Opposites Attract Pt.2

Welcome back to Overseas With A Carry On, the blog the about nothing!

Haha. That is an ode to Seinfeld, one of my favourite sitcoms. The show was literally about nothing in particular, just the daily life of Jerry and his 3 best friends George, Elaine and Kramer. In a way, this blog mirrors that - minus the 3 best friends. I just tackle these events as they happen, there's no rhyme or rhythm to it!

Dating back to the last post (if you haven't read part 1, I suggest you go back and get up to speed), I introduced to you many inverted practices that the Japanese do. The last thing we touched upon was driving and that's where we will take off.

"Japanese Style"

One of the first things I noticed when I arrived in Japan a few years back was that it seemed as every car had a television in it. This screen serves as a GPS system. It also serves as a rear view camera. Another thing I noticed was almost everyone reversed parked their vehicle. Regardless of where, how many other open spots were available or difficulty to squeeze in. It was just what they did and continue to do. This photo above was taken at a local grocery store. Each and every single car on that row is reversed in.

So, if you're ever in Japan and you see a car parked head first, it may be a lazy local but it's more than likely an out-of-towner like myself who doesn't know any better!

What's beef?

Last week I went out to dinner with one of my trainers. We went to a local Korean BBQ spot. In Japan, this style of cooking is referred to as 'Yakinku.'

Yaki, as I've been told, essentially means 'fire' or 'direct heat' and Niku means 'meat.' It's by far my favourite meal to enjoy while stationed here in Japan. I have had teammates who despise these type of restaurants.

"Why am I paying to cook my own food? If that were the case, I'd just cook at home. I'm paying to be served."

I understand that logic but I also enjoy the overall experience of going out for yakiniku. You get to converse, cook the meat to your preferred tenderness (I like mine medium-well) and many places offer a buffet style. 'Eat until your heart is content' is the motto I stand by!😊😁

How does this tie into the overall theme of inversion you ask? Let's take a look at these two cuts of beef shall we?

The cut of steak on the left is your normal North American grade beef. After being marinated and thrown on the grill, I don't know a carnivore who would turn it down. I want you to notice the trim of fat that surrounds the outside of the steak in comparison to the meat on the inside. That's grade A cattle right there. That's what you'll find at any butcher shop or supermarket.

Now, the cut on the right is none other than The Mamba aka Kobe beef. It is amongst the highest priced and most sought after cuts of meat. Hailing from the Wagyu cattle here in Japan, the stark contrast of fat strands on the interior is its tell-tale sign known as marbling. These strains of fat give the beef its flavourful, fatty and tender appeal.

There's actually an entire association dedicated to up keeping the standards of "Kobe" beef and ensuring its quality worldwide. But you all are missing the point here. The Japanese found a way to reverse the fat distribution in a particular type of cow. . .and this was done prior to cloning, genetic modification or lab created foods. Are you kidding me?!😲

Reading Japanese

Lastly, reading over in Japan. Obviously I can't read or write in Japanese but I can whip through a basketball magazine and examine the photos of NBA action. Believe it or not, these magazines are read from right to left. Yes, the spine is on the right and you flip the pages from left to right. Each time I grab one, I catch myself looking at the back panel and then realize I need to flip it over.

As far as reading, I have caught some older folks on the train rides reading books that have Japanese characters in columns. These books are also read from right to left and from top to bottom. This traditional format of reading/writing is known as tategaki.

Clearly this is something I won't have to worry about because I don't plan on learning Japanese anytime soon. I've been encouraged to try to learn: "Why don't you learn and pick it up?"

"My friend, do you think "picking it up" is as simple as learning Microsoft Excel? Re-evaluate your thoughts!"

Have you seen those Japanese letters? I have a better chance at becoming the president of United States, and I'm not even American (Not a political jab, I promise).


Well sadly, that concludes our "Opposites Attract" series. I had a good time brainstorming the content for these last few posts. Poking a little fun never hurt anybody right? I hope I was able to open your eyes to some of the backwards practices that force me to use a few more brain cells each day. They say fish is brain food and I do like a good piece of salmon, so I guess I can afford an extra thought or two.

To my loyal readers, thank you for your continued support. If this is your first time, I hope you make a return visit! If you have any questions or topic suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

Overseas With A Carry On will be unveiling something special for you in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

"Walk with me through the pathway of more success."

#OWACO

Opposites Attract (Pt.1)

"And we back

And we back

And we back"

That's the opening to the song "All We Got" Chance The Rapper off his latest project Coloring Book. Overseas With A Carry On is indeed back with another brief look into the day-to-day life of playing hoops across the waters!

Sticking with the music theme, if you don't know who these guys are you're:

A) Too young to have heard their music growing up. 

