Tag: Japan Bowl

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Japan train stations are nutz!

We have a private bus taking us everywhere we need to go here in Tokyo and I'm soooo glad.

"Tokyo public train station service on average more than 3 MILLION people PER DAY...compared to New York City which serviced on average 166,000 per day in 2008"

Sometimes it's the little things that bring us the most joy and this time it's the LITTLE (well BIG) bus!

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Wednesday in Japan!

(I still have no card reader so unfortunately no photo's can be posted...and it's killing me!  I have to get to an electronic shop around here soon.  I don't have much free time so it's hard to get there.) Today we had practice this morning as usual, then lunch, after lunch we drove over to a place called "Asakusa" which has a HUGE Buddhist temple (Sensoji Temple) that's placed right in the heart of a residential area.  (In the meantime all the wives and girlfriends hopped on another bus back at the hotel and headed to Asakusa to meet us!) I didn't know what to expect going to a Buddhist temple and all so as we got there I was kinda of shocked at what it was, what it looked like, and what people did there.  It's pretty hard to explain but being a Follower of Christ I couldn't tell if people were doing their equivalent of "going to church", "praying", "worshipping", etc.  It was very different for me to watch people interact with Buddha (the statues, symbols, etc), other temple rituals (like getting a fortune...not like your little fortune cookie, it was a full out ritual thing), and the temple alters.  I'm very uneducated when it comes to all of the specifics but I didn't have a chance to 'people-watch' for a while and just take it all in. Don't worry, I had no urge to do the "when in Rome".  Jesus Christ is the one and only savior of the world.  He is Lord above all Lords and King above ALL Kings.  He is the Alpha and Omega! Next to the huge temple area (it was actually like 4 HUGE Temple buildings) was streets and streets...and streets of flea shops, dining places, etc.  It was like one giant galleria flea market that was like 20 blocks long and 5 blocks wide called "Nakamise-dori". It was all covered walkways so it felt like we were inside but based on the humidity and the streets having open ends we were definitely outside.  (If you didn't know the humidity in Tokyo IS CA-RAZY!!!) So we walked around all the shops and the temple areas (for 2 hours) then hopped back on the buses to head to have dinner at this awesome restaurant on one of the inland water ways.  Dinner was great.  Tim Brown was there and we helped him celebrate his birthday by surprising him with a cake and singing happy birthday. Now we just got back to the hotel and I'm about to pass out...today was a long day.  Not much down time, but hey we're in Japan. Thanks again for all the comments, it's so great!

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Captains for the game

Just a side note or FYI: Not sure if I mentioned this or not but Lou Holtz selected the guys who were were former captains at Notre Dame to be Captains of this game, so I'll be a Captain along with Tony Rice, Mike Gooslby, Brandon Hoyte, Bobbie Howard, and Melvin Dansby. Just a little heads up for tomorrow...they are taking all the captains to do some PR stuff then they are taking us to the Imperial Palace!  There are some perks to being a former Notre Dame Football Captain!  I'm so excited.

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Our Ritz Carlton hotel room video tour

Here's a video tour of our room room at the Ritz.  (I'm posting this right now before I leave and the video is not fully processed on YouTube but it should be up in the next half hour or so.)

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The Ritz Carlton

Our hotel is by far the nicest one I've ever stayed in. We're staying in the Ritz Carlton Midtown Tokyo, which is right in the heart of Downtown Tokyo in the Roppongi District. If you want to take a look at the hotel GO HERE. It's literally one of the cleanest places I've ever walked into.  Everything is spotless and shiny (that's a good combination if you were wandering). The Roppongi area where we're staying is known for it's nightlife and also how it's geared squarely towards foreigners. It's sort of like 'Time Square' in New York City on steroids. I recorded a video of the hotel room we're staying in so i'll post that later tonight when we get back from dinner. But for now I gotta run.

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The slice of home has been great

Reading all the comments have made me so proud of be representing all of you here in Japan.  Brooke and I are having a blast (she's currently hanging out in bed resting up watching me blog before we head to an all-team dinner with the Notre Dame Club of Tokyo). Today while we were at practice she hung out with some of the other wives walking around downtown Tokyo and sightseeing.  Shes loving this too!!!  I'm so happy she's having a great time.  She's got connected with a few of my close friends wives and they are like 4 peas in a pod now, I LOVE IT!!! I forgot my card reader at home so i'll have to get one before I can post any pictures but this city is BEAUTIFUL!

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Flight and Monday

We made it to Tokyo yesterday afternoon (Monday) and got all settled into our hotel.  We didn't have practice or anything it was pretty much a day of acclimation to the time change and 13 hour flight.  We had dinner and a quick team meeting (video to come later) then we were free. The flight for me was pretty easy (some people struggled).  I slept a lot, watched a handful of movies, played video games with Brooke, then we landed.  The entertainment part of the plane was great.  Everyone had their own individual monitor that they controlled. You could watch movies (about 15-20 to choose from), there was a remote control for playing video games (you could play everything from solitaire, to sudoku, to Tetris), or you could just chill out and watch the flight pattern as we fly over Alaska and TONS of water. We were fed 3 times throughout the flight, which was pretty nice for 60 football guys.  It was all Japanese food and SMALL portion sizes but it was great.  Did I mention the portion size was SMALL?  Oh, ok, just wanted to make sure I stated that the portion size was SMALL. When we got out of customs at the airport there were fans already there waiting for autographs with Notre Dame helmets, jerseys to sign, blank peices of autograph paper (usually because they're going to sell them), so it reminded me of old times EXCEPT all the people were Japanese.  I don't remember pulling in to Southern California to play USC and being greeted by an all Japanese fan club.  (I didn't take photo's of any of that because that would just be reverse paparazzi and that's just weird.) Well that's all I have time for now, so far this trip has been amazing and I'm so thankful Brooke and I get to do this together!

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Finally headed to Tokyo, Japan!!!!

We leave at 5 a.m. South Bend time and drive to Chicago with the team to fly out of Chicago O'Hare.  The flights 13 hours but I'm not so worried about making the 13 hour flight.  Just gives me some time to sleep and hang out with Brooke. I'll be posting here on my blog more than I'll Twitter while I'm there because I won't have cell phone service there so stay tuned here if you want to follow the fun. Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts as Brooke and I head to Tokyo for this great adventure together! To God be ALL the glory!!!

I don't normally ask this but please leave comments if you're following throughout this trip.  It'll be nice to feel the love while we're all the way in Japan!

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Headed to Chicago

Brooke and I are loaded up on the bus with the team and ready to head to Chicago. We leave South Bend in about 15 minutes.

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Last day of Two-a-days

Today is a great day. We get to go practice again! It's the last day o two-a-days and I'm getting more excited the closer we get. The teams looking pretty good, the defense is looking real good. About to start defensive meetings. Gotta go!