Baseball

Baseball... Baseball is a great sport !! ............. I found out after I came to Japan. Coming from Denmark, the only place I have ever seen baseball in my entire life was in a Disney movie on TV once, and they basically made fun of it.
I dont think there is just one baseball player in Denmark and it's a shame really, because it's a great game.
First when I came here some 5 monhts ago and turned on the TV I would see one of 4 things: News, Japanese samurai Drama, Sumo wrestling or Baseball. Always!
News, I didn't understand (you try reading a russian newspapaer and see how much you would understand!).
Japanese samurai Drama, I thought, was really weird. In the west we are used to see samurais as fearless killers with cool swords and a fancy dress. But seeing those half-bold men with two swords at their side crying because their only love left them was just too stupid ...
Sumo I had seen in Denmark once in a while on Eurosport and at that time thought it was really entertaining seeing two fat people trying to push eachother out of a ring. But as my hostdad explained to me all the history and the mental stuff about sumo, I would soon realize that sumo is really more of an art than a sport (at least for the wrestlers - if the same goes for the audience is arguable).
Baseball I just didnt understand. And I didnt understand it for quite some time. Then after two monhts in Japan my hostdad asked me, "Do you know the rules in baseball?" and I had to say plain "no". So I got a minicourse in baseball and now I see why it is so fun.
I think America and Japan are, not the only two, but the two countries that play baseball most.
Now, in Japan they have something that has indeed become a yearly tradition and everybody loves it. It is called "高校野球" or High school Baseball. It's a baseball tournament between all the high schools in Japan (or all the high schools that have a base ball team .. which are a lot). There is a spring tournament and a summer tournament and the summer one is the most important one.
Now a little subject change. In Japan they have many indicators of the 4 seasons. For example when certain bug sounds start to appear it means its summer, and when they fade and others start to appear it means its autumn. When a certarin flower blooms it means its winter etc. etc.
And, believe it or not, High School baseball has become one of these. To make it short, people in Japan say that when the baseball team of your town or city is played out of the tournament (loses) the summer ends - which is usually somewhere in August.
It's not like all the leaves of the trees in Yokohama turn yellow the day the Yokohama team loses ... that would be wicked. But people have the mental picture that summer is over and it's getting autumn.

I actually went to see a match with the Yokohama team which has won the entire tournament the last two times (however, this time they failed). I would love to upload some pictures from the match but I cant seem to find the pictures anywhere.. I will upload them as soon as I find them.
My neighbour works at the school where the Yokohama team is from, so me and my hostmum got free tickets and we got to sit with all the students from the school, cheering for their classmates. It was really fun, hot though, but fun. The Yokohama team won something like 14-7 I think, so that was cool. But again I will upload some pictures when I find them.


My point with this post is, however, that baseball is really popular in Japan. Probably as popular as soccer is in Denmark (and England for that matter). There are always a lot leagues going on, and since Japan and America are the two only countries (as far sas I know) that play baseball this much, a lot of professional Japanese baseballplayers play on teams in the US. The most famous player is a guy called Ichiro. This is his first name. Usually people have their last name written on the back of their shirt when they play, but since he is so popular and everybody knows him as Ichiro, he has his first name printed on his shirt. He is, as my hostdad put it, a genious in baseball.


Here he is:

The way he stands just before hitting the ball has become really famous, and he does the exactly same thing every time (which includes something that looks like he is wiping his nose!)

Baseball... Baseball er en herlig sport!! ...... fandt jeg ud af, efter jeg kom til Japan. Da jeg kommer fra Danmark er det enestes sted jeg nogensinde har set baseball var i en Disney film med Fedtmule paa TV, og de gjorde mest af alt grin med det.
Jeg tror ikke der er en eneste baseballspiller i Danmark, og det er egentlig en skam, da det er et virkelig fedt spil.
Da jeg foerst kom her til Japan, ca. 5 maaneder siden, og taendte for fjernsynet, ville der vaere en af de foelgende 4 programmer koerende:
Nyheder, Japansk samuraidrama, sumobrydning og Baseball. Altid!
Nyheder forstod jeg ikke noget af (proev du bare at laese en russisk avis, og se hvor meget du forstaar!).

