I’ve had a thing about Japan for years. Maybe it developed as a kind of love – hate relationship since I was a kid. Dad served in NZ’s J-Force and went to Japan after the War, but there was never any sense of warmth in our home when it came to the Japanese.
I recall our family on a winter’s evening sitting around the open fire, and when the soot in the back of the fireplace sparkled as it caught fire, we were always told it was the Japs and Germans fighting.
Decades later a longed-for encounter with modern Japan, with its Mt Fuji, Cherry Blossoms and the Shinkansen (Bullet train), somehow found a place on my bucket list. And Teddy’s fascination with Japan also stretches back many years.
Every year he visits Japan Day on the Auckland waterfront, so the decision to visit Tokyo for a game of Super rugby between The Auckland Blues and the Japanese Sunwolves in the 2018 season was a no-brainer.