LLP » sport

Jackie Chan Bollocks

reesan — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:43:22 +0000

An oldie but always a goodie… in preparation for the 2002 FIFA World Cup being co-hosted by Japan and Korea comedian Paul Kaye made a satirical skit where he demonstrated the lesser known martial arts style – English football hooliganism.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcx-DL8-jAs

Here are a few favourite quotes from the clip:

I don’t wanna see any Jackie Chan bollocks
I wanna see some windmilling in
Watchoo fackin lookin at!?!
Cam on… u fuckin wankaa!

And if you got a set of keys on you stick them in your hands and make them count!

LLP.

Keirin in Japan

reesan — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:07:04 +0000

Keirin, meaning “racing wheels”, is a track cycling event that originated in Japan in 1948 and gained Olympic status at the 2000 Sydney games. The sport was born from the aftermath of the second world war, when Japan’s economy was at an all time low and the country was recovering from the ravages of battle.

In order to help regenerate local economies and to circulate money the government built numerous Keirin racing velodromes around the country. The government also licensed the sport for gambling as a means of enticing more money out of it’s citizens to contribute towards Japan’s post-war reconstruction.

Image source: Flickr

The sport has become a social institution in Japan. Aspiring riders compete for entrance into the Japan Keirin School. Only 10 percent of applicants are accepted. Those who pass the graduation exams, after undergoing a strict, 15-hours per day, training regimen, become eligible for professional keirin races in Japan.

Advertising at the track

I headed out the the Tokyo Tachikawa Keirin Velodrome to see this popular gambling sport. It was much like a day out at the greyhounds. The riders were clad in brightly coloured jerseys and helmet covers, to make them identifiable to the punters, and the crowd was mainly composed of scruffy old men, desperate for a punt.

There were eleven races on the card, nine riders per race. Each race began with all nine riders parading to the starting blocks, bowing as they enter the track and again as they position their bikes for the start of the race. We took our seats in the stand. Each seat had a dedicated panel that displayed the latest odds.

Picking the winner of a Keirin race is a complicated matter; the punters have to examine the background of each rider who is participating in the race. Blood group, astrological sign and thigh measurements in addition to starting position and seasonal form are only some of the factors taken into consideration when placing a bet.

The race starts slowly, the riders jockeying for an advantageous position behind the pacemaker, who goes off the track after 3 laps and a bell rings opening the sprint. During the last two laps the pace rises, and the riders begin a furious battle, fighting to get into gaps, in the final sprint for the finish line.

Seating at the Keirin

Dedicated betting screens

Keirin betting ring

Keirin race

Postscript: Here is a movie poster for a 1956 Japanese movie called Onna Keirin Oh (Woman Keirin King).

Onna Keirin Oh (Woman Keirin King)

This is a submission to the September 2011 Japan Blog Matsuri hosted by A Modern Girl / モダンガール with the theme “Reasons to Visit Japan”

LLP.

Rugby Scrum vs Japanese Train Crammers

reesan — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:28:11 +0000

The seventh Rugby World Cup kicked off in New Zealand today and I can’t think of a better way to mark the commencement of this sporting spectacle than to recollect from the retro video archives the cool ad from the 2003 Rugby World Cup featuring popular ex-Wallaby John Eales taking on the Japanese train crammers as he tries to board a crowded train in Tokyo. The ad, embedded below, was part of Visa’s advertising campaign launched for the 2003 Rugby World Cup and is a parody of the Japanese train crammers who are renowned for wearing white gloves and stuffing people into already crowded trains.

After rushing through Shinjuku Station in Tokyo and paying for his train ticket with Visa, an airport bound “Ealsy” gets to the train but is confronted by a carriage overflowing with people. Noticing the overpowering white-gloved train crammers at the other end of the carriage stifling the ability of the commuters at his end of the train from boarding he uses his Rugby prowess to pack a scrum with fellow commuters that overwhelms the push of the white-gloved train crammers helping to pack more people through his train doors and eventually squeezing himself in too.

