UNC's lacrosse team experiences life in the Far East

	The Walk-On Nicki covers sports for the Daily Tar Heel and spies on former UNC athletes when they return to campus.
	It didn't take senior Drew Habeck long to discover his favorite part of Japan. Photo by Dave Lohse

By Nicki Jhabvala

College courses can only teach you so much. College courses that are crammed into the schedule of a Division I athlete seem to be worth even less. Luckily for the members of the North Carolina's men's lacrosse team, their sport is taking them where no class ever could.

The Tar Heels recently returned from an eight-day trip to Tokyo, where they experienced Japanese culture at its finest -- from tea time and calligraphy to the top of Mount Fuji. Oh, and they played a little lacrosse, too.

"The atmosphere was unbelievable," said Andrew McElduff, a senior midfielder from Yorktown, NY. "The trip to Mount Fuji was pretty sick, and the game against the Japanese National team was definitely the lacrosse highlight of the trip."

After a 13-hour flight, the Heels hit the field less than a day later and defeated the Tokyo Under-20 Youth Team and the Japanese U-21 National Team. But come Sunday, they ran out of gas and fell to the National team, 10-9.

So what could possibly be the highlight of a loss? Imagine playing in front of 8,000 fans -- a crowd roughly eight times the size of some college games in the States, and 100 times louder -- in the middle of a torrential downpour. Every time the ball found the net, screams filled the air, regardless of which team scored.

But lacrosse was only half of the trip, if that much. Although a handful of the team is from New York or other large cities, the majority of the players' time has been recently spent in Chapel Hill. Simply put, Tokyo made the Heels' jaws drop.

"It's a little bit crazier over there," McElduff said. "It's much more of a city, a lot more clubs. Chapel Hill has that younger, college atmosphere, whereas this was much more of a city. I would definitely say the Japanese know how to party, that's for sure."

While the Tar Heels hit up the clubs at night, they scouted out the sports bars during the day. The Japanese national soccer team played Croatia and Brazil while the Heels were visiting, and the native fans were, well ...

The Tar Heels lacrosse squad spends time with their Japanese counterparts. Photo by Dave Lohse

"Crazy. Everybody had on a blue Japanese jersey," McElduff said. "Thankfully they weren't playing the U.S., but we were rooting for the Japanese anyway."

Not only did the Tar Heels get a taste of Japan's cultural traditions, they experienced the country's "natural traditions" as well. Early on a Tuesday morning, the team woke up to an earthquake -- a shake that hit 4.8 on the Richter scale.

The team had gone shopping in Ginza, an upscale part of Tokyo that resembles Times Square in New York, the day before. While perusing designer shops such as Prada, they experienced what they believed to be an earthquake. According to a passerby, it was simply the subway beneath them. That night, though, was the real deal.

"To tell you the truth, I slept through it," said sophomore midfielder Bobby McAuley. "A couple of us woke up and felt the bed shake. It wasn't a huge earthquake."

Adds McElduff: "It was certainly eye-opening. It was a lacrosse trip, but it definitely taught us a lot more."

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