• Strine Sports - Unknown Nichigo

    Willow Worlds

    Cricket is one of the few things I really miss about life in Australia, and stumbling across the Japan Cricket Association website recently led me down a rabbit hole centered around willow, an integral yet often unremembered part of life in my two countries. Come down the willow wormhole with me! Cricket is booming in Japan. Looking at the website, I was surprised to see how much the game of cricket has developed since I was last in touch with it in around 2007 or so. There are associations in every region of the country, 100 senior teams and about…

  • Strine Songs

    Bringing a Western Beat to Japan

    For some reason, Japanese artists covering Western songs has also held something of a fascination for me. I’m not really attuned to hit charts, nor really have been. And music isn’t one of my great loves, though I have an appreciation for pretty much any type of tune. Perhaps my liking for the out-of-the-ordinary stems from the Aussie DNA, which seems to have a likeness for the novelty song, with national and international No. 1 hits during my lifetime Down Under including the likes of I’ve Been Everywhere, A Pub with No Beer, A Redback on the Toilet Seat, Tie…