Hot and humid in Tokyo
In the first of his exclusive rugby365.com RWC diaries, USA Eagles loose forward JJ Gagiano takes us behind the scenes ahead of his team’s World Cup campaign.
Hi all,
The last few weeks have been pretty busy; we had two Tests against Canada, followed by a very long flight to Japan, Tokyo to be specific.
Arriving after a 13-hour flight to Tokyo, the boys were pretty knackered and taken aback by the sudden increase in heat and humidity, man it is hot!! We checked in to the hotel, very nice little place, and we proceeded to fight off sleep… We missed Monday due to crossing the international dateline and finally managed to get some sleep, and boy was it good!
Breakfast the next morning produced some very bushy-eyed and knackered players, but all looking forward to two days of training. What we didn’t realise that it had gotten hotter and more humid than the day before. You ask how hot and how humid… how about a high of 35 and a low of 27 with 80 to 90 percent humidity. Training was going to be great!
Our first training would be at Suntory Sungoliath, one of the premier clubs in Japan, great little facility.
It’s the club that Fourie du Preez and Danie Rossouw will be joining after the World Cup. As expected there were a few cobwebs at training, but it was great to get the first session under the belt. The second session was going to be a real challenge, the effects of jetlag started to kick in, but we managed to put in a very good technical session.
The food at our hotel is awesome, really fresh and well prepared and the guys are getting their money’s worth. There is a little buzz and excitement around as Thursday is our day off and the guys are looking forward to seeing Tokyo and relaxing. I was fortunate enough to see Tokyo in 2008, so I won’t be going on the guided tour, instead going to try find places of interest in around the hotel, specifically a place of cuisine namely Japanese.
I will keep you updated on how it goes…
Catch you next time,
JJ
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* UCT loose forward – and Varsity Cup product – JJ Gagiano made his USA Eagles debut in November 2008. Follow his Rugby World Cup story on rugby365.com!
