<figure id="attachment_332403" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-332403" style="width: 1000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8fde5d85"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/09/88e1b0813ab968c5d042220f3bd34851-2.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-332403" class="wp-caption-text">After the England game, Inagaki rushed to his wife Takako, who was watching the game in the stands.</figcaption></figure>
<p> Keita Inagaki (33), a PR player who played until the 20th minute of the second half of the game, was almost evenly matched in the powerful scrum, which was expected to be inferior. The two teams battled almost evenly in the powerful scrum, and the game was close until the 14th minute of the second half, when the teams gradually lost power and ran out of steam in the final minutes. After the match, Inagaki revealed the following.</p>
<p><strong> After the match, Inagaki stated, &#8220;I felt we had a good response in the scrum, but we couldn&#8217;t show what we had prepared if we couldn&#8217;t win the ball in the lineout, so that remained an issue. We lost today, and I think that is all that matters.</strong></p>
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<h3> Eating Kansai-style okonomiyaki while eating &#8230;&#8230;</h3>
<p> Inagaki was the first player in the history of Japan&#8217;s national rugby team to make it to the last eight at the &#8217;19 tournament, where he helped the team to a top eight finish with his running ability in the scrum against the strongest men in the world and his relentless support for the ball carrier. He became famous as &#8220;the man who never smiles,&#8221; and married Takako Arai (now Takako Inagaki), an international model, on January 11, 2011.</p>
<p> His wife&#8217;s father is Hiromasa Arai, a former professional baseball player who played for Nankai and Kintetsu, and achieved 2,000 hits as well as the top batter&#8217;s title. Around June, when the members of Japan&#8217;s World Cup team were still undecided, Inagaki and his wife visited Mr. Arai for dinner. Arai recalls.</p>
<p><strong> He came to Kobe, where I live. He (Inagaki) is usually very careful about what he eats, so I asked my daughter about it, and she said, &#8216;Kansai-style okonomiyaki is good,&#8217; so I made and prepared it myself.&#8221;</strong></p>
<p> According to the Internet article &#8220;FMV Sports,&#8221; Inagaki places a great deal of importance on &#8220;the food and nutrition he puts into his body more than training,&#8221; and during the season he takes about 6 or 7 nutritional meals a day, including snacks, in addition to his daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and tries to consume 4000-5000 kcal a day. He is very particular about what he takes in, and he refrains from eating beef the day before a competition because &#8220;my stomach feels a little heavy the next day,&#8221; and he does not eat carbohydrates at night if his body does not need them.</p>
<p> Inagaki, who &#8220;doesn&#8217;t <strong>seem to eat floury foods very often&#8221;</strong> (Arai), chose okonomiyaki, suggesting that the day he had dinner with Arai may have been a day when he could relax a little from his usual stoic diet.</p>
<p> In such a relaxed atmosphere, Mr. Arai found it refreshing to see the image of today&#8217;s married couples.</p>
<p><strong> He was kind to my daughter,&#8221; she said. My daughter herself often says, &#8216;I&#8217;m glad he&#8217;s being kind to me. I think that most professional athletes have the stance of asking their partners for &#8220;firm support. When I was a professional athlete, I did not ask my wife, who was a housewife, to support me strongly, but she did support me in her own way, and because of that, I was able to do my best for my family, but they seem to differ in that respect.</strong></p>
<p><strong> He concentrates on himself as a rugby player and my daughter concentrates on herself as a model, and they both seem to talk about supporting each other when one of them is available. So when he has time, he sometimes cooks meals for my daughter.</strong></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Daughter Takako also has a &quot;battle&quot; ahead of her"></div>
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<figure id="attachment_332384" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-332384" style="width: 1000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d626eadc"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/09/fa73bdd9b85eb5ea0a295c26c965cd75.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-332384" class="wp-caption-text">Inagaki communicating with the referee just before a scrum during a match against England.</figcaption></figure>
<p> Inagaki is kind to his daughter, but to Arai, he feels more like &#8220;a top athlete in a different sport than a son-in-law.</p>
<p><strong> Baseball doesn&#8217;t have body contact like rugby. I think it&#8217;s great that they bump each other&#8217;s bodies. I can&#8217;t do that, and it&#8217;s a man&#8217;s sport.</strong></p>
