For the first time in team history, the Lafayette Forensics Society competed in the International Forensics Association’s championship tournament!  While the host of the tournament changes each year, Lafayette was lucky enough to attend while the tournament was hosted in Japan.  Director of Forensics, Scott Placke accompanied Assistant Director John Boyer (and his wife!) and three of our seniors, Josh Hale, Ben Herman, and Shirley Liu to the tournament.

I know what you really want to see are all the awesome pictures we took on our trip, but in between sightseeing days, we DID in fact compete at a tournament!  Here are the results:

Ben Herman – 4th place EXT, Bronze IPDA
Shirley Liu – 4th place PER, 5th place CA

And HERE are the pictures!  Nationals and IOA updates to come soon!

Forest shrine at the base of Mt. Fuji Josh and Shirley eating and laughing at cherry blossoms
(1) Forest shrine at the base of the ancient path up Mt. Fuji (2) Hungry Josh, Shirley not actually surprised.

Cherry blossom tree outside pond Buddhist shrine in Tokyo
(1) Cherry blossoms are starting to bloom! (2) Inokashira Benzaiten Buddhist shrine

Laputa robot on roof of Studio Ghibli Sriracha vending machine in Tokyo
(1) Laputa robot on the roof of the Studio Ghibli Museum (2) Sriracha vending machine!

Studio Ghibli exterior Ben, Josh, and Shirley on the breakwall by the Pacific Ocean
(1) Studio Ghibli Museum – Exterior (2) Ben, Josh, and Shirley taking a break on the breakwall by Tokyo Bay

Shirley, Ben, Josh posing with awards Team at the Meiji Shrine
(1) Shirley, Ben, and Josh are ready to get back to sight-seeing! (2) The team at the Meiji Shrine

Shirley and Ben at a cat cafe in Tokyo Shirley, Josh, and Ben at the team dinner
(1) Cat Cafe! (2) Team dinner after a long tournament day, Ben unsuccessfully suppressing a smile

A photo of Josh taking a photo of Ben by a cherry blossom tree Ben at the FC Tokyo game
(1) Just two seniors taking turn taking new Linked-In photos (2) Ben, Josh, and John took in an FC Tokyo game!