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Rising up within the UK within the Nineteen Eighties as a British sports activities fan was a really completely different time. Sport on TV was pretty restricted and certainly folks sat down on Saturday afternoons to look at no matter Grandstand (BBC TV) and World of Sport (ITV) confirmed. This might typically be a mixture of cricket, golf, athletics, speedway, horse racing, squash and wrestling which was actually an indication of the instances however the public lapped it up.
Transworld Sport (Channel 4) within the very early hours of a Saturday morning (round 6am!) was one thing I’d set the timer on the video recorder every so often and was an alternative choice to the 2 programmes beforehand talked about. As time moved on having a variety of sports activities as a part of a framework below a single banner turned outdated as subscription TV aquired an increasing number of sporting rights.
Many youthful British folks these days are solely into Premier League soccer or no matter and simply don’t comply with too many different sports activities exterior of the Olympics. I too have fallen into such methods however final 12 months, with no actual main sporting occasion going down, I assumed I’d check out a couple of new sports activities.
Aiming for ten completely different sports activities appeared slightly optimistic firstly of the 12 months however that had just about been carried out by the center level so I modified it to include ten sports activities that I had by no means ever watched in individual in Japan. Issues bought slightly out of hand although and it ended up being 15! It’s too onerous to rank them so as a substitute I’ll simply present them in alphabetical order…
1. American Soccer @ Kawasaki (Kanagawa Prefecture), thirtieth April – A sport I’ve by no means actually had an excessive amount of curiosity in and hadn’t seen because it was on terrestrial TV within the UK within the Nineteen Eighties. I’ve nonetheless by no means seen a single Tremendous Bowl however this match was dropped at my consideration by a good friend who talked about there was an X. League in Japan for American soccer. Eager to go to as many single letter named leagues as potential I jumped on the likelihood of going after I heard this match was free entry with a complimentary scarf too! Extra particulars right here.
2. Athletics @ Yokohama (Kanagawa Prefecture), twenty first Could – The golden interval for athletics within the UK was the Nineteen Eighties; a time when many alternative sports activities bought pretty equal TV protection. These days the one observe and subject motion I see is on the Olympics. I’m hoping to get tickets for the the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo and so noticed this as a (very) early heat as much as that occasion. Extra particulars right here.
3. Badminton @ Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku (Tokyo), twenty eighth July – A sport I’d barely ever taken any discover of and simply thought of to be actually widespread and enjoyable to play as a leisure sport. Nevertheless, this stay expertise confirmed that it may be fascinating and entertaining to look at as a spectacle too. Extra particulars right here.
4. Boat Race @ Miyajima, Hiroshima (Hiroshima Prefecture), 2nd January – Is it actually a sport? It actually is for the sake of this publish! This is likely one of the three playing sports activities in Japan alongside horse racing and keirin. Beforehand all I may image in my thoughts was folks racing with remote-controlled boats. There are after all much more well-known and widespread issues to do on this a part of Hiroshima! Extra particulars right here.
5. Canoeing (& Kayaking) @ Edogawa-ku (Tokyo) – I assume I may depend these sports activities as two separate ones however as I may barely inform any distinction there doesn’t appear a lot level. Apologies to kayaking followers specifically! This was an precise qualifying occasion for the Paris 2024 Olympics and hopefully I’ll recognise one or two of those rivals in the summertime. Extra particulars right here
6. Cricket @ Yokohama, (Kanagawa Prefecture), twenty fourth September – A sport I’ve watched earlier than in Australia and New Zealand however this was the primary time in Japan which is one thing I by no means anticipated to occur given how utterly unknown the game is right here. Extra particulars right here.
7. Area Hockey @ Shinagawa-ku (Tokyo), third September – One of many sports activities I had tickets for within the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was subject hockey however after all Covid_19 put paid to my plans to look at that. I can’t say that I had an actual itch to see a stay hockey match within the aftermath of the Olympic video games however that modified this 12 months as I turned an increasing number of enthusiastic about experiencing sports activities I’d by no means seen stay earlier than. The second I discovered about this Somo Japan Cup event I used to be eager to attend. Extra particulars right here.
8. Futsal @ Komazawa, Setagaya-ku (Tokyo), seventeenth March – Till I began educating in Japan I’ve to confess that I had by no means heard of this type of soccer, and I even thought the scholars had been making errors and that futsal might have been a Japanese-English phrase. It’s comparatively unknown again within the UK however is widespread within the likes of Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Japan. Extra particulars right here.
9. Handball @ Tachikawa (Tokyo), twenty first November – This pretty minor indoor sport has been a daily Olympic sport since 1972 (1976 for the ladies’s recreation) though it was first performed on the Berlin 1936 video games exterior. Regardless of having been an Olympic sport for my entire life I’m positive I had by no means seen quite a lot of seconds of a match so it was time to alter that! Extra particulars right here
10. Karate @ Shibuya-ku (Tokyo), fifteenth October – It’s honest to say that the Karate Child movies within the Nineteen Eighties had a profound have an effect on on my life, and for the reason that Cobra Kai collection started in 2018 it has turn out to be my all-time favouite TV collection. After all it’s not solely about karate however that may be a staple. Nevertheless, it’s a sport which I’ve just about by no means watched exterior of this franchise so it was time to alter that and see what it was like in actuality. Extra particulars right here
11. Skateboarding @ Ariake, Koto-ku (Tokyo), fifteenth December – I actually can’t keep in mind an excessive amount of else about the ill-fated Tokyo 2020 Olympics other than what occurred on this sport which made its debut. Why I ended up watching a lot Olympic skateboarding was most likely simply because Japanese TV occurred to point out it a good bit at a time of day that was handy for me! Japan had been the strongest nation general and so it was fairly cool to see a few of these stars in motion at this World Road Championship. Extra particulars right here
12. Swimming @ Koto-ku (Tokyo), twenty second October – Tokyo Aquatic Centre was one of many new constructions for Tokyo 2020 however because of the pandemic only a few folks really bought to step foot inside it. Simply over two years later and I lastly bought to. Twice. The swimming motion was the primary of two occasions I noticed there inside one week. Extra particulars right here
13. Desk Tennis @ Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku (Tokyo), twenty sixth March – Every time the Olympics happen I typically discover myself watching a good quantity of desk tennis. It’s not as a result of I’m notably enthusiastic about it nevertheless it’s simply that the Japanese TV broadcasters appear to point out it lots. That’s most likely not too shocking as there are a number of excellent gamers and a few of them had been participating at this epic ladies’s title decider. Extra particulars right here.
14. Volleyball @ Ota, Ota-ku (Tokyo), twenty second January – The primary correct sport I noticed in 2023 was one of many noisiest I’ve ever skilled and sadly it wasn’t for such optimistic causes! I actually was impressed by the sporting talent and recreation play itself although nevertheless it’s only a disgrace we didn’t know the scoring system for the ultimate set decider which noticed a extra sudden finish than anticipated for us. Extra particulars right here.
15. Water Polo @ Koto-ku (Tokyo), twenty seventh October – Little did I do know that every one the groups concerned right here had been college ones. Feminine ones too so I don’t know what the opposite spectators should have thought once they noticed a overseas man of my age watching alone, and thru binoculars at instances too!! Extra particulars right here
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