Hadleigh Parkes column: Japanese culture and World Cup excitement

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In his newest BBC Sport column, center Hadleigh Parkes appears forward to Wales’ World Cup opener against Georgia on Monday and reveals how his team-mates and his have been appreciating the civilization in Japan.
Everybody’s so eager to our World Cup effort to start. Now that we’re here in Japan, we only wish to get stuck inside.
We have been building towards it for a very long time, not only pre-season but the last two years, building a great deal of strength in depth and training hard.
We saw that the opening match on Friday and we can’t wait to begin with our first game against Georgia on Monday.
We’re a few of the teams to start at the championship, so it will be wonderful to kick off, and then it is about creating momentum so we’re here for as long as you can.
That’s the reason why we’re here, to have a World Cup, but it’s been good to have in the culture of Japan.
I was excited about trying some foods before arriving here, and it’s been amazing to eventually sample it for real.
There is a stat doing the rounds that Jonathan Davies Foxy, and I’m the center partnership who have played the matches collectively in international rugby since I made my Test debut.
We’ve got a great connection and, luckily, it’s a great one off it as well.
Foxy’s at finding places to eat excellent and, like me, he’s always keen to find out about different countries’ traditions and cultures.
On one of the days away during our training camp at Kitakyushu, some of us Foxy, Dan Biggar, Wyn Jones, Tomas Francis and me caught a bullet train and moved for your afternoon to Hiroshima.
I enjoy looking into history and the culture of places, and that was.
We got there and had a look at some of the remnants of the atom bomb that went off there, and then we went to the museum.
It was intriguing but very extreme. It was very humbling.
Having a look round and considering what those people went , it was a really strong experience.
We decided to peek at the city of Hiroshima, and it is a really nice location.
While we were there, Foxy found a classic Japanese restaurant which served a savoury pancake that can be layered having an omelette or even pancake, okonomiyaki, meat, noodles, veg – everything!
It was very tasty and it was fantastic to consume the Japanese way, assembled around just a little bar, sat in the front of the food as it had been cooked, and the restaurant was really bustling, filled with folks coming in for a dinner after work.
It was when we had been in Kitakyushu because of messages and of the flags around, just like we were back in Wales.
The Welsh Rugby Union did a work over the last few years establishing that connection between Wales and Kitakyushu, and we could actually see the benefits of it.
Everywhere we went, people were stopping us at the road and shouting”rugby players! Wales!” To people.
The folks here are really nice. They respectful bowing – it throws you.
It was amazing as they embraced Wales and Welsh rugby to take that city.
The open training session has been amazing – I do not think I’ve ever been involved in anything like it previously.
That bunch of 15,000 people was larger than lots of the audiences we get in the Pro14, and that is not taking away anything from your Pro14, it was an wonderful reception.
So a lot of the boys are getting homesick everyone’s away from house, but I am utilized to living away from home.
I moved out from my parents in a young age and went to boarding school, therefore I accustomed to it compared to others.
It is a very long time for folks.
People do really say”you enjoy traveling, do not you, so you know where to go for food that is nice”, and I do, and luckily I’ve got Foxy too who is very good at that.
He has taken the lead on that so much, so it’s been nice to take a back seat occasionally.
Hadleigh Parkes spoke to BBC Sport Wales’ Dafydd Pritchard.
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