One week from today we will be high over the Pacific Ocean on our way to Tokyo Japan. It is crazy to think that we will be playing hockey in Japan in a little over a week. I want take this opportunity to fill you all in on the trip.

First, I want to thank a few people for their contributions to the trip. The main contributor and the brains behind the operation is Tom Haeg ’70. Tom is a hockey alumni and a very loyal supporter of Johnnie Hockey. He is helping set everything up and has put in a lot of his own time helping with this adventure. Tom will also be joining us in Japan for the trip. SJU Hockey alum, Thomas Anderson is our boots on the ground in Japan as he is an accountant with PwC in Japan. Thomas has also generously helped us attain Tokyo Giants baseball tickets at the Tokyo Dome. Finally, I want to thank a number of SJU alums who have supported this experience with financial contributions. Without the support of Bill Sexton, Pat Rolfes, Eric Olson, Bill Laliberte, Stacy Christensen, Bob Christensen and Pat Cronin we would not be able to give the young men of Johnnie Hockey this life changing experience.

The trip will kick off on Monday, May 14th with a reception at Bill and Ginny Laliberte’s house in Manhatan Beach California. Bill has offered to host our entire travel group at his beach house and I believe this is going to be a great event to start this trip. Bill has been very gracious with his hospitality and we look forward to spending some time with him.

The team will then fly out of Los Angeles Airport on Tuesday, May 15th and will arrive in Tokyo on Wednesday, May 16th. We will have a very short turnaround before we are playing the first of our three games in Tokyo.

The three games that we will be playing are listed below. We are playing three all-star college teams while in Tokyo. All three games will be played at Dydo Drunko Arena located in the suburbs of Tokyo. It will be very interesting to see the level of competition and how the guys react to the jet lag and time off since our last game.

Thursday, May 17: vs. Kanto Univ. All-Star C (Nippon Science, Diato Bunka, Kanagawa, Rikkyo), 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 19: vs. Kanto Univ. All-Star B (Keio, Hosei, Tokai, Aoyama Gakuin), 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 20: vs. Kanto Univ. All-Star A (Meiji, Chuo, Toyo, Waseda), 6:15 p.m.

The team will be spending five days in Tokyo and five days in Karuizawa in the Nagano Prefecture. I have also attached the full itinerary if you are interested in seeing what we will be doing each day. There will be many exciting adventures on this trip, but below are some of the main highlights.