The 59th Peace Boat voyage departed Yokohama with charged fanfare. We popped the champagne for the 1000 passengers and together shouted a big KAMPAI. We have incredible 110 days ahead of us to circumnavigigate the globe. Its hard to believe!
(more…)

NEWS FLASH: On September 22nd I’m leaving Japan aboard the Peace Boat.

‘On the what…?’ I hear you splurt from your office desk over your morning Nescafe. ‘Some kind of Hippy Tug boat?’

The Peace Boat, my friends, is a Japanese NGO with a goal to spread a global message of peace, cooperation and to take concrete steps to build a better world. After a competitive application process I am lucky enough to be chosen as a volunteer for the 59th voyage. I’ll be teaching Global English on board, which means English with a focus on global issues. I’m currently training in Tokyo with a great bunch of people with whom I’ll be cruising around the world for 110 days. Needless to say, Tanoshii mi! Friends in NZ note that I’ll be pulling in just before Christmas so there’s every chance of meeting up and sharing a slice of Christmas cheer together. I’ll be blogging it all, so check back for updates. (more…)

Gifu Crows, Champions!

There was no way I was going to miss the Awaji Soccer Tournament on my last weekend in Japan. Things started badly when traffic delayed us and we had to default our first game. But we then put together 2 solid wins, before being mercilessly dealt to by the favourites, Real Osaka. After the first days play that left us midway in the standings and able to reflect over some cacophonic karaoke.

By this stage we were fortunate to have suffered no injuries having only been able to scrape together 11 players. But the next day we were boosted by Ben who had come down on a night bus. I had no problem putting the last nights beers behind me and tucked away a hat-trick to help us to a 4-2 quarter final win. That somehow left us facing Real Osaka again in the semis. Capitano Marcel decided to sure up the midfield with a 4-5-1 and planted myself in the heart of defence to rough them up a bit. Those tactics worked as we repelled waves of attacks to hold them to a 0-0 draw. In the shootout Ben, Pepe and I converted our 3 penalties and Steve pulled off a cracking save to send Gifu through to our first ever final.

We stuck with the same tactics and when Flo found the net at the close of the first half it was all the motivation we needed. Running on empty, we battled out the second for a proud victory to the mighty mighty Gifu Crows!