Tokyo, July. The Outnumber office in Meiji-jingumae, Shibuya. Outside, the heat is relentless. Inside, the ballaholic global team is making plans for its return to Taipei.
Anthony is in the room. He's the newest member of the team, only a few days in. He's heard the term “Ball on Journey,” or BOJ, and understands it on paper. It's one of the three central ideas behind ballaholic. Those of you who've supported us already know it: the memories, experiences, and encounters you collect when you travel with a basketball. Understanding an idea and living it are two different things. Soon, Anthony will have his own experiences to give the idea meaning.
The plan: return to Taipei in the first week of October for a City Session—a multiday gathering built around basketball, a pop-up, and the community around them. A week of playing, sharing creative work, and getting to know the city through the people who live there. A chance to inspire, empower, connect and to build something together.
Before the trip, AJ, a veteran member of ballaholic, gives Anthony one instruction: make sure to eat chòu dòufu. Stinky tofu. Strongly recommended. The rest of the team echoes the recommendation.
Anthony says he will, with a reassuring smile.
As departure approaches, everyone is ready. For some, it's a return to Taipei. For others, including Anthony, it's a first visit to Taiwan ever. Back in Tokyo, rain has become a daily presence. By October 1, central Tokyo has recorded precipitation on 36 consecutive days, stretching back to late August. The team is looking forward to warmer weather and a warm welcome in Taipei. Some of the runners even pack their running shoes, hoping to make up for the runs the rain has kept interrupting at home.
The team arrives in Taipei and sets up at PPP, our base for the week. Anthony joins a few days later. We've chosen a familiar place: we've held ballaholic pop-ups here before. It's also close to the Linsen court and the Xin sheng Elevated Road basketball courts, where our hoop-hungry squad is eager to join the local pickup games for a Park Takeover.
The first days bring familiar faces and people we're meeting for the first time. Some walk in with no idea who we are or why we're here. That kept happening throughout the event, as people come through from everywhere. Locals and travellers from places like Dubai, Norway, the UK, Italy, Morocco, and Indonesia. We even had friends from Japan living in Taiwan drop by to hangout. As well as Taiwanese guests who've already visited our shop in Tokyo.
It was very interesting with us is how they find their way into the City Session—and what they want to talk about once they're here. Basketball, as you can probably imagine. Each conversation opens up another part of the game: the courts people play on, the local playground slangs, the photographs they stop to look at, and the place streetball holds in their lives, the range, depth and passion of their connection to the game.
We talk about Taiwanese basketball culture. About the inspiration behind the pieces on the walls and racks. The ballaholic City Session Taipei limited-edition Dou Niu Tee, inspired by the Xin sheng Elevated Road courts. The Photo Tee, shaped by earlier BOJ trips. The gallery photographs, shot by ballaholic director and photographer Tana.
Alongside them are works submitted through the City Session's online creative campaign, bringing graphic design, illustration, and photography into the space. The campaign gives the community a way to contribute its own point of view, with selected designs also available as customization prints.
The customization station soon became a busy point of exchange for visitors and staff. Guests choose from a range of heat-transfer graphics, including Taipei-themed designs, to apply to their newly purchased ballaholic pieces—T-shirts, shorts, and other items. Each choice gives them something personal to take home. A graphic combining basketball with traditional cultural imagery draws attention, as does a simple “TPE” design in red lettering. By the final day, most of the transfer sheets have sold out. Watching guests choose designs that reference the city leaves us with the impression that local pride is part of their appeal. That connection between basketball and a sense of place resonates strongly with us, too.
It was beautiful to watch and be part of people sharing stories about the city and its basketball scene. It felt like there was no room for anything else. The atmosphere made everyone comfortable, with some guests even staying until closing. A few even return the following day to pick up where the conversations left off. Others join the ballaholic staff for pick up basketball at the local courts.
At one point, Anthony says it has finally clicked. BOJ is happening in front of him: a stranger from Norway and a local from Taipei meet over the same photograph, then find their way into everything they share around basketball.
Toward the end of our stay, the weather catches up with us again. It feels as though the rain we've left in Tokyo has followed us to Taipei, determined to disrupt our plans. We adapt, finding somewhere we can keep playing.
The Park Takeover moves to the Xin sheng Elevated Road basketball courts, beneath the overpass. We join the pickup games already underway and get a direct introduction to the city's streetball scene.
Challenge after challenge. Team after team. Three on three. We win, we lose, we win again. Finger rolls. Crossovers. Oohs and aahs. Applause and cheers. The multi-coloured courts beneath the elevated road are alive with games and the people gathered around them.
Between games, we made friends, exchanged social media accounts, and answer questions about ballaholic and the pop-up. Over the following days, some of those players show up at PPP, just to hang out. The connections we were making kept growing through these moments: a conversation over a photograph, an invitation after a game, another evening spent together and more basketball conversations to bond over.
That sense of connection carried into the After Hours Hangout, supported by SAGAMI. Food, drinks, and the DJ's music give people a chance to relax and talk across groups. Some of the Guests we met during the day came back for the evening, joining a room where conversation, basketball, and music flow together. At one point, local security stops by, and we comply.
On our last morning, we walk through the city early, before the rain, taking in every sense, scent and siren. Then it's off to the airport for our flight back to Tokyo.
Even there, the encounters continue. Locals, airport staff, and fellow passengers recognize several members of our team, especially Team ballaholic ballers KK and RYO, and take the chance to get a photo with them before we fly home.
We leave with new friends, social media contacts, and conversations we want to continue. The week gave us memories of wonder and plenty ideas to ponder.
And Anthony, on the flight home, realises something.
He never ate the chòu dòufu.
His days had been full—with people, with games, with conversation. AJ had given him one thing to put on his plate, and Taipei’s warm receptive hospitality had other plans in the menu for him to taste first. Hopefully, the chòu dòufu can wait until his next visit.
A BOJ leaves you with a little unfinished business, a reason to go back. This was ballaholic's fourth pop-up visit to Taipei, another chapter in a relationship that keeps growing.
For Anthony, there's a meal to catch up on, too.
How soon can he return?
The answer, as always, is: as soon as possible.
