HockeyBy, Taro Sochi

His skates cut though the ice, making a sharp grinding sound. As he spun around the worn ragged net he shoved his Easton SE6 hockey stick into the goalie’s leg pads. The puck went flying, spinning end over end. The frozen solid rubber disc wasted little air time as it flew over the outstretched Nike Bauer goalie glove and into the expanded net.

This past weekend I spent three days in Nikko, Japan for a hockey tournament with my hockey team called the Shin Yokohama Jr. I have played in many hockey tournaments before in the US, Hong Kong, Czech Republic, and Kuala Lumpur, but never before in Japan. During the time I spent last weekend with my Japanese team I found out how different hockey is here in Japan than in other countries.

One of the major differences is that the kids and coaches stay at different hotels than their parents. Also, on the way to the tournament you travel separately from your parents. The team travels together in a team bus.

There are alsotkjl;jj different rules such as you are not allowed to wear white or clear mouth-guards, which is a really weird rule. Even the changing rooms are different. In Hong Kong there are tents next to the rink. In KL you change next to the rink on benches, in Japan there are heated rooms, however in the US locker rooms are often not heated and you are exposed to the elements.

There is also a different culture, so at the beginning of a game you bow to the other team, to their coaches, and the Referees. We stayed at a very Japanese hotel with futons. Each time we came or left the hotel

with our hockey bags we had to carry them all the way to the third floor because we were not allowed to use the elevator. Not the easiest thing after a long game.

During the time I was there, there was a good side and bad side for everything. For instance, we went to an outdoor speed skating rink the size of a football field. We had to do 100 laps. The good side of that was probably that it was a good workout. The bad side was that I got bad blisters on my feet at around lap 40.

Probably the most unique thing about this entire experience for me was that it was the first time that I was completely on my own. I did not really know the kids, the coaches, nor the language. It was my first time that I stayed at a Japanese hotel, completely surrounded by a foreign culture.

It was hard to know what was going on around me because I did not speak Japanese. About 1% of the time I knew what was going on and that 1% was when I was playing hockey. While I was there I felt happy and sad at the same time. By the end of the tournament I managed to bond with some of my team mates even though I did not speak Japanese. We all spoke the language of hockey.

Over all I had a great time and I was glad that I was there.

”A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” –Wayne Gretzky