Dodgeball in Japan

Wow! Another set of, what to me feel like, ancient photos. There was a dodgeball tourney in OKAYAMA, and as part of the English Cafe, we were asked to participate as the foreigner team. I believe the event was back in November 2009.


We all gathered early on a Sunday morning, and went to a gym that was near the east entrance of OKAYAMA University. It was an interesting event, especially because we get to see the difference between Japan and America when it comes to indoor sports for the first time.




An example would be: no outdoor shoes on the gym floor. If you look closely at these photos, you will notice that some of us don't have shoes on, where as others do. It was required that you showed a bag at the door with another pair of shoes in them. If you didn't you had to leave your shoes at the door.


That meant that there were a ton of shoes that were left at the vestibule of the gym. I wish I got a photo of it, because it was really crazy.




Next, we got into lines and greeted each other. It was an interesting experience, because we don't do that typically in the U.S. Maybe if there were only two teams, but not when there are 10 - 12 teams waiting. After the greeting we sat down, and listened to the rules. Unfortunately, they were all in Japanese, and there was no translation.


On that note, I will say that the English cafe did come in last place. Not only did they not know how to play, but it was a sport that was not played often in our native countries. It was still a fun event to go to and spectate though. The Japanese really had fun with it.




The Japanese people really took to the sport, and played it seriously. Although, a lot of us had a hard time taking them serious, because they were dressed up in ridiculous attire. It really wasn't until viewing them play, that we were really shown the seriousness of the teams. They didn't mess around.


All in all, it was a fun event. Not that many photos were taken, but the rest of them can be seen by clicking HERE!






























For the rest of the photos, please click on the title, or HERE!