Rugby

The most important sport in New Zealand is rugby.

Lots of young people watch or play in winter.

Charles Monro brought rugby to New Zealand from Great Britain in the late 1860s.

Rugby is a fifteen people sport and the ball is an oval shape like an egg. New Zealand national team is the famous All Black. All Black is famous for their special dance - called Haka.

Posted for Tomoro - as we speak Japan are playing the All Blacks in the rugby World Cup....

Tokyo Bookfair & Bledisloe Cup

Last weekend I spent in Tokyo at the annual Tokyo EFL bookfair/English Teachers in Japan jamboree. I try to go every year, to dig up new ideas and remember old ones, figure out what the next big thing in teaching will be etc. It is also a good opportunity to meet old friends in the industry - teachers as well as publishers - and to catch up over a few beers on the Saturday evening.

Delightfully, somebody organised the Bledisloe Cup to coincide at the National Stadium...and along a good sized group of us went, finding a row of seats up at the back of the stand. No problem except we couldn't see the screen/scoreboard for replays, score updates etc; neither did the beer dollies manage to make it far enough up the stand with any supplies for our thirsty mob. Some parts of the ground apparently ran out altogether. Bad planning again, JRFU. Why do they insist on selling canned beer, openning each one and pouring it it a cup? Think this is why draft beer was invented...

Anyway, good game, and as will be with this weekend v England, Australia outclassed. We lost a few stragglers on the way to Shinjuku, picked up a few others including one of my old students at Waseda now. A fairly bizarre night as it was also Hallowe'en!

The presentations over the weekend proved valuable for me; these days I orientate towards the more technical ones as I have seen enough happy clappy ones to last me a while. One in particular on using Google documents more effectively made the trip worthwhile.

Dinner, Movie and Rugby

A Big, Big THANK YOU to all our students and friends who came to our Dinner, Movie and Rugby night. It was a tremendous amount of fun! and I must congratulate you all on bringing such delicious snacks - we really had a feast :)

See you at the next one!!

Tana

On the way to a Chichibu Final

Unusually, my schedule worked out superbly! Great!


All day administering Cambridge ESOL Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) in Akasaka and a dash underground to find the Chichibu Stadium and the last five minutes of the first semi-final. Japan is hosting the IRB Junior World (Rugby) Championship, essentially the Under 20 World Cup.

The Baby Blacks had finished off the Wannabies in front of a fine crowd - if a sombre one. It was weird, even after the main feature started (England confronting the Baby Boks), just how quiet so many people at a sporting event can be. Funereal! Delightfully, beer was walking around in the guise of very cute vendors so I didn't have to leave my seat in the first half (not much to get excited about on the pitch, apart from a gormless charged-down kick which gifted them a try)

These players are Under 20? Have to say some of them were pretty bloody big - England's flanker Lawes was Fijian dimensions, and the inside centre built like a brick shithouse (col.). England repeatedly commited the cardinal sin in rugby = letting the ball bounce. It's an oval ball, so No, you can't predict what will happen if you let it do so. England looked bigger, stronger, and were mostly going forward; they were already starting to control the game when the SA flanker was sent off for being a naughty boy. The man advantage told over the last 15 minutes, and the scrum half's try from well-worked line out move would be well-worth seeing applied in the senior team some time.

Most bizarrely, Jamie George played most of the game as replacement hooker (number 16). He has a fine pedigree!

So, England to squash the baby ABs on Sunday. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot...."

Rugby viewing, Film Night and Bring and Share combined!!

Hello everyone!

So who's going to win the match? Well, the Springboks of course!

Please join us at Luna for the big event. Kick off is at 12pm, so we'll get warmed up beforehand with a bring and share dinner, a movie and a drink or two.
If rugby's not your thing then just come for the dinner, or movie or both! It's up to you!
Hope to see you there!!

Dinner starts around 8:30pm. Movie start time 9:30pm. Rugby kickoff 12:00

Sat 27 June - 2nd Test Match
Sat 4 July - 3rd Test Match

RSVP

The British and Irish Lions

The Lions are touring South Africa, not so much on safari as stalking Springboks. There will be three Test Matches on June 20th, 27th, and July 4th. The Second and Third Tests will be shown on our big screen at Luna. Kick off is at midnight (live from SA...) Entrance is free if you can name 5 legends featured in this video clip, or if you are wearing your club/country rugby shirt. Come one, come all, and bring something for the 'Boks to choke on :)

Remember, these fixtures only come around once every 12 years: the secret password on the door is "ninety-nine". Tell a friend.

Rugby - on the big screen

A quick invitation to any rugby fans - we will be watching the last round of Six Nations matches at Luna on the big screen on March 21st, after the movie night (see Tana's posting below).

Feel free to invite friends, bring snacks and drinks - it'll be a late finish!

Jim

How to make Frogs squeek

Ah, this is a rare sound, best enjoyed in Paris.

Ingredients:

1. petite grenouilles (Frogs), fifteen
   
2. Les Grandes Ros Bouef, fifteen
3. Slight pinch of deja vu/disbelief (to taste)
   

Method:

• Shake grenouilles with bone-crunching tackles a la Noon
  
• Batter with explosive volcano-like south island dressing
• Stir in some old-school hooking & rucking
  
• Apply pressure with reliable left boot of Wilkinson
• Serve roasting hot, accompanied by a rendition of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariots", on a bed of trampled blue shirts
  

NB May be hard to swallow for some.