B) Not a huge fan of old school rap

C) Too old to recall 

Whichever sad excuse you chose (oh yes, I do mean sad), allow me to introduce you to Kris Kross. As a late 80s baby who grew up in the 90s, Kris Kross to me was what Kylie Jenner is to the teenage population today....... Okay maybe not to the same extent, but you see where I'm going with this.

They were young, they were hip, they had their own swag (that typically means style of dress for you Generation X folks) and simply put: you wanted to be like them. The baseball caps & jerseys along with the baggy jeans. Everything worn backwards or inside out - inverted.

Let's take a good look at that word right there, inverted...

invert
verb
past tense: inverted; past participle: inverted
ɪnˈvəːt/
put upside down or in the opposite position, order, or arrangement.

It seems "Kris Kross" was the perfect name for this dynamic duo and if there was any one word in the english dictionary to describe the Japanese way of life, it would without a shadow of a doubt, be inverted.

Uniforms

Let's start with our home and away game uniforms; by looking at this picture, can you identify in which frame my team was 'home' and in which my team was 'away'?

If you guessed left was home and right was away..congratulations. You played yourself. 

In just about every other country, the home team is the lighter coloured jersey (usually white) and the visiting team is the darker coloured jersey. Well, not here in Japan! On the left of the photo above, my teammate #20 Richard Roby is donning our white uniforms but we are the visiting team. Conversely, on the right #47 Tasuku Namizato in our red unis is the on the home team. I still have yet to get a clear cut reason as to why this is, but it is what it is.

Each player on this team is in charge of his own jersey; that means washing, packing for home/road games, etc. My biggest fear is that after all these years of white jerseys meaning home and coloured jerseys meaning away, one day I'm going to lazily pack for a road game and bring my red jersey and be SOL.

Editors Note: I'm currently typing this post as I pack for a road game. No need to worry, I packed my whites.

Driving Ms.Daisy

This is what driving looks like over here. Everything is flip-flopped. 

• We drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. 
• The "slow lane" is the left and the passing lane is on the right. 
• Left turns are short turns and right ones go against traffic.

This is my 3rd year in Japan and just earlier this week I found myself nonchalantly making a right turn out of a parking lot into the right lane. Luckily I caught myself before any on-coming traffic could sense that it was I, a gaijin (Japanese for 'foreigner') behind the wheel.

I couldn't imagine trying to drive a stick-shift over here. Hitting the clutch with one foot, while manning the gears with the opposite hand. All that "left-brain, right-brain" stuff would cause an accident for someone not able to process the changes quick enough. Not to mention, your blinker is on the right of the steering wheel and your windshield wiper is on your left. On the bright side, at least the brake is still the left pedal and the accelerator is the right one.

I hope I've shed a bit of light into the quirky daily experiences that often fall on deaf ears. No one speaks about these minute details, we all tend to focus on the obvious cultural disconnects. I've got a few more things that I find backwards that I'll reveal in the next update! Stay tuned!

As always, please drop a comment if you have any questions or topics you'd like me to discuss. Feedback is always welcome.  If you're enjoying the journey Overseas With A Carry On, tell a friend to tell a friend. Until the next time my fellow followers, wherever you are in the world, keep on keeping on.

#OWACO

To be continued...

P.S. A part 2 of this will be the next follow up..This should be dropping in the next week or so. :-)

That's Gold!

Hello guys and gals, welcome back to Overseas With A Carry On! How is everything on your end? The majority of you are probably over the shock that the summer is over and school is in full swing. Some are continuing to plug away at your job or who knows, maybe you're just getting back from a well deserved vacation. Over here, I'm finally settled in and ready for the season to kick off. Speaking of settling in, this year was most definitely the easiest transition from unpacking duffel bags to looking like I belonged in my apartment...

(And yes, we are all duffel bag boys. I don't know a fellow basketball player that travels with suitcases. It's just the code we live by. Unless one is travelling with his spouse and/or children - that is the way the committee will permit such actions.)

...Usually when I arrive to a new team, we get straight to practice. Us imports are the last to arrive so we're technically behind the local teammates who have been around throughout the summer months training. In addition to jet lag, you haven't a clue where anything in the town is, you're adjusting to a new schedule and worst of all, your refrigerator is empty. There's a simple way to combat all of this and I'm going to break it down for you in a simple 2 step process:

Step 1: Re-sign to a team that you've previously played for.

3 years ago when I initially debuted this blog, I was playing in Evreux, France. It was a great learning experience for me both on and off the court. It had always been a dream of mine to play in France, especially after vacationing to Paris the year before (being bilingual also helped). The following year I made the move to Japan and suited up for Hamamatsu Phoenix. That season, we won the league championship. The town was and still is a small rural city so finding your way around was pretty easy. Moral of the story: Go to a place you're familiar with so there's no learning curve and it's just like walking down memory lane.

