2018 IRP female MVP awarded the Yutaka Akino Friendship Travel Award

A memorial travel award was created 20 years ago after Yutaka Akino was murdered in Tajikistan while on a United Nations mission.  Since then young people with some crossover with aspects of Yutaka's life (he was a political scientist, a linguist, a rugby player and an exponent of judo) have travelled between Japan and New Zealand to broaden their perception of the world. Three St. Bede's old boys have travelled to Japan on this award: Richard Freeman, Michael Sissons and Luke Geeves.

Germany female player Hille Janssen did judo before switching to rugby four years ago. She was the  female MVP in the 2018 IRP. 

On her trip to Japan in mid-October, Hille visited Sapporo, Hakodate, Osaka and Kyoto, supporting her IRP friends from Sapporo Yamanote HS in their U17 final in Hakodate.

Hille says: "Last week I got the incredible chance to travel to Japan and visit Sapporo, Hakodate, Osaka and Kyoto. It was great seeing some of my friends from the IRP and, even better. to train with them. I also got the chance to train with a girls' team in Osaka which was one of the highlights of my stay. The hospitality was outstanding. Everyone welcomed me immediately and there wasn't a moment that I felt uncomfortable. I tried lots of new kinds of food which was a great challenge for me as we don't eat lots of raw fish in Germany. I got a unique view of Japan as a rugby -tourist and I am very grateful to the people who made this possible."