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:
Phan Hoang Tu Linh feels she has gotten the hang of working in a Japanese convenience store now, but she admits she found it tough at first. "We have three cash registers in our store but only two lines to wait in," says the 23-year-old ...
The tranquility of a warm autumn morning in Chiba Prefecture is broken by three shapes streaking through the sky above a rugby field. They move so fast it is difficult for the eye to follow, flitting this way and that like angry dragonflies and filling ...
Sagawa delivery driver Keisuke Kawabe has seen the video that went viral on the internet two years ago of one of his colleagues smashing up parcels out of frustration that the customer wasn't home, and he doesn't approve. "Of course I can understand it to ...
Sixty-three-year-old Kiyoshi Ikehara mops his bald head with a towel, wipes his hands and grips the vertical pole. With a sharp intake of breath he hauls himself up, grunting and straining as he climbs to the top. Once there he stops, clamps his thighs shut ...
A flock of great crested grebes floats on the sea, gently bobbing up and down under the warm November sun. Every so often a bird dives below the surface, searching for a tasty morsel from among the 260 species of fish, crabs and shellfish that ...
The venue for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic gymnastics competition moved a step closer toward completion Wednesday when construction workers raised the center section of its giant timber roof. Ariake Gymnastics Centre, in the city's Koto Ward, has been designed to incorporate aspects of traditional Japanese ...
Gaining a first-hand insight into what is needed to create universal access in Tokyo in time for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.
Japan scored five tries against the world champion All Blacks but still suffered a 69-31 defeat on Saturday. Japan went into the match at Tokyo's Ajinomoto Stadium — the venue for the opening game of the 2019 Rugby World Cup — having never beaten New ...
Who's that hunk of blond beefcake crunching his abs on NHK's workout program "Minna de Kinniku Taiso"? When the five-minute nightly exercise show launched for a four-episode run this August and attracted a huge cult following, social media users wanted to know the answer. Tatsumasa Murasame ...
New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen on Thursday told his new-look All Blacks to "trust your instincts" after naming his team for Saturday's test against Japan. "The reason you've been selected as an All Black in the first place is because you're a good rugby ...
