First Games

This weekend we had our first games. Much of the league started last week, but we had a bye. So, we played our season opener this weekend. We played a team called Takamatsu, which was 1-1 coming into the weekend.
Our team had a slow start last year and went 0-8, so we wanted to start out on the right foot and get the season going in the right direction this year.
Saturday we did just that and ended up winning 89-63. Then on Sunday we kept the weekend going by adding another win; 79-62.
 
It was a great first weekend for us, and hopefully there will be many more weekends like this during the season where we can get both games (as we play on both Saturday and Sunday every weekend this year).
This weekend after both of our games we collected donations to help out the people that were affected by the typhoon that came through a little while ago. Normally after that games we go around and clap/shake hands with all the fans. But after our two games this weekend we were given donation boxes and took donations from people who wanted to give money (we also clapped/shook there hands). I am not sure how much money we raised overall but it was great that the team did this to once again try and help out the people who were affected (we also went and helped one farmer clean up a landslide that blocked a road on his property (link here).

Report from game 1: Here (tranlsated using Google translate)
Report from game 2: Here (translated using Google translate)

Nagano this past weekend

This weekend we played in Nagano. As you probably know, Nagano was host to the 1998 winter Olympic games, and we were lucky enough to play in one of the arenas. The place we played was called White Ring. In 1998 it was host to the figure skating and short track speed skating competitions. This weekend it was used for our double header basketball games. Nagano's basketball team doesn't normally play at this venue, they have another home arena, but this was a big weekend for the club as their management really promoted the game and tried to pack the 7,000 capacity arena. We did have a lot of people at the games and I have to say it is pretty cool to say that we played in an Olympic arena. In the end though, we came out on top both games and really played well. Our team is currently 14-12 and on a 6 game win streak. 
Nagano was a pretty city lined with mountains. And although the mountains weren't that big/tall, its
 









easy to see why the city of 390,000 was picked to host the games over 20 years ago.  Nagano is known for its mountains and because of it, skiing.  Every taxi that we rode in this weekend (to and from practices and games) had brochures of a ski hill. 
 If you happen to be in Tokyo ever it might be worth the visit, especially as its not that far away, as it is only 1.5 hours by bullet train or 3 hours by bus. And although we didn't make it there this weekend one of the main tourist attractions is the Zenkō-ji Temple. Built in the 7th century it is visited by many people each year and is considered a national treasure. If it wasn't for this temple Nagano city might not be in existence, as it started as a town built around the temple back in 1897.