Thursday, August 28, 2008

Best Tennis Team in All of Japan


Best Tennis Team in All of Japan - 2.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Go Taisha Go!

The boys tennis team at my main Jr High went all the way to the All-Japan finals and won, getting the trophy for best Jr High tennis team in the whole country!

Basically, you start out at the prefecture level - the kentaikai - where you compete against teams from your local area. Taisha won.
Then you move on to the regional competitions - a gathering of teams from 5 or 6 prefectures - in our case, the Chugokutaikai, comprising of teams from Shimane, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Okayama and Tottori. Again, Taisha won.

So then it's on to the zenkokutaikai - the All-Japan finals. And Taisha WON!!
It's kinda like winning "nationals" in America. America has 50 states; Japan has 47 prefectures.

So a big CONGRATS to my boys - four 9th graders and four 8th graders who did Taisha proud! And their coach, Matsumura sensei, who I've known since I arrived. He's a good guy and they all deserve the win!

Picture above is their arrival back at school during summer vacation - a bunch of kids and staff hung around until their bus pulled in at 5:30pm and we had a little celebration ceremony.

Picture below is them after winning the local Shimane competition.

Way to go guys!!

tennis at Hamayama Park - 4.jpg

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jason!

My name is Chris, i'm a student and I live in the UK. I'll be going to university this year and will be continuing my Japanese studies (ive been studying by myself now for about half a year) while im there. I'm really entertaining the idea of going on the JET programme (pending I actually get the degree im going to university for that is...) in a few years time. I love Japanese culture, although i wouldn’t class myself as a Japanophile, and i mean, JET is something that not a lot of people would necessarily get a chance to do!

But anyway, i'm just writing to say that ive been reading your blog for a little while and have been watching your JET videos on youtube. I was really pleased when you started posting videos again, i enjoy watching your adventures in the East. You seem like a cool guy and I like your videos because you make them genually entertaining and often quite humorous. Plus, JET resources seem quite scarce and those that are around are quite monotonous/not helpful. So thanks i guess. I started watching because i wanted to learn about Japan, i kept watching out of enjoyment.

Please keep blogging and vloging on youtube. I'm sure i'm not the first to say this, but you have a fan in me and I'm going to keep reading and watching.

Best Regards,
Chris

Jason H. said...

Hey Chris -

Not sure if you'll check back here to read this, but thanks so much for the nice comment!

I really appreciate all the feedback I've gotten about the vlogs, and I plan on posting videos throughout my last year as a JET.

Good luck with your plans!
-Jason