Japanese beach volley update

During my years in Stavanger I have discovered how interesting beach volley can be, especially since I managed to see close a few of Japanese beach volley ladies, and even talk with some of them. I have been around taking pics several times those years. After a long time I want to update some of the links to blogs of the people I especially liked, even if nowadays they do not play together anymore! Especially, since she is the mai star, for Miwa Asao, the blog so called asaomiwa.net does not exist anymore, but one should use this link for general info but her new blog is here(in Japanese of course!)! So, until 2009, Japan beach volley teams were:

Miwa Asao, 浅尾美和	Take Nishibori, 西堀健実
Shinako Tanaka, 田中姿子	Eiko “Kae” Koizumi, 小泉栄子
Chiaki Kusuhara, 楠原千秋	Mika Teru Saiki, 佐伯美香

As for the past 2 years, the “new faces” in the known teams, for me, were:

• Ayumi Kusano (Miwa‘s partner in 2010 FIVB season) [blog, Ayuのブログ]
• Hiroko Matsuyama (Miwa‘s partner in 2011 FIVB season)
• Satoko Urata (Take‘s partner since 2010 FIVB season)
• Hiromi Suzuki (Shinako‘s partner in 2010 FIVB season)
• Sayaka Mizoe (Shinako‘s partner in 2011 FIVB season, and a quite cute one!!) [blog]

I wonder why they broke the team Miwa-Take, but then Take’s career has had a fast rise from the new pairing. The new partner of 2010 has also a very beautiful smile 😉 Eiko Koizumi retired in 2009, when she played only one match in Osaka. Chiaki Kusuhara retired in 2009 as well, while Mika Teru Saiki retired at the end of 2008. The official rank and pairs for the season so far are:

Rank	Player	Partner
45	Takemi Nishibori, 西堀健実	Satoko Urata, 浦田聖子
55	Sayaka Mizoe, 溝江明香	Shinako Tanaka, 田中姿子
94	Miwa Asao, 浅尾美和	Hiroko Matsuyama, 松山紘子
94	Ayumi Kusano, 草野歩	Mutsumi Ozaki, 尾崎睦
119	Junko Komada, 駒田順子	Keiko Urata, 浦田景子

[Source: Beach Volley Database] And for closing, another general Japanese page for the beach volley association.. and I admit I do not like the new style of Miwa’s hairs 😉