Koshien

Although its popularity is declining recently, the national championship of high school baseball is still a big event here. During about two weeks, all the matches are broadcasted nationwide by NHK and the results embellish next day's newspapers and magazines. 49 high school representatives of each prefectures get together at Koshien stadium, which is considered the holy place among high school baseball players, and play games to the victory. Because they are armatures, it can't be predictable(a polite way to say "thier skills are bad, kind of), and sometimes something so dramatic possibly happens.

Championship is held in the middle of August, around the time of "Obon" in Japan when people usually go to their hometowns and spend time with their family and relatives. To cheer the team of your prefectual representative eating ice cream with a fan at one hand with your family is a typical picture of Japanese summer, I am now sure how many people are actually practicing this though.

The YouTube link is a footage when Matsuzaka won the championship ten years ago. At the time, he was nicknamed as a "Monster" and actually he did the trick. Thinking that he is now playing for Boston Redsocks, I can't help wondering how further he have gone from here.

This year's championship will start from 7th August. So if you have a spare time, why don't you experience real Japanese summer in front of your telly?