Japan

Since the mid-90s, Japan GAA has promoted international friendship and understanding in Japan, primarily through participation in Gaelic sport and Irish culture. Our club has no borders. All are welcome - both the young and the young at heart, with members from all over the world. At present, our club members come from Ireland, Japan, UK, Australia, US, Canada, and Turkey, to name a few. We also are based all over Japan, from Hokkaido (north) to Okinawa (south) and from Osaka (west) to Tokyo (east). Membership in Japan GAA is for life - we continue keep in touch with those who have moved on from Japan through our mailing list.

Some of our accomplishments for the year include our Irish Sports Day on St. Patrick's Day, when we hold exhibition matches and invite everyone to come down to play some football. Afterwards, Japan GAA came together in a magnificent feat of teamwork with the aim to drink our sponsoring pub Paddy Foley's dry, only to drag ourselves out of bed the next morning to walk in the Tokyo St. Patrick's Day parade (the biggest one of its kind in Asia!)

Japan GAA is a football club, but we also hold many social events throughout the year. This year, we have had two ski/snowboarding trips, a karaoke night, a race night as well as a day out at the real horse races, and other fun activities to which we always invite anyone who is up for it and always have a great time.

This season, we are grateful to have Seamus as the men's coach and Derek as the ladies' coach. We are especially indebted to Seamus for his motivating e-mails and carefully planned out training schedule, including many, many, many sprint sessions. We are also grateful to our committee and our chairperson, Louise, who handles all the details for the club. Big thanks to Ruairi, our former chairman, who liases with the ACB for the club. Thanksto the Toucan, our long-suffering mascot - sorry we forgot you last year!

Finally, we would like to thank the following sponsors for their support: Paddy Foley's * Paragon Trading * Eire Systems * IFG Asia

Japan GAA - Savage for Bacon and Cabbage http://www.japangaa.com