of Football

Day 3 started the same as day two and once again the breakfast at the Keio plaza where Grant and I and a few other families had the good fortune to find ourselves staying in (as the Hachioji Plaza was all booked out) was an amazing feast of western, and Japanese delights. This time though the families staying there and the coaches were ushered into a private room for breakfast, having either done something very right, or very wrong the morning before.

After checking out it was once again a short bus trip to the Hachioji Coerver park to play a tournament with teams from different schools round the district. The boys/girls were much more relaxed today and had finally found their feet after being a bit shell shocked, drained and surprised by the heat of the day before.

Grant played his first game of the day in goals (which they lost 2-0) and the next two as sweeper. They lost the second in the last couple of minutes of the game when the opposition scored two quick goals. They had the next stolen from them in the last 8 seconds of the match after dominating for the whole game. They won the third and the fourth was a draw. By the last match to play off for a 5th and 6th position, they had settled in and were finally playing as a team and played some beautiful football. They won 2-0 and had the large crowd on tender hooks oo-ing and ah-ing. Grant was very happy to finally play up front for the first time today and watching them work the ball up the field was beautiful to watch.

It's been very difficult for our kids, playing on teams with players that they've never played with before and in positions they may not usually play in. The teams they're versing play together all the time and work so well together. (Similar I guess to when the Socceroos come together for big tournaments). Having said that as the day went on, we were starting to put plays together and some of boys skills were there for everyone to see.

We were lucky enough to have one u9/10 team make it into the grand final and one u11/12 team. Both teams finished second, but were very happy to have made it so far against such formidable opponents. The u11/12 final was a great moment in Australia/Japan relations with many of the Japanese getting into the Aussie spirit and cheering loudly along with the Aussie boys and girls watching to Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie, Oy oy oy, the cookie monster chant, turn up the radio what do you hear and finally the aussie national anthem. The game was played in great spirit and I'll try post some of the video to give you an idea of this great occasion.

Between their last match and their play-off it was a joy to see an impromptu game between some of the Japanese coaches and Grant out on the field. After watching for a while, a few more of the Aussie boys joined in and by the time Grant's team had to get ready for their final match, the pitch was covered in Aussie boys and Japanese coaches having the time of their lives. Again, a defining moment for the trip and what this tour is all about. Again, I'll try post some video footage later if I can.

I had the opportunity to talk to many coaches and directors of Coerver schools in and around this district as well as around the surrounding districts. They were all extremely approachable and obviously love what they do. Unfortunately I was called upon to do a bit of translating during the opening ceremony and let me tell you rusty just doesn't quite cut in when describing my fluency of Japanese, luckily there were very few people in attendance that knew how much I left out or mis-translated. ;-) On the other hand, being able to communicate with them in Japanese was a bonus as Grant was invited to play at several schools while we're here which made his day when I told him.

The games were all played on futsal size fields and five a side games and 6 min games no halftime.

I'm writing this as we're travelling by bus from the Hachioji park to the Shinjuku Washington hotel. We'd only been travelling about 15 minutes when one of the boys said to his dad that he had to go to the toilet. Although Dad said, just suck it up or 'gaman shite', I was pretty sure dad didn't really understand just how far we had to travel. We'd been used to the 15 min ride to Hachioji Plaza Hotel and considering that the boys had been sipping water all day, I had an inkling that he wasn't the only one who needed to go. Anyway on checking with the driver, he said it would be about 1 and a half to two hours before we got there and there were no rest stops in between. I explained that there was at least one boy about to burst, he said if he saw a slightly wider shoulder on the freeway he'd stop. I just turned round to tell the boys and saw a father and son hiding behind a chair about to fill an empty bottle. Luckily the bus driver said he found a spot and it was such a funny sight to see all the boys and one girl rush off the bus and line up along the bushes to relieve themselves. Many of the parents took photos and others restrained themselves very well. I fit into the last category and just lived in the moment with the others, again another bonding moment for the families.

One thing I omitted to mention earlier was the Chickenpox breakout! Yes, as Spike said, we were greeted at the 2nd hotel at 8.30 am by many parents and children swapping buses to ours with the news that one of the boys had come down with the Chickenpox and was going to be quarantined. There was at least one boy who hadn't had or been immunised for chickenpox and after getting the ok from a team of Japanese and Aussie doctors, our trainer gave the ok for the boys to continue playing. The Japanese are routinely immunised, and the tournament was given the all clear to go ahead, unfortunately minus one of the boys. We all felt very sorry for him and his parents and hope the spots will heal over soon so that he'll be given the all-clear to play during the tour.

Sun 26/9 - Quarantined?

Initially I had a report from Maria that there has been an outbreak of Chicken Pox on the tour and that half its members are quarantined!

But to quote Mark Twain: "Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Now an hour or two later and what I can imagine was a frantic check of the entire tour group as to symptoms, inoculation and sickness history; it turns out that only 1 boy has Chicken Pox and one other is not inoculated (or had it previously).

So while that must be terrible for the boy suffering from Chicken Pox and who has dreamed of this tour for nearly a year, I believe everything else (matches, trainings, tour schedule) is unaltered.

More information as it comes to hand.

Sat 24/9 - Mixed Form

This was it! Our first day of football! We were all up early and after a fabulous breakfast were on the bus on the way to one of the Coerver grounds in Tokyo, in Hachioji. The kids were entered in a local football tournament that I think happens once a month and were going to play school teams from around the district. Not all were students of Coerver, but the majority were. As we stood around watching the u9's and u10's warm up, we could see right away that their individual skill levels were very high. The matches were to be 4 mins each for the little tikes and 6 mins for the oldies. Each group played maybe 6 matches I think and though they were only very short, and were being played on a futsal size pitch, they were fast and furious. The coach described it as a sprint. They're very exciting games to watch and by the end of them they were all exhausted.

