Perry Baker, USA Rugby Sevens National Team

Where do I begin?

You all know how much I love winter (though we still have a month before it officially begins). You know how much I love Christmas. And you know how much I love sports. This time of the year combines all of these loves.

Tomorrow is a holiday, but not only here in Japan. It's also America's Thanksgiving Day. Good timing! I've mentioned before how Thanksgiving is the start of the 'holiday season' for us. After Thanksgiving, everybody is in the Christmas spirit. Time to do some Christmas shopping!

But we still have a whole month until Christmas Day. So what to do until then? Well, there's a sumo basho going on right now. The American football season is entering its home stretch, and basketball and ice hockey have started their seasons. (Too bad about Matsumoto Yamaga, otherwise I'd talk about soccer too....)

But one of the most interesting and exciting sports seasons kicks off next weekend. Even better, it's free to watch online! So what is it? It's the World Rugby Sevens Series!

Rugby got a bit of a boost recently in Japan: they upset South Africa at the last World Cup, they will host an upcoming World Cup, Goromaru and his signature pose, and the addition of a Japanese team (the Sunwolves) to Super Rugby.

While I like the bigger, longer versions of rugby just fine, Rugby Sevens is its own beast. I've talked about it before, but to sum up: 14 minute matches, 16 countries playing a full tournament in the span of two to three days, often with 3 matches per country per day.

Want more information? Go here: World Rugby Sevens Series wikipedia page

The Dubai tournament starts on November 30 for the women and December 1 for the men. Japan's Women's team will be playing. Check it out here: HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series page, Japanese
--Josh