The latest on Japan from Shux Wun

I recently reached out to everyone I build with via email with a life update detailing some of the beautiful events that have aligned for me of later.  In return, I asked them to fill me in on what's been going on with them.  A good friend of mine Shux Wun who has been in Japan since I left almost 2 years ago filled me in on what the transition as been like for him and those surrounding since the recent earthquake.

DJ Sarasa, Shux Wun, A Homey, Mr Free

Well, following the biggest natural disaster in world history a few months ago here, things got pretty difficult. I lost a lot of students (not perished, just stopped taking lessons) and lost video clients. People were not focused on the extras, just their immediate needs and watching their pockets closely. Aside from losing over 20,000 people to the tsunami there are tons of people who survived but now have no home. Then to add to that, so many people who were unaffected by the quake and tsunami but forced to evacuate their cities due to the radiation in their areas... so needless to say, it's a bad situation for a lot of people here still.

Tokyo was virtually unaffected, however, the initial fear of radiation affected everyone here. I left Tokyo for awhile and stayed in Osaka, as did thousands of others who were unsure about the actual reach of the radiation. The government here did a very good job of keeping their people in the dark about everything, so a lot of people decided to either leave the country or go farther south until further notice...
I left because within the first two days after the quake I found out that all the foreign embassy offices here had moved their locations to Osaka... so what's good for them is good for me I figured. Also, all the convenience stores and supermarkets in my area got completely wiped clean of dried foods, because we were facing electrical blackouts and our refrigerated foods became a problem. People panicked, hording and whatnot, although in a much more peaceful manner than what would have happened stateside... nobody was robbing and stealing to get theirs here, from what I know of. However, the greed was blatant although more polite.  I bounced south and Osaka was perfectly fine, no problem finding food and nobody seemed concerned about radiation.

After a bit of research it was realized that the radiation levels were very minimal in Tokyo (but that doesn't include the thousands of gallons of contaminated water dumped into the ocean and potentially affecting our seafood). I returned to Tokyo and things back in the neighborhood were better at the supermarkets and whatnot, but still a very tense feeling in the air about what we all are really facing concerning the radiation. Upon more research I realized that even if there were radiation affecting us, it wouldn't be a health risk for another 15 or so years as something like cancer may develop, but that would be the extreme case in being exposed to a high level on a daily basis. As of now, even American and other foreign experts are reporting a "no health risk" situation for this region. So, I feel a bit better but not completely at ease... but enough to keep me here I guess. :)


If you're interested in seeing more...Shux put together a few videos as well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5kX6Ifu0sc  (March 14th 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-aH4zfXLYY (April 3rd 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EvR7qU9MYo (April 23rd 2011)


Keep Japan in your prayers!

All Day Erryday!

Probably the biggest outdoor basketball tournament in Japan is the All-Day tourney, sponsored by Nike. The 1st one I played in back in March sometime. The scenario was less than optimal, as I was slated to play with a team that last it's 1st game, hence preventing me from joining them on day 2 (when I had the day off.) As it turned out, a youngin asked me to run with him and his boys the night before and I accepted. We faced an early exit, as we ran into the eventual champions "Underdog" in our 1st game.

As the days turned to weeks turned to months, I amassed a good number of basketball friends by way of 'gettin it in' at every open run I could get to. As the 2nd All-Day approached, I received a few different invitations to run. After some intense deliberation, I decided my 1st choice was to join "Underdog" the very team I'd lost to that went on to claim the title in the last tournament. I'd much rather beat em than join em, however, in this case, Underdog's roster consisted of all the fellas I'd gotten to know well by way of the Rising Suns experience.

The guys were gracious enough to offer me a spot, so we laced em up, and got it on! Our opening game was versus a squad called 1st step. Apparently they had 3 or 4 guys on their roster that play/ed pro ball out here. If that's the case, we all should've been offered contracts when it was said and done, cause they never really contested us. I think we bounced em by double digits.

Game two~ The Semis of the tournament (we had a 1st day bye on account of being the previous champs) matched us up with a team called 420. Which is absolutely hilarious because ganja is HIGHLY illegal out here. As in you can get 5 years for a spliff.

Anyhow, we went ahead by about 9 or so on em with about 5 minutes left in the game. But they mounted a comeback and got it down to a one point game with about 40 seconds left. We were at the line shooting 1 and 1. I snatched up the miss and threw it out to our point guard, who proceeded to throw a cross court pass that sailed a good 5 feet over our player's head. TURNOVER.

There was about 20 seconds left when they came down court, penetrated, shot a jumper. And that's when my biggest moment of the tournament came as I outjumped 4 others to come down with the rebound. They fouled, we converted, game over!

Honestly, I didn't really contribute much to our teams' success throughout the tournament, but like my daddy used to tell me, "Just be there when I need you!"

We ended up manhandling a team called Proline in the finals. Winning by about 15 or so. My man, ST was the MVP. And Each of us got a free pair of kicks for bringing home the title!

I've been in this country 9 months, and I've already got 2 new pairs of shoes from hooping. Why can't life always be like this!!

Pictures can be found at http://alldaymag.com/photo_gallery/19th-allday-photos-day2-part2.html