Sport & Design Blog: live from Tokyo, Japan!
Who's #1 in Tokyo? Streetball Tournament
All Day Streetball Tournament (Tokyo)
07.31 ~ 08.1.2010
Summer basketball in Tokyo, Japan! 56 teams getting ready to fight for the 23rd All Day championship this weekend. We’ve got a few of our Rising Suns in the tournament, guys like RS2010 team captain Shuji Takei (a.k.a. ST) with team Underdog, and Keita Suzuki (K-TA) with F Squad. We’ll be cheering for a bunch of guys from our Rising Suns player pool as well, all going for the championship with their local club teams. And hey, there’s also a “Cat Fight” girls streetball tournament going on. The girls’ teams have really started to hold it down lately, so we’re looking forward to watching those games for sure! Good luck to all the teams, and get that W.
For more info about team registration, videos, etc., go to the All Day site
Keep rising, Japan!
New Quai 54 2010 Trailer: Jordan Outdoor Video
Check out the new Quai 54 2010 video on Jordan Outdoor, with our guy Darin Maki a.k.a. Tru Ninja-- representing the Rising Suns 2010 squad!
A lot of the footage in the clip is shot by videographer/basketball film documentarist Kevin Couliau, who we got to know during our practice game with George Eddy in Paris. Thanks for all your hard work, and helping us get Japan on the basketball map!
RS2010: Game Day @ Quai 54!
Legendary dunker Kadour Ziani (SLAM NATION/ZIANIMAL) backstage with Quai 54 staff
Finally, some footage from our Game Day at Palais de Tokyo, under the shadows of the Eiffel Tower. In this new video clip, check out some exclusive interviews with dunk/performance legend Kadour Ziani, French hoops star Ali Traorè, Chris Paul going one-on-one with a Quai 54 referee, 3-point shootout with Rising Suns’ Tru Ninja, and much more...
Big thanks to Hammadoun Sidibè and all his crew at Quai 54 for giving our Rising Suns this opportunity to get to know so many great superstars in the game of basketball. Hopefully with a taste of this top-level international basketball tournament (and soaking up the atmosphere from all of our ‘behind the scenes’ experiences as well), it will be the inspiration Japan needs to start rising up. The first step is obviously to get our first win at Quai 54. That day will come, no doubt. Still rising!
RS2010
ジェイソン
RS2010: More video from PAris!
RS2010 Team Captain Shuji Takei aka ST, holding up his new Quai 54 jersey after orientation 6.25.2010
Here’s more behind-the-scenes video highlights of our recent trip to Paris, including some clips from our Team Dinner Party in St. Germain, practice with French hoops legend George Eddy, and the orientation session at Palais de Tokyo, where we received our shoes and jerseys-- the night before the tournament. Check out the video on our RS blog!
RS2010@QUAI 54: Full Recap
The Rising Suns 2010 journey started about a year ago, all culminating with a one-week visit to the Quai 54 International Streetball Championships (June 21-29) in Paris, France. For our Rising Suns du Japon, the experience was awesome, challenging, difficult, heart-breaking, amazing, inspiring, and then some. Here’s a full recap of how it went down, with Rising Suns team organizer Jason Hutson’s inside views of the entire trip-- from start to finish:
Day 1: Travel to Paris
Still running around trying to get our funds in order, came up short on the fundraising and sponsorship-- not quite as bad as last year though... Anyways, looks like I will have to extend my credit limit and make sure we have enough money to survive the week. Running to the train station with 50lb bags and five minutes before my express train to Narita. Why am I always doing this?? I like the feeling of pressure situations, I guess. At the airport the team is all there waiting for me, and we fly out of gate 81. Hey, 81, that's us! Japan's country code and our organization-- Hope 81. Destiny for the Rising Suns du Japon! We have a stopover in Hong Kong, the team goes crazy when they see a Muji store... Last chance to buy Japanese snacks before we arrive in Paris.
Day 2: Welcome to Courbevoie
Yace meets us at the airport, and Antoine is with him already when he finds us. Big relief to see our 6'11" center there in Paris, ready to play. No missed flights, no lost baggage, everybody ready. Here we go! Ride in the Quai 54 van to our hotel in the north side of Paris called Courbevoie. It's right down the Seine river from the old Quai 54 court @ Levallois. Beautiful morning, we walk around the neighborhood, find a bakery and everybody buys some pan au chocolat. Antoine's excited about eating crepes while he's here.
Later, we walk along the river to Levallois court and try to get loose. Some of our guys play pickup. The pro guys don't want to play outdoors so they watch from the sidelines. One of our players leaves without letting me know first, which is frustrating since we don't get a chance to walk through our plays. We wrap things up and walk over to Yace's neighborhood in Genevilliers for kebab sandwiches and pizza for dinner on the patio. Play ball till 9:30pm, sunset dinner at 10:30pm, this is summer in Paris!