Step 2: Invest

Invest in yourself! I literally signed up and purchased my Costco membership the day before departing for Japan. As mentioned in step 1, being familiar and having prior knowledge that a Costco Wholesale store was only roughly 50 minutes away, I paid the cost to be a boss. With this little guy in hand, I was fortunate enough to make the drive the very next day and stock up on a bunch of groceries and necessities. Some items I'll have to buy over and over again and some, I'll never have to spend another yen on. 

I know some of my readers are still flabbergasted that Costco exists in Japan and are wondering if it's the same as it is in North America..it is! The huge inventory, big bulk packaging, exact same layout, etc. The items are clearly tailored to the local taste so, certain items that you are used to seeing back state-side/province-side will not be on hand. But in a land far far away from home, beggars can't be choosers. The only thing that could possibly beat having a Costco is having a military base nearby. Shopping in there literally makes you feel as if you've teleported back home! Here's a list of the US military presence in Japan.

And that's how you get over the hump of getting accustom to your new surroundings; make them your old ones. I've got the same jersey number, same apartment, same parking spot - I didn't even have ask for the wifi password, my devices connected automatically...

Onto more serious business, like the basketball in Japan. I enjoy it. The local talent continues to rise and are relied upon heavily to help a team win. Why is that you ask? Because over the last few years, there have been a number of changes to the rules of how many foreigners a team can have and how many can be on the court at the same time. Stick with me here...

This year in the new B. League (Japan Basketball recently combined both the professional BJ League and  the company sponsored NBL into one body), each team may have up to 3 foreign born players. In most instances these are Americans, in my case, a Canadian or Nigerian or whatever nation you want to peg me to. For 2 quarters of play, you're allowed 1 foreigner on the court at a time and for the other 2 quarters, you're allowed 2.

If you have a naturalized Japanese player, such as someone who is a foreign born player but has lived in the country for a number of years or married a local and has received a Japanese passport/citizenship, he still counts as a foreigner BUT is allowed to play as a "local" when his team is playing 1 legitimatel import. So in other words, his team could essentially play 2 foreign born players the entire game. If I recall from my business undergrad at Louisiana Tech, we call that a competitive advantage.

Oh yeah, this year teams must announce prior to each game which particular quarters it plans to use 1 import and which ones you plan to use 2. Will it be 2-1-2-1, 1-2-1-2, 2-1-1-2? You can come up with whichever pattern you like but this has to be declared and cannot change once it is set. It can though be changed from game to game. Weird stuff!

Last year things weren't so messy - each team had a limit of 3 imported foreigners. You were allowed to have 2 of them on the court at any time. As far as naturalized players went, I believe (don't quote me) they still counted as a full import. You could not have 3 foreign born players on the court under any circumstance. In the NBL is where I believe that player would not count as foreigner. I didn't compete in that league so my word is not gospel, just an educated assumption.

Back to my first year in Japan, each team was allowed 4 imported players but the playing time split was altogether different. The 1st/3rd quarters allowed 2 on the court and the 2nd/4th allowed 3. As you can see, it can be a bit difficult to predict match ups and thus affects scouting, recruiting and so on. A few years prior to that, the league allowed each team to have 5 imports! Over the years, the numbers have dwindled and jobs have become more scarce. I think I speak for the majority of my counterparts when I say it's a blessing to know you are employed come the beginning of September.

Over the years, we've all heard and seen a lot of transitions and changes in food and society wanting becoming as healthy as we can be. First it was becoming a vegetarian (yeah right), then some upped the ante by becoming vegans, others went gluten free and some opted for the "Paleo" diet...

I've had a roller coaster ride trying to balance being healthy, not depriving myself of fuel, being a foodie and dealing with the local menu. On the following entry I'll dive a bit into some changes I've made to my personal diet. Until the next entry, thank you all for reading. 

If you enjoy what the content, please hit the follow button, drop a comment, share it socially, etc! I'd love to interact with some of my readers and hopefully answer questions you all may have. Thanks for reading and stay blessed. 

#OWACO

Special shoutouts go to my trainer back in Toronto, Vlad & Co. at +Real Basketball Training Inc.! He trains the top talent in the city at all levels from youth to such pros as Anthony Bennet, Brady Heslip and  Dwight Powell to name a few. You can check him out at his website www.realbasketballtraining.com 

P.S. We lost 3 greats over the past few months to retirement - thank you to the Black Mamba, the Big Fundamental & the Big Ticket on illustrious careers.

#Legends

Damnnnn Daniel..back at it again!

