LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola Men's Soccer is partnering with the So. Cal Seahorses and Missionary Athletes International for a summer service trip to Osaka, Iwata and Iwakuni Japan.
 
The Eagles leave Biola at 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning and head to LAX to take off for their trip, which ranges from August 7-20. It's the third Biola Soccer trip to Japan since 2015. The men's team went in summer 2015 and women's side in 2016.

These trips happen in part thanks to Biola alumnus and former coach Paul Gizzi. Gizzi has been involved with the Seahorses for 25 years and has been leading groups to Japan each year for the last 20. The trip will feature the team's coaching staff, returning players and a handful of the incoming student-athletes.
 
The group will be in Osaka from the 8th through the 11th, spending a lot of time at the MAI partner church there and having a chance to minister through soccer on Saturday and Sunday.

After that they will head to Iwata for the brief time from the 12th through 14th. They will play matches the evenings of the 13th and 14th before heading out for another travel day on the 15th. 

The soccer really picks up over the last half of the trip as there's a match each night the team is in Iwakuni, except for the travel days. Built into the trip is a team bonding and sightseeing day on the final day of the journey. They will visit the historic Kintai Bridge in the Nishiki River.
 
For more information on the journey and to follow along over the next two weeks please visit the tour blog at http://seahorsesinjapan.blogspot.com/.