Andrew McKirdy is a sports writer for The Japan Times. His main beat is soccer, but he has also covered rugby, tennis, volleyball, golf and even tug-of-war. A native of the Scottish Borders, he has written for The Scotsman newspaper and organized filming for a program on Japanese soccer for ITV television.
For Andrew McKirdy's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
George Gregan has experienced the full gamut of Rugby World Cup emotions, but the Australian legend knows what he is looking forward to most when Japan hosts the tournament later this year. "Just being in Japan," the 45-year-old, who was part of the Australia teams ...
The event is the biggest dog show in Japan, with 2,201 canines representing 134 different breeds at this year's edition, which marks the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Japan Kennel Club.
One thing you notice pretty quickly when you spend some time attending events at Tokyo Big Sight is that there is a lot of esoteric language on display. "Higher yield with improved juicing screw," reads one sign visible among the labyrinth of booths filling the ...
Ask any group of children in Japan what they want to be when they grow up and one answer in particular is sure to feature. "The first time I thought about becoming a train driver was when I was a fourth-grade elementary school student," said ...
Growing up in Canada, Alex Lipson never imagined he would one day become a taxi driver — especially not on the other side of the world in Tokyo. "I didn't have some childhood dream to be a taxi driver," said the 34-year-old, who joined cab ...
Seventy-year-old Yoshitomo Hara now lives in a housing facility, but he is well-versed in strategies to deal with sleeping rough in Tokyo during winter. "If you have ¥100 or ¥200, McDonald's stays open until about 3 a.m.," Hara says in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district in late ...
Jay Noyes, clad head to toe in the steel armor of a medieval knight, is steadily advancing toward me with a longsword, which he intends to hit me with. I raise my buckler — a small metal shield about the size of a hubcap — ...
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic venues are on course to be completed in time for test events to be held there later this year, games organizers said Tuesday. Sailing and water polo federations have already staged dress rehearsals in Tokyo, and the 2020 Olympic ...
As I stand in the cramped wooden gangway at the side of the stage, going over my lines in a frantic whisper, I am reminded of something that American comedian Patrick Harlan had told me when we first met four months ago. "The importance of ...
"Is it OK if I smoke during the interview?" I ask Bungaku Watanabe, reaching into my coat pocket. A look of incandescent outrage flashes across the 81-year-old's face, before I quickly reassure him that I was joking. "No. No. No," he says firmly, breaking into a ...
