Small World - Cascadian Abroad

Japanese High School Baseball Championship

April 2, 2014 by Robert Haddan

I’ve been watching Japan’s high school baseball championship tournament on NHK this past week. NPR just did a story on the American who initially brought baseball to Japan and mentions the championships in the article. Worth a read.

I love baseball. As a kid, I loved playing it, whether organized as part of Little League or with a tennis ball in the street in front of our house. In the US, baseball takes a back seat to football and basketball at the high school and college level. Even Major League Baseball is less popular than the NFL and NBA in many parts of the country.

In Japan, baseball is revered as the king it is. The Japanese professional league captures the heart of the country during baseball season. The country celebrates its stars who have made the jump to MLB. NHK is broadcasting Masahiro Tanaka’s debut with the New York Yankees live at 7:45 a.m. local time on April 5, 2014. I’m sure many around Japan will be watching.

I’d watched a couple games of the high school tournament before I realized what I was watching. The atmosphere is electric, more reminiscent of a soccer match. I’d guess attendance at 15,000-20,000 people. Rhythmic music pumps from the stands, inciting the crowd… as if they need it. The spectators are a nonstop discharge of energy, chanting along to the music, banging together thundersticks and shaking pompoms. Speaking of pompoms, there are honest-to-goodness cheerleaders for each team.

Post-game press conferences rival those of a World Series game. 16-year-old Japanese boys paraded in front of a room of waiting journalists, peppered with questions about their performance. Coaches look less like math teachers doubling as the baseball coach and more like grizzled veterans of the dugout.

On this particular day, the team from Risei is battling the team from Toyokawa. In the bottom of the 8^th, Toyokawa explodes for five runs, coming back from a 6-2 deficit to take the lead. In the top of the 9^th inning, a Risei batter slugs a solo home run to tie the game at 7-7. The crowd erupts! We’re momentarily reminded that these are kids as they laugh, cheer and slap the back of the hero of the day.

Toyokawa melts down in the top of the 10^th as walks and errors allow Risei to plate five runs of their own. Risei wins the game 12-7 in 10 innings.

At the end of each game, the players line up across from each other, bow and shake hands. A sign of respect for themselves, their opponent on the day and to the game they love.

The television cameras capture the players from god-like angles, playing up the drama of the game. On this day, they are bigger than life. They are baseball players.

One Yen

April 2, 2014 by Robert Haddan

Since arriving in Japan, the big topic of conversation has been the tax rate change. As of April 1, 2014, the sales tax rate is increasing from 5 percent to 8 percent. There has been a mad rush to buy goods before the change, especially higher-priced items where the rate has more impact.

NHK’s news had an interesting side story related to the hike. The one yen coin is basically a throwaway here. Most prices are rounded to the nearest tenth, so there isn’t much need for them with a 5 percent tax rate. However, the 8 percent rate increases the need for the coins.

Japan’s one-yen coin supply isn’t sufficient enough to handle the increased demand, so production of the coin has been restarted with new coins being created for the first time in four years. Since the coins are made of aluminum, there’s also an impact on acquisition of raw materials to make the coins.

As a former tax agency employee, I know lawmakers typically don’t think of all the impacts associated with a tax rate change. Apparently it’s a universal issue.

Storytime at the Market Place

March 29, 2014 by Robert Haddan

The internet connection hasn’t been set up at our apartment yet, so it’s a constant search for a WiFi connection. While free WiFi is abundant in the states, it’s been hard to come by so far in Kawagoe. There are plenty of paid options, but seriously, who wants to pay for internet access?!

On Tuesday, I found a free trial at the Market Place, a strip mall near our apartment with really nice public spaces. I found a shady spot and started catching up on e-mail, when the local pre-school class surrounded me for storytime.

These little guys climbed on the table right next to me. They talked to me a little bit, which made me feel even worse about my level of Japanese proficiency. But mostly, they listened intently to the story, which contained two chefs consoling a superhero, a box that spit coins on little alien-looking creatures, and some sort of caterpillar, I think.

It must have been a good story because they were pretty excited at the end. In between all of the “so far from home” moments, there’s been a lot of moments like this to remind me that we’re not all that different.