The day was cool with the remainder of the Taiphoon keeping the temperature low for the morning and although it looked like it might rain, by lunch time it had all blown away and the older kids felt the full strength of the Tokyo sun, funnily enough not just on their faces (there were a few red ones by the late afternoon) but also under foot. The synthetic grass fields have little black beads made of recycled tyres spread around them instead of sand and the beads heat up so much with the sun beating down on them, that after a while I couldn't bare standing on them and had to stand on a bench. When I commented on the heat under foot, Itoh san (one of the head coaches who has been visiting with us in Australia for the past 3 months) said playing on them in summer is much worse because the heat also get's reflected up off the beads and is almost as bad a heat reflected up of concrete. I was thankful that this tour was i autumn.

The under 9/10's tournament was first and our teams did very well. One of the teams played off for 3rd and 4th (I think, I'll check that tomorrow) and theywere all excited and had a great time. The under 11/12's played after lunch and Grant's team (Aus Gold) unfortunately were a bit shell shocked and started off poorly. This was Grant's first game of soccer in about a month after having time off for a chest infection and then suffering a slight groin injury the first day back at training. With only a week to go before the trip, we decided to ur on the side of caution and give him a longer rest from training and keep the ice and compression up on his injury to make sure he was fit for the tour. This was great for his injury, but not so good for his fitness and form, but we had to make a call and we thought this was best.

Anyway, he did start to find his touch and seemed to feel more comfortable there by the end of the day. Too tired to write any more, will continue tomorrow if I find time...loveto all x

MushiAtsui in Akihabara

Phew!

Well, it's about 3pm in the afternoon and although it's only about 24 hours since we left Canberra, it feels like it's been three days! The plane flight to Tokyo was fairly uneventful except for having to dodge the cyclone that was menacingly close when we flew over Papua New Guinea. Grant apparently slept like a log all night though how he could sleep through the turbulence during the night, while I was praying we wouldn't have to use the life jackets we were told were somewhere beneath our seats, I have no idea!

Upon arrival at Narita, we were quickly through immigration and then ushered through customs even faster. I was wondering how I'd fare with a suitcase full of homemade gluten free muesli bars and anzac biscuits, but I guess being part of a huge group has it's advantages.

The weather in Tokyo was warm and very humid and once we arrived in Akihabara, everyone was excited but tired. We were quite a sight, all dressed in our Coerver black and white tracksuits and I heard many comments from people guessing as to who we all were and heard a couple of kids ask their Mums. The same thing happened at the airport in Sydney when we were all wandering around getting last minute shopping done.

The Mecca for techno geeks in Akihabara is Yodobashi Camera, a multistory department store dedicated to electronics and toys still wasn't open by the time we arrived (9.15am) so Grant and I went for a walk around the station looking for a particular store and of course it had to be around the last corner we walked. By the time we walked back to Yodobashi Camera, we were really starting to flag. I bought the necessary adaptors to recharge the numerous electronic devices that seem to multiply each time we travel. I also had orders from Spike to go check out a couple of DSLR cameras, so did the dutiful wife thing and picked them up, pushed the button and then put them down again.

A Denny's restaurant was our saviour and we sat down out of the noise and hustle and bustle of Akihabara and had a very quiet and relaxed lunch before we headed back to the bus. While walking back to the bus, we could see a crowd of black and white tracksuits all huddled together on the side of the footpath and as we got closer we could see them having an impromptu heading/juggling competition. The bemused looks on the faces of the Japanese business men and women walking by was 'priceless'.

A few people fell asleep on the bus on the way to the hotels and the rest of us were quietly chatting and getting to know each other. After heading to our rooms and showering we had little time before we had to rush down to meet before walking to an Italian restaurant. We had dinner and went quickly back to the hotels as the boys had to have lights out by 9.30pm.

....and They're Off...

Thats right, Zoe and I are just back from seeing Maria and Grant off at Canberra airport. They're still in the air (to Sydney) as I type this.
It was, as expected, a fairly sad farewell; but there's lots of exciting times ahead for Maria and Grant. I don't expect I'll be making many posts "from the home front", though I may drop one in occasionally.

Actually, it all started in U/7's

It all began......

Guess, it all started about this time last year. Grant attended a Coerver Soccer school holiday program and loved it. He had lots of fun, picked up some new skills and enjoyed working with the coaches. To keep up his fitness through the summer, maintain his soccer skills and learn some new ones, we decided to find out if it was possible for him to join the Academy Program for the summer. It was all new to us, but Grant slotted in well and loved the benefits the extra training was having on his futsal. The Academy consisted of six months of fairly intensive trainings twice to three times a week and a National Holiday Camp during the summer holidays. Kids from all over OZ came to train for the week during the hottest part of the year. Anyway, to cut a typically Maria style, long story short, Grant was selected at the camp as a member of the National Team to tour Tokyo in September this year! Whew, wish Spike was coming along, so he could do the writing. He’s so much better at this!
Ok, now it’s under a week until we leave on the tour and it’s becoming more real to us all. Spike had to be the martyr and stay behind to work like a dog till the end of semester, while the kids and I go on an adventure without him for the first time. I hope he’ll enjoy the trip in some small way by proxy and being able to talk via skype every day will hopefully keep us all connected.