Check out the Dan's interview about life and basketball overseas in the latest Marquette Magazine!
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Meeting up with other Americans abroad is always fun! A while ago I was invited to join a group for wives and girlfriends who have the same basketball lifestyle as we do. The group is a great resource for those going to new teams, new countries, having babies abroad or just having a much needed venting session. (If you are interested in joining and are a wife or a girlfriend of a player please message me!) I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of great friends through the site and in March we all decided to meet up in Tokyo. Its always fun meeting up with those that you have been talking to for months via email but never met in person, a part of you feels like you totally know them but another part is excited to meet new people. The six of us along with six kids met for lunch in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo at a great Indian restaurant. We talked and laughed for hours until the servers gave us a nice hint to go somewhere else. It was truly great to meet up and be a part of such a special group of ladies! Let's hope for one more Tokyo meet up in the future season! Talk about a small world! April and I met in Germany when her husband and Dan played for Ratiopharm Ulm together. We instantly became great friends and met up all the way across the world in Japan. It was an amazing experience! Small world indeed! I messaged Julie about a year ago because I heard she was a photographer in Tokyo and I wanted to know how she adjusted her business practices upon moving to Japan. She was very helpful and is a very talented photographer, check out her website. I never thought we would be able to meet up in person! Talking about nerdy camera gear was a great bonus! The next day a couple of us met up at Yoyogi Park. The park is huge and attracts an interesting crowd on Sundays; hippies, hipsters, teenagers practicing dance moves, fashion subculture fans, and Tokyo Rockabilly Club were all out in full force. The random people actually reminded me of a State Fair crowd where people from all walks of life come out one week a year to celebrate. Definitely fun to people watch! We were in the park on the one year anniversary of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, at 14:46 there was a moment of silence and the Japanese national anthem was played over the loud speakers. Very surreal experience.
Below is a photo of Hanna (Ana's daughter) enjoying her lunch while listening to the national anthem. Every country has their own traditions when it comes to food at sporting events and since we spent the majority of our lives in the States we were used to the western way of dinning. Hot dogs, pizza, nachos, and beer were all items we would pig out on! In Japan it was a little different, the first time I attended Dan's game I thought I was going to gag when a fan unwrapped raw fish eggs with rice next to me. So different! At least they still sold cold beer. Normally you could find noodles, bento boxes with fish or chicken, rice balls, chicken skewers and lots of different types of tea. At the end of our stay in Japan, I loved munching on a tuna rice ball and some unsweetened green tea during Dan's games!
We have been meaning to blog about the last trip in Japan for quite some time but with our crazy summer schedule we lagged behind. Round one of the playoffs brought us up north to the City of Akita. Our good friends, the Takahashis were gracious enough to let us stay with them at their family owned restaurant, the "Viking." My teammate Ken grew up in Akita, and invited us to a couple private dinners at their authentic Japanese eatery. Before dinner one night, there was a mini festival going on outside. We got to experience a fun Japanese twist to a street festival. Pictured below are some of the activities we gave a try, including goldfish and baby turtle fishing, some bizarre foods to try, and random kid toys to purchase. My teammates kids loved it, and I enjoyed winning a baby turtle for Joe Takahashi! Below is a picture of the Takahashi family and I in the entrance of the restaurant where they have a shrine of their first born son, Ken's professional basketball career. It reminds me of my parent's house as they love to show their support for my career as well as my siblings. Dominika was taking the picture, but they were very good to her, letting her stay with them for the weekend. We made life long friends with the Takahashi family, and loved to get an inside look at their family life.
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