Japansk samuraidrama, taenkte jeg, var virkelig uderligt. I europa er vi vandt til at se samuraier som frygtloese draeberer med seje svaerd og noget underligt toej. Men at se de her halvskalede maend med 2 svaerd haengende ved siden graede, fordi deres enste ene har forladt dem var alligevel for aandsvagt...
Sumo havde jeg set i Danmark en gang i mellem paa Eurosport, og paa det tidspunkt synes jeg det var virkelig underholdende at se 2 fede asiatere (ikke kun japanere) forsoege at skubbe hinanden ud af en ring. Men min vaertsfar forklarede mig om sumohistorie og det alt mentale som er en del af sumo, og jeg blev hurtigt klar over, at sumo mere er en kunst end en sport (I hvert fald hvor sumobryderne - jeg ved ikke om det samme gaelder for publikum).
Baseball forstod jeg bare ikke. Og saadan forblev det i et godt stykke tid. To maaneder senere spurgte min vaertsfar mig "kender du reglerne i baseball?" og jeg maatte selfoelgelig svare "Nej," saa jeg fik et minikursus i baseball, og nu kan jeg endelig se det sjove i det.
Jeg tror USA og Japan er, ikke de eneste to, men de to lande der spiller mest baseball.

I Japan har de noget, som er blevet en aarlig tradition og alle elsker det. Det hedder "高校野球" eller High School baseball. Det er en turnering mellem alle Highschools i Japan (eller alle dem, som har et baseballhold ... hvilket er mange).
Der er en foraarsturnering og en sommerturnering, og den om sommeren er den vigtigste.
Nu et lille emneskift. I Japan har de rigtig mange ting der indikerer de 4 aarstider. F.eks. naar nogle bestemte insektlyde begynder at lyde, betyder det, det er sommer. Og naar de saa forsvinder og nogle andre kommer, er det efteraar. Naar en bestemt blomst blomstrer, betyder det, det er vinter etc. etc.
Og tro det eller ej, High School baseball er blevet en af dem. For at goere det kort: Folk i Japan siger, at naar din bys baseballhold bliver spillet ud (taber), er sommeren faerdig - hvilket typisk er et sted i August.

Det er ikke fordi alle bladene paa traeerne i Yokohama bliver gule paa dagen, hvor Yokohamas baseballhold taber, men folk faar en fornemmelse af, at sommeren er ved at vaere slut, og det bliver efteraar.
Jeg var faktisk inde og se en kamp med Yokohamaholdet, som har vundet hele turneringen de to sidste gange (men denne gang vandt de ikke). Jeg ville enormt gerne upload nogle billeder, fra kampen, men jeg kan ikke finde dem paa computeren.. Jeg laegger dem op saa snart, jeg har fundet dem.
Min nabo arbejder paa Yokohamaholdets skole, saa mig og min vaertsmor fik gratis billetter og kom til at side sammen med alle eleverne, der haeppede paa deres klassekammerater. Det var virkelig sjovt ... varmt, men sjovt. Yokohama vandt med omkring 14-7, tror jeg, saa det var cool. Men igen, jeg vil laegge nogle billeder, naar jeg finder dem.

Min pointe med posten er, at baseball er enormt populaert i Japan. Maaske ligesaa populaert som fodbold er i Danmark. Der er altid en masse ligaer koerende, og siden Japan og USA er de eneste to lande (saa vidt jeg ved), som spiller baseball saa meget, er der rigtig mange professionelle japnaske baseballspillere, der spiller paa amerikanske hold. Den mest populaere spiller heddder Ichiro. Det er hans fornavn. Normalt har alle spillere deres efternavnt staaende paa troejen, men siden Ichiro er saa populaer, og alle kender ham som "Ichiro", har han faaet Ichiro skrevet bag paa troejen. Han er, som min vaertsfar sagde, et baseballgeni.

Her er han:

Den maade han staar paa lige foer han rammer bolden er blevet enormt kendt, og han goer det praecis samme hver gang (hvilket inkludere noget der ligner, at han toere naese i hans arm).

Summer break

Finally my year here in Japan has reached its point where summer break begins! But oh what a summer break. Can you believe it? Only 1 month!!!
I don`t know what`s wrong with these Japanese people, they must really like studying. Also when I ask all my friends what they are gonna do in the summer break I get the same answer all the time: Study
For most European people this sounds absurd I am sure. To spend your entire summer break on studying! But the Japanse student`s case is a little different. For in order to enter a University (which almost everybody at my school is going to), you must pass a REALLY tough entrance exam. In Denmark it works a bit different, you have the most important exam at the end of high school and if you pass, you can go to various educational institutions. However, in Japan all those places have an entrance exam and a LOT of people fail them year after year. Especially the entrance exams at famous universities such as Tokyo University only let very intelligent people through.
Now, the entrance exam is one thing - next is the payment. Because as opposed to Denmark (I really love my country for this) where education is free, the prices in Japan for going to universities are extremely high. Only rich people can graduate with a high education at a famous university.


