Day 7 - First day of the rugby tournament

Today was the first day of Nick's rugby tournament. We got up bright and early to travel to the Global Arena where the boys are staying and playing. But first I had some breakfast.

My bento box breakfast...I wasn't too sure what the slimy, squiggly thing in the bottom right hand corner was...

You seem to get rice with every meal! And miso soup for breakfast was interesting too! What did you have for breakfast today?

A pipe band from Scotland played at the Opening Ceremonies for the tournament.

The Earl Marriott team during the Opening Ceremonies. Nick is number 2.

There are 8 boys' teams from Japan, and teams representing Canada, England, Korea, New Zealand, France, South Africa, Russia, and Australia. Can you find all of these countries on a map? 

There are also 4 girls' teams playing in a 7s tournament.

Earl Marriott Secondary representing Canada at the Sanix World Youth Tournament 2013 in Fukuoka, Japan.

The teams marching forward as they are introduced.

Japanese representative giving the player's oath during the Opening Ceremonies.

This is the humungous team from England that our boys have to play on Wednesday...yikes!

Representative from New Zealand giving the player's oath in English!

The boys leaving the Opening Ceremonies. That is Nick at the end.

The boys chillin' in the stands after the Opening Ceremonies...actually, it was really hot there so it is more likely that they were sweatin'!

Don and Nick

Don, me and Nick!

The tournament schedule for the first day on the stadium field. There are 3 fields...one is grass and the other 2 are turf. Have you ever played a sport on a turf field? It is hard to play rugby on artificial turf because it hurts when you slide on it. Our team gets to play their first 3 games on grass...yahoo for them!

This is a map of the Global Arena where the boys are staying and playing. This place is huge and out in the middle of nowhere. We are staying in an area of Fukuoka called Hakata. We had to take a 40 minute train and then a 20 minute bus to get to the field. There are beautiful grounds where people can come to play and picnic. There are shops, restaurants and all sorts of playing facilities for numerous sports.

The dorm where some of our boys were staying with the Australian team.

Along one of the walkways, they had these boxes filled with flowers. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that each one was the flag of one of the countries represented at the tournament...very cool! This is Canada's.

Japan's flower flag. Which other countries' flag can you see below?

Getting ready to start their first game against the team from Nagasaki, Japan. Can you find Nagasaki on a map? I will give you a hint, look south of Fukuoka.

The team from Nagasaki, Japan that our team played in their first game.

The first game begins

 Nick is #2

 This is called a line out. The Nagasaki team got to throw the ball in. He thrower has to throw it right down the middle of the 2 teams but his team knows where he is going to throw it after he gives them a special word that only his team know what it mean, like a secret code.

 Nick's friend, #8, gets the ball and he is going to pass it to Nick, #2.

 Nick has the ball...

and he scores! Nick gets the first try (goal) of the tournament! A try is worth 5 points and then the team's kicker tries to kick it through the posts. If he makes it, the team gets another 2 points. Our kicker got this one!

Nick's team ended up losing the game but they played really well against this strong Nagasaki team. Our team got 14 points in total. Who can figure out how they got their points?

One of the favourite things that I have done on this trip is try to connect with people. It is so easy to say hello, or Konnichiwa (Kon-ee-chee-wa, to people. Everyone here is so friendly!

 On the shuttle bus home, I started talking to a young man who was sitting next to me. He did not speak much English but he and his two friends sitting behind him, tried really hard to have a conversation with us. I was trying to ask if the field around us were growing rice. I am not sure about everything they said and they did not understand everything I was saying but it was so cool that people who speak 2 different languages tried to communicate. It turned out that there were more of their friends at the back of the bus and they were all taking the same train as us. One of the other dads, Tino, and I continued our attempts at communicating all the way back to Hakata station. It was such a fun experience and they were such nice boys!!! They were from a school called Chikushi High School.