USA West Rush-hour in Japan
By Colin Mason
Long time, no talk. Let’s get caught up to speed. As Jordan mentioned in his last blog, we were each assigned a host to stay with during our time in Japan and while it was definitely a cool experience, mine was about as far from Jordan’s experience as possible.
My first host, Kenji, was a 22 year-old goalie living on his own in Taska, Japan. After our first game in Japan (win over top ranked Keio University), Kenshi led me on a two hour walk, bus, and train trip through rush-hour, back to his university. Turns out that Meijigakuin University holds their practices from 7-9 PM, and tonight they had a guest player. Yikes.
It was actually a really cool experience playing with the Japanese players and with most only playing lacrosse for two or three years, Kenshi’s teammates were eager to learn anything they could. Stick fakes were a big hit. Might have to wait on the bounce passes. After practices, I grabbed food with some of the guys at a local Chinese restaurant where the Japanese players were shocked that the Americano knew how to use chopsticks.
Here is a picture of me with Meijigakuin University
The next day was another successful one for USA West, with a convincing win over Tokyo University. While we continued to keep our winning streak alive, we were definitely starting to slow down a little bit due to the heat and new found sleeping arrangements. This translated into a few more missed passes than normal and penalties to go around, but we were still able to pull out a win.
After the game, I made my way back through Tokyo during rush-hour to Kenshi’s place. Rush-hour in Tokyo is insane. With thousands of busy Japanese trying to get to their destination, the American carrying two huge bags turns into “that guy” pretty quick. The experience is awesome though and while it sounds cheesy, its pretty inspiring that these Japanese players have enough dedication to make the same 2 hour trek with all their gear, just to get to their 7 AM practice twice a week.
Our third day we played Waseda University. The game was the closest one of the tournament, with USA West prevailing by three. The win was bittersweet, as we had Gabe Lupin (Stanford) go down late in the 4th quarter. While making a cut, Gabe’s leg buckled beneath him, breaking both his Tibia and Fibia in a total of 5 places. It was a brutal injury and we’re all wishing Gabe the best as he returns back to the States for surgery later this week.
The team rebounded on Saturday, improving our record to 11-0 with wins over two men’s club teams. Both teams battled hard in the intense heat, but USA West was able to put up points on offense and hold tight on D, limiting their opponents to a combined 3 goals on the day. The guys have been playing together really well, and everyone has had a role in reaching our unbeaten record.
Our last game will be against the Japanese National Team on Sunday, a team who played Division I, UMBC to a 11-12 game two weeks ago. Great test for the kids from the American club league.
USA West with Keio University
