My teammate Hikaru and I did another television appearance, this time on a morning show in Sendai called TBC TV. We spent a day on Joji Mountain, a famous tourist attraction in Sendai. There is a big Japanese Buddhist temple called Johgi Nyorai Saihoji Temple on the mountain and host showed us some Japanese customs when visiting a temple. We stopped by two restaurants, where we tried the towns famous fried tofu as well as some sweet beans on a stick. I can't say they were too delicious to me, but it was fun to try some new things. We also did some shopping down main street, and then had an interview talking about my teammates and the whole Sendai 89ers organization. After the show taping concluded, we had a late lunch with the crew of the show, it was fun to talk with everyone involved. I've been in front of the camera a bunch at Marquette but this was a lot of fun and certainly a new experience that I will remember forever! Check out the video from the show below as well as some pictures my wife took throughout the taping. Check out the video!
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Today, Dan and I went to check out the new Super Sports Xebio by the Nagamachi subway stop. Xebio is a sports store similar to the American Dick's Sporting Goods. This particular location just opened up in the last month and is only a few steps away from the Sendai 89ers training gym. Not only that, it's also where the new Sendai 89ers home arena will be located. No more three home gyms, just one great one! The store also had an awesome basketball section featuring the Sendai 89ers!
Very cool! My coach in Japan brought me a book he was reading, finding it in a Chinese book store. It was none other than Tom Crean's "Coaching Team Basketball: A Coach’s Guide to Developing Players With a Team-First Attitude." I remember receiving this book when I was at Marquette University. It's fun to say I'm a character in a book, and to see it internationally printed in another language is also pretty cool! I'm of course biased, but I certainly recommend any basketball buff to give it a read. I learned a lot at Marquette about what it takes to not only be a player, but to be a winning player. Being about the team and not about yourself is a huge part of that. I would not be successful playing now as a professional had I not embraced that idea.
Dan's gift from the Sendai 89ers volunteers, an Octopus charm from the town of Minami-Sanriku, a small town devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11th. The town is known for their octopus fishing but since the tsunami the fishing industry has collapsed. "After the earthquake, in order to create jobs for affected people, some local volunteers launched a project to restart production and sales of the octopus charm as the symbol for recovery." (Global Giving)
Truly beautiful and meaningful gift. Thank you very much! A couple more fun facts about Japan....
Only in Japan can someone pull these off. Our friend pointing to the sweet gorilla Adidas shoes.
Actually this whole outfit is pretty sweet, who wouldn't want to have a ruler track suit. Any takers?! Enjoying some refreshing Stongbows at Ha'Penny Bridge Irish Pub in Sendai. We were celebrating our 7 year anniversary, belated St.Patrick's Day and of course, the two Sendai 89ers home wins.
What better way to relax after a basketball game then to take a bath! There are so many cool bath salts in Japan and we are want to try them all. Just like picking wine, we pick our bath salts based on how cool the label looks. Since we can't read Japanese a little pig cartoon with sweat running down its face is always a good choice! Nothing like hot pink bath salt! It even turned the tub hot pink, yikes! There are a lot of strange/scary characters on the bath salt packets. Fire seeping through the eyes and nose, yikes! Well, at least the bath wasn't scary, just turned the water purple/reddish. Dan taking a bath... perfect fit.
Here is s fun fact for everyone, Japan experiences about 1,500 earthquakes a year. Since Dan and I are both from the Midwest we had no idea what to expect when we first moved to the Pacific Ring of Fire. Our experiences with earthquakes was limited to one that struck Chicago, well Southern Illinois, two years ago. (A mere 4.3 on the Richter Scale). In the time we have spent in Sendai we have experienced around 25 earthquakes, mostly small but also a couple bigger ones. The small ones feel like a semi-truck driving by our apartment and rocking it a bit (or for those of you living in Chicago, it's the same as the "L" passing by your window and shaking your apartment). The bigger ones cause our building to rock a bit, we first notice our heater/ac unit swaying back and forth and the our tv shakes. Really though, it's not scary! For the most part they only last a couple seconds. Anyone can handle a train or a semi-truck passing by their apartment once in a while, right?! What do you do when the earth starts moving? Remain calm, ride it out, and carry on. If you are inside, stay away from objects that can fall on you. Most earthquake related deaths happen when one is not paying attention aka objects falling from above. The safest places are doorways or underneath tables, etc. If you are outdoors, watch your surroundings to make sure nothing is crumbling above you. Buildings in Japan are designed to handle the constant movement of the earth and unless another 8.9 strikes most building won't show signs of damage. Two bigger earthquakes struck Japan in the last 24 hours, one near Tokyo (6.1) and one in Northeastern Japan (6.8). Here in Sendai we felt the Tokyo one, it lasted about 15 seconds and since we were far enough from the epicenter it felt pretty small. We do want to assure our family and friends that we are all safe and sound. Earthquakes are not as scary as they seem, then again we have never experienced an 8.9, but the ones that did happen in our stay here have been very manageable. So fear not! Stay calm and carry on :) Also, earthquakes are a good thing! It means that the plates are moving and energy is getting released. If there are no earthquakes for a while that causes the next one to be stronger and more severe, such as in the instance of the 8.9 on March 11, 2011.
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