When Al Westover met with club officials of his new Japanese basketball team for the first time in July last year, conversation quickly reached the common subject of baseball.

Sharing his love for his favourite pastime, the American ex-pat said his team was the Oakland A’s.

The message was construed through his personal translator to great revere and acceptance. It wasn't until the next day when his translator asked whether he was really the owner of the Oakland baseball franchise that Westover came to terms with the severity of the language barrier in front of him, and the literal nature in which the Japanese communicate.

"One thing no one told me about Japan was that everything is opposite," Westover said.

"Their emergency number is 119, they think a jinx is a good omen, they eat salads for breakfast. After a while you don't even notice the language barrier, but I remember my first game when I was abusing the ref from the sideline, ranting and raving, and my translator is right next to me giving it to the ref too, translating my swear words and getting more angry than I was."

The decorated coach moved to Otsu in mid-2011 after he was sacked by the Melbourne Tigers, taking with him the Shuffle offence and an openness to a new beginning.

But after 17 state championships (and a couple of ABA championships with the Ballarat Miners), eight NBL grand finals (four as assistant to Lindsay Gaze), four championships and second place on the all-time NBL winning-percentage list behind close friend Brian Goorjian (who is now head coach of the Dongguan Leopards in the Chinese Basketball Association), Westover still holds his time with the Tigers close to his heart.

"I was definitely disappointed with the way things ended at the Tigers, but I've got a lot of cherished memories from my 20-plus years there. I took it pretty hard at first but now I can see that I've moved onto bigger things with the BJ League, and I'm just really enjoying it right now."

The BJ League is the premier basketball competition in Japan, running alongside the corporate-driven Japanese Basketball League (in which another close friend, Bruce Palmer, is head coach of Link Tochigi Brex). While the JBL features the top Japanese talent, teams are only allowed to play one of their two imports at a time. The BJ League exceeds many leagues around the world with its allowance of five imports per team, three of which can play at the one time.

Comprising 19 teams across two conferences, the BJ League boasts a 52-game season that includes a double-header every weekend against the same opposition.

"The BJ League is a superior global competition. There's always something new and challenging every weekend with 95 imports in the league and 10 foreign coaches. The whole thing is run very professionally."

Westover has led his Shiga Lakestars to a 17-9 record, which has put his side a game clear of first place in the Eastern Conference and earned him a trip to the All-Star game last weekend as head coach for the Western Conference. His team won by 27 in front of 15,000 screaming fans (Japanese crowds, for the record, make constant noise, rhythmically chanting regardless of the score or the clock).

Westover is the fifth coach in the past four years of an organisation that has extremely high hopes. So far, so good, but his impressive start has not been without its hurdles. The Lakestars have been the only team to go with four imports through the first 24 games, picking up their fifth import only in the past week. The team's best Japanese player from last season was released because of issues off the court. And no sooner had they signed a promising 198cm Japanese forward he was sidelined for four months with an ACL injury.

Although his players might not be the league’s most talented, Westover is pleased with his team’s ranking alongside “some stiff competition”.

His imports hail from the universities of Central Florida, Utah, Wisconsin, Arkansas and Colorado, and fill out the Lakestars front line. The local talent have come through a draft system based on that of the NBA, whereby Japanese players are recruited out of their collegiate system and have their rights owned by their team, and help bring the discipline and fundamentals that the Shuffle offence demands.

"I'm really grateful for being over here with such a great group of guys. They all get along and have fun on the court and I think that's shown in our record so far.”

More importantly, how have his new charges adjusted to his presence?

"The Japanese players in particular have been especially accepting of a new coach and new system. They don't celebrate Christmas here but I organised a Kris Kringle party and got some mixed results, and in return they've done their best to get me onto sake."

It was the native players, after all, who helped Westover and his wife adjust to their new environment during a six-week period before the imports arrived.

Though surprisingly content with his adoption of Japanese culture, Westover has not ruled out a return to Australia and the NBL as he still considers the country in which he migrated to 33 years ago his home.

"We're living on the biggest lake in Japan and I'm loving my walks every day despite some extreme weather, but I'll always call Australia home. My kids are there and if an opportunity in the NBL did present itself, I'd definitely have to consider it."

One thing is certain, the Shiga Lakestars are Al’s team, however you choose to translate it.