Top Ten Moments from Hockey in Asia

So, when you are in a totally foreign country and you have 12 hours of time to kill before you head to the rink for your game (that's 12 hours...because you wake up at 4 am, because it is 1pm of the previous day in the US - sigh!), you search the internet for anything to kill time.

I decided to do a search on hockey in Asia and I came across a series of blogs from last season that nearly made me wet my pants laughing (if you have lots of time to kill, like me, I would suggest you read them all - THEY ARE HILARIOUS!)

The Hockey News Blog by Jamie Mclellan

After reading that, I decided to do my very own Top 10, although I am going to short-shift it and give you the Top 5 now and the rest later...

10. Sometimes Integrity is Thrown out the Window for Politics -- Without going into much detail here at all, let's just say that there are calls for the home team that are questionable. Now I know why they like American referees to ref their games.

9. Any Progress the US has Made in Banning Smoking is NOT the Case Here -- Ever refereed with a partner who has a smoke in between periods? Now, granted, they are polite and they go do it in the bathroom, but, geez, this is 2009 and not 1959...having a heater between shifts? Come on. I also love the fact (not) that smoking is so prevelant in public places. I would never imagine going out to an establishment after a game in the US, and have 5 of the 10 people at the table chain-smoking! Wow.

8. The More You Yell, The More You Can Change Their (not mine) Mind -- See number 6 in Mclellan's blog up ahead. The players here want me to call all big checks penalties. They find out right away that I ain't changing my mind (I also don't think they are used to referees telling them to stop their whining).

7. How Many People Are Needed to Run a Penalty Box? -- Seriously, you need a time keeper, a score keeper, the public address announcer (I will give you two here, because they announce everything in the native language and in English), and one person to run the door for each box. I swear the penalty keeper areas have 15 people running the thing. The place is Huge! I shudder to think that back home, some people carry on two duties at once, where I think here you have the "government" mindset of one man working while 3 men watch.

6. The Food Here -- SERIOUSLY NOW -- is Soooo Good! -- This is no joke. You like Oriental Food -- Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. -- you would love the food here. I am telling you, if you have ever had Korean BBQ, you know what good food is all about. Don't get me wrong, there are some things I have seen that make my skin crawl -- having a 10 gal fish tank with live eels in it to choose for your entre' = yikes! I was also warned that in China the only thing they don't eat that has legs is the table. Dogs, cats, rats...they are all fair game. KFC seems to be popular over here, but in China I guess it is 'Kentucky Fried Rat' (needless to say, I have NOT eaten at any KFC's here). However, the food here has been totally awesome.

Side note: I am a big fan of craft beers, and I just don't like the taste of light beer. Well, that's all they have over. Kind of the same way in Europe, where you say you want a beer, they don't ask, "what kind?" They bring you a beer. So, anyway, I asked a couple of nights ago if they have dark beer. My Korean buddy and linesman, Mr. Byun, tells me, "Turn light off...dark beer!" I got a good laugh out of that one...a Korean telling jokes in English!