Well, well, well.

Where do I begin..How about with those who don't remember who Daniel is...How could you forget?

In other news, it feels like it was just 2014 and I was back in France eating a croissant (or two..maybe even three), Obama still had a few years left in his presidency and the 'Running Man' dance still had some dignity

Fast forward two years and a lot has changed - for example, I'm no longer playing in Europe, Donald Trump is running for President, hover boards came and went & lastly, if you've watched 'American Crime Story; The People vs OJ Simpson', you can't help but wonder how he got off.

But that's neither here nor there.

As for the 2+ year hiatus? All I can really say is, my baaaaad y'all.

No, really, there isn't a reasonable answer as to why.  Perhaps I got caught up with Hello Kitty and anime over here in Japan and I lost my way. Or maybe it was the struggle to use chopsticks that left my hands in no shape to type. Or quite frankly, it may have been the back-to-back games every weekend over a 52 game schedule that left me utterly fatigued.  Whatever excuse you chose to accept, I humbly accept and am indebted to my readers who questioned the disappearance of the entries. Don't get me wrong; ideas and blog posts filled my brain but I just lacked the thrill to translate those thoughts from my head to the keyboard. It was more a case of 'I didn't want to force the issue.'

I didn't want to force the content.

If I was and am going to deliver an entry, I want it to be original and authentic. Genuine. At the time, I simply didn't feel it, was so I decided to spare you my prattle and wait until the time was right - and as the saying goes, "The time is now."

It's a rainy Wednesday afternoon here in Osaka, Japan. This is where I have called home for the past 8 months and counting. As I sit on my 2 seater couch of my 1 bedroom apartment, I relish in the sound of the rain on my window pane. The bedroom and living are separated by a typical Japanese sliding-door mechanism that I find to be absolutely genius. You can close off and separate each or combine both and have large open space in seconds - flexibility at its best!

As I peak out the window to nothing but grey skies, gloom and the sounds of trickling rain, I think about the past season. The ups, the downs, the highs, and the lows. We finished 6th in the tough Western conference of the Turkish Airlines-sponsored 'Basketball Japan' League. A difference from my 3rd place finish on my former team the previous season, Hamamatsu Phoenix.
That Hamamatsu team featured a great group of both local Japanese talent and imported American (and Canadian, hehe) muscle. That team went on to defeat the #2 ranked team in a best-of-three series on the road to punch our ticket to the final 4 in Ariake. The final 4 was then switched from a series set-up to a 1 game elimination set-up à la the NCAA March Madness tournament. We defeated the #4 ranked team in the west and then went ahead and beat a very good Akita team who were ranked #1 in the East.

And just like that, I became a champion on the big stage. Prior to last season, my previous two seasons as a pro in France and Spain both ended in a semi-final loss. But this time, things would be different. It would be me running through the confetti shower; it would be my teammates and I rejoicing and celebrating unbridledly...and we did just that!

Unfortunately we were unable to duplicate that feeling this time around. We came up a week short of the opportunity to play for the title. 7 days. 168 hours. 10,080 extra minutes in our season and we could have been playing for all the marbles. It hurts when you put it into those kind of terms. Although, there's gratitude in knowing we left it on all on the floor. Listening to motivational speaker and workout junky CT Fletcher speak, he says "there's victory & satisfaction(13:07) in knowing that you gave your absolutely best and falling short." We left nothing in the tank, the opposition was simply better on that day - and I can live with that.

As the summer approaches, the usual schedule entails: rest, rehab, recovery, train, continue to develop and progress, kick back and enjoy the weather, eat as much comfort food as possible and get ready for the grind yet again. The summer is short so I've got to pack in as many moments and memories as possible in a 80-90 period. I've done the math and from my calculations, 3 days overseas is equivalent to 1 day back home. So if you look at it in that light, you've got to make everyday worthwhile and productive. You can always get material possessions back but time, time is of the essence. Spend it wisely.

I hope that you all forgive me for Houdini disappearing act. I will definitely be more consistent in the following season wherever it is I end up.

I may even surprise you with a pop-up summer entry or two! Stay tuned..


P.S.

Kobe we will miss you.
RIP Prince.
Thanks Drake for Views.
Twitter/Instagram contacts are posted in the banner but I've recently joined the Snapchat gang: O_Ash

Thank you all for reading and supporting the journey thus far...I'm merely a kid playing the game he loves who just happens to be 'Overseas With A Carry-On.'

#OWACO

Update: I began this entry about 10 days ago. It has sat here on my laptop waiting to be editted and published. Big shout out to the home team Raptors for beating the Cavs last night. Everyone thought we'd simply cave and be swept but that's not in the cities' DNA. You all need to put some respect on our name!