Day 3: Challenge Day
We have our first breakfast meeting, most of the players show up, talk about our week ahead, and try to see how the players are feeling. Jump on a bus and head to Stade Coubertin, a pro gym in Paris where we are supposed to have our first real practice run together. This is really key for us to start building our chemistry, especially since we couldn't go over our plays yesterday at Levallois...continue reading >>> permalink
Meet the RS2010 日本代表 team: DAY 12
Here’s a look at our RS2010 team, and some music from our friend Barbak in Paris. Represent the 92 Ezee. All the players will be suited up and ready for our official RS2010 Party (+ Fundraiser) tomorrow night in Harajuku, featuring some fresh hiphop deejays, a world champion freestyle performer, and more. Hope to see everyone there!
Rising...
ジェイソン
RS2010
One Assist @ Earth Day 2010
Get ready for Earth Day 2010!
Sunday, April 18
Hope 81 is now preparing for our 3rd annual “EARTH DAY: Sportswear Donation” event, to be held at next month’s big festival in Yoyogi Park. To help support developing countries in need and create a more sustainable Earth, this is your chance to donate your re-usable sports equipment (balls, nets, uniforms, jerseys, shirts, shoes, etc.) to our friends in PNG. During the Earth Day 2010 celebration, we’ll set up a collection area near the Nike Basketball Courts in Yoyogi Park. Hope to see you all there on Sunday, April 18.
*For a map to the courts, see below. And look out for a new One Assist flyer coming soon!!
View Yoyogi Park @ Nike Court in a larger map
Sportswear Donation Campaign: One Assist!
Shuji Takei aka “ST”, Rising Suns 2010 team captain
Kevin, a local streetballer from the team “Sunday Crew”
Yang, original supporter of our Youth Sports Ambassadors @ Beijing 2008
Change the world with one assist!
As part of Hope 81’s continued efforts to support developing countries with sportswear donations and fitness education, we were back at it again today... collecting more re-usable items from our local ballers at Yoyogi Park. The campaign started back in April of 2008 when we made our first collection during the annual Earth Day festival in Yoyogi. After that, we kept working throughout the year, rallying our local baller network for positive change. And by Earth Day 2009, we had collected over 200 items for our new friends in Papua New Guinea. Read all about the PNG project here.
Now we’re preparing for our 3rd annual Earth Day event @ Yoyogi next month, and we’d like to welcome our Tokyo community to get involved. Anyone interested in receiving more information about the event, or helping out as a volunteer/sponsor, please email us today!
Remember...YOU can make a difference for global poverty relief and environmental sustainability. It just takes one small effort. Just one assist!
Rising Suns Tryout#2: Report
Now that we’ve reached the mid-way point of our 2010 Rising Suns campaign, this is a good opportunity to stop and reflect a bit on how our team is shaping up...
If you want to skip ahead to the Japanese/日本語 report (with more pictures) go to our Rising Suns team blog.
First of all, just to comment on a few things about building a Japanese national team representation:
Our returning team captain Shuji Takei (ST) has continued to provide Hope 81 with awesome leadership and his professionalism, dedication and commitment have been great to build around. ST represents our team values 100%, on and off the court. Running team workouts, keeping up communication between the players and our Rising Suns management (in English and Japanese), and working tirelessly to build a stronger team for 2010. It seems he truly understands the significance of this opportunity to represent Japan on the world stage in Paris -- having played last year and experiencing the magnitude of QUAI 54 first-hand. Perhaps others haven’t realized it yet, but this could be the biggest chance many of our local Japanese players will see in their lifetime. Its time to step up and represent, Japan! This is your chance.
As for tryouts, our 2nd round was held here in Tokyo last month, and the turnout we had was very encouraging. Here are a few things to grow from:
1) We doubled the number of participants from our 1st round of tryouts back in November, so we’re definitely happy that more people are beginning to understand what the Rising Suns player development program is all about.
2) It was great to have some of Tokyo’s toughest players come out and earn their chance to represent Japan @ QUAI 54 in Paris. Guys that we’ve been watching in local street leagues like Legends or Somecity, and players from local club teams. We know they can play, but now they’ve got to show us the heart and hustle, and battle for a spot on the team. This is what its all about...skills development. Nobody said it would be easy!
3) With our RS2010 ‘Player Pool’ system, players selected from the tryouts will be given a chance to participate in weekly workouts, special training sessions, exhibition games, etc. and prove that they deserve a spot on our RS2010 日本代表 squad. *Those players have already been notified, so now its time to run.
The countdown has begun...we’ve got a little less than four months to go until the QUAI 54 2010 International Streetball Championships. The excitement is growing and we’re getting pumped for our second visit to Paris! Its time to shift into overdrive, and push beyond expectations. This is our chance. Our challenge. Our championship.
