Asia

Everything was going smoothly: the flight left on time, the weather looked great in Tokyo, and I even carried all my luggage for a quick exit from the airport. It wasn't until I reached Terminal 3 of Haneda Airport (HND) that I encountered a problem.

I couldn’t exit the airport.

My time in Taipei was limited, as I was bouncing between different cities of Taiwan, experiencing various different night markets and a seemingly unlimited number of bubble tea places. In fact, I got to visit the original bubble tea shop in Taichung, where even the world-famous wizard, Harry Potter, has decided to start a second career.

 ...you will encounter the players gathering in a circle and throwing signs. Now these aren’t your typical gang signs, but rather ‘Rock’ vs ‘Paper’. Don’t be confused as this is the way teams are chosen. You keep throwing Rock or Paper until it’s split evenly amongst players, forming the teams. 

There are definitely pros and cons to the new format, but I do think that it’s for the better. The biggest pro is that it gives pickup basketball a bit more meaning, as we are playing for a ‘championship’. The con is that you are playing for a ‘championship’ during pickup basketball...

I was concerned that I would have to change my blog name to NorthAmericaBaller(dot)com because all my recent posts had been in North America. However, I finally got the opportunity to travel to the other side of the world. 

I also had some unfinished business that I had to attend to. See, when I first visited Singapore a couple months ago, there was a group I was interested in playing with but never got the opportunity because I came down with a very bad case of food poisoning.

Shooting 3’s isn’t my strong suit so I tried to stay away from playing, but because they had an odd number and needed one more, I was reluctant but obliged to play. Terrible decision on my part because 1. My stock is already low for pickup because I don’t look like a basketball player, and 2. I suck at 3’s. And it went pretty much as expected. My teammate was amazing and hit like 75% of his shots, taking a commanding lead, only to get to me where I shot maybe 5%. Long story short, we lost...

You must be persistent. Lots of people want to play in this group. I was on the wait-list for 3 weeks before I finally got an in on the 4th and final week I was in Singapore. Not only did I accept placement on the waitlist, I messaged the admin every Tuesday asking if there were spots to play. And when denied, I would politely ask again next week. 

Shooting 3’s isn’t my strong suit so I tried to stay away from playing, but because they had an odd number and needed one more, I was reluctant but obliged to play. Terrible decision on my part because 1. My stock is already low for pickup because I don’t look like a basketball player, and 2. I suck at 3’s. And it went pretty much as expected. My teammate was amazing and hit like 75% of his shots, taking a commanding lead, only to get to me where I shot maybe 5%. Long story short, we lost...

Have you ever played outdoor basketball in pants before? Even when it’s almost 90 degrees and sunny? Well, it’s pretty customary to wear pants everywhere in China, no matter how hot it is. Now, you would expect people to wear shorts while playing basketball, right? Wrong...

What better way to spend Valentine’s day than to play basketball in Abu Dhabi right? Well 7 years ago, I spent Valentine’s day anxiously watching Watson compete on Jeopardy, which I have to say was pretty awesome. But basketball in Abu Dhabi is pretty cool too...

I only had less than 24 hours in Dubai, so I had to make the most out of it. My airplane landed at 7pm on a Sunday night and I knew that was the only day in which I could play pickup basketball, so I had to be decisive on where I wanted to go...

Today’s post is going to be a little bit different than others in that this post is from one of my readers. It’s always great seeing other people stumble upon my blog and get inspired to play basketball around the world and share their experience...

In route to the basketball courts through the park we passed by many exotic wildlife including giant lizards! These lizards which are officially called Asian Water Monitors roam the park by land and by water. I assumed that they are harmless as any local person would just go on about their day, but to us tourists, it was a perfect picture taking opportunity with these lizards. We saw many with the largest probably 5 ft long (my editors point out that I am probably exaggerating)...