Anyway, I was talking about summer vacation. Besides from studying (I guess I became a little Japanese after all) what am I gonna do?
The answer is simple, do everything I didnt have time to before. Since I have been going to school from morning till evening every day and been busy almost every weekend I have not have much time to anything at home. There is more to Japan than studying, really! I`m gonna play the piano, I am gonna practice writing calligraphy, I am gonna explore Japan, I am gonna walk around in Yokohama, I am gonna have fun with my friends, Im gonna go on a camp with my club and Im gonna spend time with my host family.
A month ago I talked to the other exchange student from Thailand, Ford, about what we were gonna do in the summer holidays, and we both agreed that we were gonna be extremely bored since the Japapanese youth dont really spend a lot of time hanging out together the same we as we do in Europe (and apparently Thailand as well). We would just have a whole month doing nothing!
However, I just realized recently that this is my chance to do all the things that I dont have time to do normally because of school. Yay!

Tomorrow or soon I am gonna upload a whole bunch of pictures from the last couple of months. Since I havent been to good at updating this blog (it takes much more effort than you would think) the summer break is also a chance to get it up to date again, and write about all the cool things that has happened here in the East.
Tomorrow or soon, that is.



Endelig er mit ophold her i Japan naaet til det punkt, hvor der er summerferie! Men hvilken sommeferie... kun 1 maaned!!!
Jeg ved ikke, hvad der er galt med de kaere japanere. De maa virkelig kunne lide at studere. Oven i det, naar jeg spoerger alle mine venner, hvad de skal lave i sommerferien, faar jeg hver gang det samme svar: Studere
Jeg er sikker paa det lyder absurd for det fleste europaerere: at bruge hele sin sommerferie paa at studere! Men japanerne har en god undskyldning. For for at komme ind paa et universitet (hvilket naesten alle paa min skole skal), skal men bestaa en ENORMT svaer optagelseseksamen. I Danmark fungerer det lidt anderledes. Vi har vores mest vigtige eksamen i slutningen af gymnasiet, og hvis du bestaar, kan du fortsaette paa diverser uddannelsesinstitutioner. Men i Japan er der en optagelseseksamen paa alle de steder, og rigtig mange dumber aar efter aar. Specielt optagelseseksamen paa diverse kendte universiteter som f.eks. Tokyo Universitet lader kun meget begavede personer igennem.
Men optagelseseksamen er een ting. Noget andet er betalingen. For i modsaetning til Danmark (Jeg elsker virkelig Danmark for det her), hvor uddannelse er gratis, er priserne for at studere paa et universitet i Japan utrolig hoej. Kun rige folk har raad til at lade sig udraabe til akademiker paa et kendt universitet.

Naa, det var sommerferien, jeg kom fra. Ud over at studere (det lader til, jeg er blevet lidt japaner naar alt kommer til alt) hvad skla jeg ellers lave?
Svaret er simpelt: goere alt det, jeg ikke har haft tid til foer. Siden jeg har vaeret i skole fra morgen til aften hver dag og har haft tralvt naesten hver weekend, har jeg ikke haft meget tid til at goere noget som helst herhjemme. Der er mere at goere i Japan end at studere, tro mig! Jeg skal spille klvaer, jeg skal oeve mig paa at male kalligrafi, jeg skal udforske Japan, jeg skal vandre rundt i Yokohama, jeg skal have det sjovt med mine venner, jeg skal paa lejr med min klub, og jeg skal bruge tid med min vaertsfamilie.
For en maanedstid siden snakkede jeg med den andne udvekslingsstudent fra Thailand, Ford, om, hvad vi skulle lave i sommerferien, og vi blev vist begge enige om, at vi kom til at kede os. For den japanske ungdom bruger ikke rigtig tid paa at haenge ud sammen paa samme maade, som vi goer i Danmark (og aabenbart ogsaa i Thailand). Vi ville bare have en maaned til at goere ingenting!
Men jeg indsaa for nylig, at det her er min chance til at goere alt det, jeg ikke har haft tid til at goere foer pga. skolen. Yay!


I morgen eller snart, vil jeg laegge en masse billeder op her fra de sidste par maaneder. Da jeg ikke har vaeret for god til at holde den her side up-to-date (det kraever mere selvdisciplin end man skulle tro) er sommerferien jo ogsaa en god chance til at opdatere det hele og skrive om alle det sjove ting, der er sket her oestpaa.
Det bliver i morgen eller snart.