Yes, hockey in Japan really exists. Japan also has other ice sports, the most famous being Figure Skating. Japan has a strong women's Curling team. And Japan also has a semi-professional men's hockey league here too!
But I'll be telling you about my little hockey group. We are the Nagoya Street Hockey group based in Nagoya. Myself and a few other crazy Canadians started the hockey group as part of the Tokai Japan Canada Society, for which I am a founding member. We have been playing since 2005!
We have a group of people from diverse backgrounds and nationalities come through our ranks; Canadian, American, Japanese, European and Australian.
We play every Sunday, rain or shine. The spot we play at is under an highway overpass, so we rarely get rained on!
For those not familiar with the rules of hockey, we offer short intros. The game, fundamentally, is simple; go forward, and shoot at the net.
Yes, that's me!
We are a tight group of friends who enjoy each other's company and there even has been inner-group romances. Normally we'll take a group photo after a game. We also like to joke around so one of our group, Jeff, made this drawing on a day we missed taking a photo.
I didn't know I was the tallest one in the group...haha.
If you are ever in our neck-of-the-woods and want to have a fun Sunday morning, let me know. Come play with us!