Hi, visitor!
I’m Mikagehage, which in English means I live a few kms east of downtown Kobe (Mikage), and am follically challenged (hage) – or blessed, depending on your particular point of view. A teacher by trade, I’ve been in Japan quite some time.
It has puzzled and frustrated me that Japanese rugby teams, under the stewardship of the Top League and JRFU, haven’t seen the need, nor benefit, of increasing their footprint (both internationally and domestically) by providing English content for those who cannot read Japanese – even in the wake of a dedicated push to fill rosters with marquee names from non Japanese speaking countries. At the very least, you might suppose that the family and friends of those imports might appreciate being able to read about and support the teams their loved ones play for. (Edit: the situation is improving a little, and one can always right-click in Chrome for a page translation, but this results more often than not in pretty mangled English.
Anyway, this is why, in 2018, I started the ‘@Mikagehage’ Twitter account. There, I dealt mostly with providing Kobelco Steelers information in English, but also detoured into Sunwolves rugby a little, and quite a bit more into the 2019 Japan Rugby World Cup. The outstanding (and, to many, frankly surprising) success of this international event has made Top League and JRFU’s oversight (whether deliberate or otherwise) even more conspicuous, in my opinion. That is why I decided to (try to) create a dedicated website to cater for those who’d like to follow the Kobelco Steelers – in my opinion the greatest and most storied team in the history of Japanese rugby. I have very limited technical ability, so the painstaking creation of every page is a time consuming journey into my shortcomings. I only wish I could do more.
Rugby is so much fun. It’s such a great discipline in which to find new and lifelong friends. It’s inclusive by its very nature, and I hope in some small way this website can contribute toward further inclusivity for the Kobe Steelers family.
MIKAGE-HAGE RUGBY 