Japan Tour Diary Entry for Day 3

Day 3

Konichiwa. Rest day today but we still had breakfast at 6.15am. Fairly familiar routine now; get dressed in whatever Jermayne and Joe decide, line up outside cafeteria, select from a range of dishes but always including rice, sit at one of the 3 allocated tables for our team, a quick blessing, then pig out!

We’re off to Nagasaki Atomic Museum this morning.

On the bus I have time to reflect on yesterday’s game. Felt real proud lining up with the boys for the national anthem…for a moment thought I was an All Black. Chey did an awesome job as captain and I know he was stoked to lead the boys for the first time. I think I will have to really pick up my game if I’m to make the starting team for the big games. The coaches have made it very clear what my strengths and weaknesses are and so now it’s up to me to find some serious work-on time that might give me an edge.

Two hours later we arrive at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and begin to make our way through the preserved ruins. I think all the boys found it really interesting to learn about what happened and why it happened. To be honest I thought it was pretty rats from America to pull a stunt like that. The effects of the bomb demolished the area killing nearly 90,000 people instantly and injuring thousands more. People are still affected by the bombing today. After a half-an-hour tour we were finally able to pull Elijah away from the Australian and Canadian girls who were touring behind us. He’s been refereed to as Sonny Bill since we got here and I think taking his shirt off during last night’s skit only further enhanced his reputation. It could have been a smelly something that Kalani let go that pushed the girls away, however.

We then headed to this big as building that had a Chinese restaurant upstairs. We had lunch here with all the other teams. It was a pretty random feed. Like 10 dishes per table with deep-fried chicken, noodles, meat patties etc. It was all good though. After lunch we walked through a bit of a memorial park. There were lots of statues around. One marked the exact point where the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki 500 metres above the ground. Another huge one was the Nagasaki peace statue, erected when Japan signed a truce with America. After lots of photos we were back on the bus.

On the way home we stop at a large shopping mall. Finally I get a chance to spend some of Mum’s money. Some cool gear but when I work out the exchange rate, it’s probably cheaper in NZ. I buy some gear anyway ‘cos that’s just what we do.

Home by about 7pm and we hit dinner before a team meeting at 8pm. Mrs Clark reads the latest emails and Jahrome gets a real soppy one from his mum. Rome has been crook for the last 4 days and has missed the first two games. I’m one of the unlucky ones that still hasn’t been sent a message and so until I do I’ll remain in what the coaches call the ‘lonely hearts club’. I hope Mum reads this and sends some loving in a hurry! We also found out today that all the boys who haven’t got parents here have been adopted by parents that have. Everyone will now have someone to see after each game and maybe get spoilt a little from them.

At the team meeting the squad for tomorrow is announced for the game against France. It’s a relief that I’m not a dirty dirty, who are the boys that don’t get stripped. A long whiteboard session and lots of tactics are set in place. We know it will be the biggest test to date. Jojo chimes in with ice-creams for dessert and we’re in bed and lights out by 9.30pm. I drift off to sleep with the quiet whispers of players continuing to discuss tomorrow’s game plan, echoing through the dorm.

Sayonara

No. 18