<p><strong> Watching him play on TV all the time, even when he made heavy contact with an opposing player during a game and fell to the ground, he got up immediately and went right to where he was supposed to be. I heard that after facing world-class players, the impact on the body is different from what you get domestically, so I think he is tough and I am impressed by him.</strong></p>
<p><strong> When I met them, they had not yet been selected as members of the World Cup team, so perhaps I could not talk with them beyond the tournament in France, but because of their age (33), they may think that this tournament will be their last in terms of the World Cup. Therefore, I think he is putting all his energy into this tournament.</strong></p>
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<p> His daughter-in-law is cheering for her son-in-law. Inagaki&#8217;s match against Chile on March 10 was his 50th game for the national team, and Takako Inagaki watched it from the stands. She also watched Inagaki&#8217;s efforts against England from the stands, and after the game, Inagaki rushed to Takako&#8217;s side. Inagaki rushed to Takako&#8217;s side after the match. The match against Samoa on July 28 was an important one for the team to advance past the group stage, as they had lost 22-24 in a test match played in Sapporo on July 22. Inagaki: &#8220;We were pressured in the set pieces (scrums and lineouts) in the July match, so we want to secure the ball and provide good ball to the backs. Takako-san is sure that she will visit the Samoa game as well, but she is not sure if she will be able to make the trip to &#8230;&#8230;.</p>
<p><strong> Takako said, &#8220;I have heard that my daughter will only be able to watch the rugby match in Nice (against England). After that, she will remain in France for her day job. Modeling is a tough world. For example, I have heard that sometimes, as soon as you enter a room, you are told, &#8216;You don&#8217;t have to stay any longer.</strong><strong> I guess they help each other to win the battle on their respective stages, even though they have been in France as a couple for almost a month or more,&#8221; said Arai.</strong></p>
<p> As a coach, Mr. Arai has also developed the talents of Ichiro while he was with the Orix, and Yoshihiro Maru (Giants) and Ryosuke Kikuchi while in Hiroshima. Arai, who has watched his talent blossom without ever stepping out of line, will surely be silently wishing his son-in-law and his wife the best of luck in a foreign land.</p>
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<figure id="attachment_332238" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-332238" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="17d22897"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/09/edbaef32bbef1a590d50addae6d0b310.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-332238" class="wp-caption-text"> In February of this year, when he made his 100th appearance in League One. A commemorative photo with a bouquet of flowers from Takako-san.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_120268" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-120268" style="width: 1000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="07ac357a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2020/06/9f7c1094ad3cdcf8be9717924369644d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-120268" class="wp-caption-text"> Inagaki returns to his car after stopping by an ATM. After this, they went home to the apartment where they lived together. Photo taken in April 2008.</figcaption></figure>
<p><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2f34c1d8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/06/3919a544b296d03ae700174ba6519ba5.jpeg" alt=""></a></p>
<p> Attending the wedding of Takako&#8217;s sister, Hisae. On the right is Hiromasa Arai, her father, who is active in the professional baseball world and is known for having coached Ichiro</p>
<figure id="attachment_247609" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-247609" style="width: 1108px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="22f6094a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/06/11e790be37e9c2e16886ac6faa5635ee.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-247609" class="wp-caption-text"> A rare shot of Takako and her father, Hiromasa Arai (right), who won the top batting title in professional baseball and was inducted into the Famous Baseball Hall of Fame (photo courtesy of Hiromasa Arai).</figcaption></figure>


 Aki Nagao (1st and 2nd) Sankei Shimbun (3rd) Yuri Adachi (4th)

 Keita Inagaki, who supports the scrum for Japan's national rugby team, visited his wife Takako's family home with his wife in June before the World Cup. What did he and his father-in-law, Hiromasa Arai, a professional baseball great, talk about over okonomiyaki?

Discovering conjugal love in France as well&#8230;&#8230; rugby Japan&#8217;s Inagaki&#8217;s father-in-law talks about the tough battle that awaits his daughter and her husband.

Discovering conjugal love in France as well…… rugby Japan’s Inagaki’s father-in-law talks about the tough battle that awaits his daughter and her husband.

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