Tour diary #4: Turning points, bullet trains and dancing monkeys

Wales slumped to a 18th consecutive Test defeat on the weekend - making it very difficult to be positive out here

I had planned to give you a bit of a behind the scenes look at what a journalist’s experience is like on a matchday in this tour diary entry.

I might still, at some point later in the week. Maybe even in Kobe instead.

But instead, after Wales collapsed in the extreme heat - not literally, although some probably weren’t far off - I found myself in a rather familiar position. Picking over the bones of another defeat.

It’s been grim, watching Wales lose Test match after Test match, finding the adequate words to describe each new low.

Walking from Mikuni World Stadium, the only positive I could find was the air con in the 7/11 was joyous, while the fact they all seem to play a classical instrumental of Olivia Newton-John’s (and ELO’s) Xanadu was a bonus.

The endless inquests, poring over the cracks to explain it all - it’s tiring. At least, this time, the location was different.

Going back over the game on the bullet train from Kitakyushu to Kobe, making notes on this one was grim.

Thankfully, knowing the notes might make their way to this tour diary, they were much shorter without the swear words.

Forgive the awful hand-writing too - it’s not easy writing on a train that can travel up to 186mph!

But not only was a stop-start affair that lasted over two hours, but Wales stopped playing in the second-half - over-reliant on a kicking game that had served them well to that point.