During his time at the Recreation Ground, the Pembrokeshire-born Day never wavered from his regular routine which stood him in good stead for his 112-game career with Bath. It’s those recent memories which now plague him.
“Without doubt, the thing I miss most 100% is breakfast,” he says without hesitation. “One hundred per cent,” he repeats to hammer home the fact.
“They don’t do breakfast here – it’s just rice and fish. When I get up I like to have a big breakfast to set me up for the day but you get up and it’s just rice and fish.
“That’s why Bath is so awesome. I would always get up and go to the same café every match day. It would just be avocado and bacon, sausage, toast and a couple of cups of coffee and a pile of water and that was me done but over here that is a no-go. You can’t even get decent bread at a super market.”
Standing at 6ft 5in and tipping the scales at nearly 19st, it is fair to say the blond Day stands out in a crowd in Nagoya, the capital of Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, a manufacturing and shipping hub in central Honshu.
Giving a geography lesson, the 31-year-old explains: “It’s sort of mid-south of Japan – on the coast – an hour and half from Tokyo via the bullet train – that’s good fun. I think it goes 200-300kmph so it covers a lot of ground. When you look at a map and see how far you’ve gone in an hour, it’s pretty cool.”
Day has been in Japan nearly four months now, but has already discovered it is the little day to day things which seem insurmountable.
“One of the toughest things is trying to get a haircut – it’s brutal. My hair is so long, I can’t find anywhere to get my hair cut.
“They may have a bit of broken English and I’ve got even worse Japanese and you’re just trying to tell them you want a trim, but they don’t do trims over here – it’s just brutal – I’ll have to get one of the boys to try and cut my hair,” he says.
“I love Japanese food and sort of knew what it was going to be like, but when you go to a supermarket trying to find ingredients to cook at home, nothing is labelled and it is in a different Japanese dialect which is a totally different alphabet to what we have so you can’t even type in your phone to see what things are.
“Japanese is a tough language to learn – it’s coming on though. It was tough at the beginning but once you get over the initial shock – it’s all good. It’s obviously a bit of a culture shock – it’s not like moving from Wales to England – just going out for groceries – just buying milk – there’s about 20 different types of milk – communicating with players, coaches – the language is the toughest thing by far, just being able to communicate with people is tough.”
Day plays for Verblitz in the Top League, with former Australian No 8 Wycliff Palu the marquee signature in an ambitious side which has high hopes this season. Verblitz won their opening three games of the campaign before losing their unbeaten streak last time out to Kobe Kobelco Steelers.
“You get a lot of guys, particularly Tongans, who get Japanese passports – so they don’t actually count as foreigners,” explains Day. “So you can turn up on match day and when you read the team it’s all Japanese and you go out to play and there tends to be several Islanders playing in the backs or the forwards – it catches you a bit off guard.
“During pre-season I was actually playing at six but we had a couple of injuries so I’m back in the second row. In our third game it was actually me and Wycliff Palu in the second row – which was a bit strange for him I think.
“Standard-wise – if I had to compare it with anything it is probably more like the Pro 12 – but it’s definitely 10 times faster. It is so fast.
“In one of the pre-season games they counted the average ruck time and it was one and half seconds so you can only imagine what that is like trying to defend rucks that are on average just one and half seconds. It’s so fast, the players are obviously a bit smaller so for someone like me trying to tackle, I’ve got to be careful because I’ve been caught out with a couple of high tackles already.
“The physicality is nowhere as physical as the English Premiership – they like to throw the ball around, there is a lot of quick tap penalties, they like to keep the ball in play and just love the attacking style of rugby.”
Day, who was always a conscientious second row with the Scarlets before heading over the Severn Bridge to play for Bath, is relishing the change of scenery and eager to pass on his knowledge to his Japanese teammates.
“There’s no doubt as a player I get the ball in the hand a lot more – they look to foreigners to set the standard in terms of work rate – to get stats up in terms of tackling and carrying.
“A lot of people think foreigners come here for an easy ride but they don’t really last long if they are not setting an example for the Japanese players. They really want you to be as professional as you can be and help the Japanese players along.”
Despite gaining three Wales caps, Day felt the time was right to leave Bath at the end of last season as he was determined to try and get a Super Rugby contract.
“The only way I could have continued playing for Wales was if I went back to Wales and even then I’m a realist – I knew all along I was probably fourth or fifth choice second row for Wales in the pecking order and was I going to go back on the off chance of a couple of people getting injured and maybe getting a couple more caps when I could have experienced travelling. I always had one eye on hopefully playing Super Rugby, it was a big gamble for me going to Japan and trying to get a Super Rugby deal but thankfully it paid off – I’m really happy how things have turned out to be honest.”
Day has signed a one year deal to play for Melbourne Rebels in February where he will join Gareth Delve as the only Welshman to have played in the southern hemisphere’s showpiece tournament.
“It’s a really exciting prospect for me,” says Day. “Guys like Delve, Cipriani and Haskell have played in Super Rugby, so only a handful of guys from the UK have gone and done it, fair play to everyone who helped me get it sorted – I’m chuffed to bits.”
In the meantime, Day is focussing fully on his Toyota Verblitz career but signs off by warning Welsh rugby fans not to expect an easy ride at the Principality Stadium when Japan take on Rob Howley’s Wales side in the third of the four-Test autumn Under Armour series.
“From what I have seen close hand, Wales should expect a fast paced game. There will be lots of ball in play and lots of off-loads.
“On their day Japan can be really dangerous as we saw in the World Cup when they stunned South Africa in Brighton.”