The soundtrack to the advertisement is Turning Japanese, possibly the most misinterpreted song of all time! Released in 1980, it is the second single by the band The Vapors and is popularly interpreted to be a euphemism for masturbation as it is believed to euphemistically refer to the face a male makes during the act of masturbation.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyCejb9cc_Q

LLP.

Japanese Baseball Bat

reesan — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:23:29 +0000

Sakota, coach of the Japanese baseball side, comes out and has some stern words with Tanaka (left) as to why the captain, Hayashi (right), brought his bat on the field when they are supposed to be pitching.

LLP.

Japanese Baseball Chikan Mascot Grope

reesan — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:26:37 +0000

The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Sapporo, Hokkaidō. Here the team mascot, B·B (Brisky the Bear), practices a chikan maneuver that he normally reserves for crowded trains by going the grope on an unsuspecting cheerleader.

Via Taro at 3yen.

LLP.

Star Wars Baseball

reesan — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:55:22 +0000

“You can’t win, Darth. Strike me out, and I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”

LLP.

Hello Japan Fail

reesan — Sat, 08 May 2010 22:16:39 +0000

Check the vid below for this epic fail.

Shinya Aoki defeats David Gardner in a Dream 7 Welterweight match. Aoki has Gardner in a back mount but strangely Gardner raises his hand to wave to the crowd yelling “Hello Japan”. At that moment Aoki wraps round the rear naked choke for a submission victory.

With the ensuing result it would have been more appropriate to yell “Goodnight Japan!”.

I like Aoki’s post-match interview: “I think David was waving his hand to the audience, saying ‘Hello Japan’ during the fight,” speculated Aoki. “Maybe he thinks he’s on vacation? But I’m here to get the job done, so I choked him and finished him. Hello Japan!”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNs-hQmeKa8

LLP.

Aussie Rules Football Enlists First Ever Japanese-Born Player

Nunnster — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:05:50 +0000

G’day! This is Nunnster, long term subscriber of loneleeplanet. Having always enjoyed the articles on this site about the lighter side of Japanese culture, it is indeed an honour to be invited to provide the following guest article, reporting from Australia.

Sean Yoshiura created history by being the first ever Japanese-born player to be signed by an Australian Rules Football League (AFL) club. The 18 year-old Tokyo-born wingman was signed as a rookie by the AFL club Brisbane Lions. A world-class schoolboy cross country runner, he moved to Australia with his Japanese father and Tasmanian mother when he was seven.

Image source: SportingPulse

Brisbane Lion's Sean Yoshiura

Proving to be quite the all-rounder, academically gifted Yoshiura became the school captain at Ipswich Grammar School in 2008 graduating with a string of academic and sporting distinctions.

Yoshiura will be the second Asian-born player to have played AFL. The first was Peter Bell, a Korean-born orphan brought to Australia as a toddler.

Korean-born Peter Bell

This is not the first time that the Japanese have interacted with the game of AFL. Back in 2005, after an impressive performance in the AFL International Cup, Michito Sakaki was named in the Essendon side to play in an exhibition match against the Sydney Swans. Although not an official AFL match, Sakaki became the first non-Irish international player to learn the game overseas and play it at an elite level in Australia.

Image source: Wikipedia

Michito Sakaki

The real news however, is why has it taken so long for a Japanese to take this first step into Australian Rules Football? Japanese took a liking to baseball and now, no less than 41 Japanese-born players played in at least one Major League Baseball (MLB) game through the 2009 season.

Perhaps it is because the AFL have committed the international faux pas of including their country’s name in the sport’s title – Australian Rules Football – thus limiting their success to their own country; not unlike American Football.

However, Australian Rules Football and American Football are the only two football codes whereby in the process of scoring, it is commonplace for team mates to put their bodies on the line to protect their man with the ball. In other words, for the good of the team, a player will sacrifice their own well-being by obstructing or wiping out a defender for the advancement of the team.

Being raised in this football culture transcends into the country’s culture. For example, the US Marines’ credo is ‘Leave no man behind’ and in Australia it is considered un-Australian or unpatriotic to not ‘look after your mates’.

Sean Yoshiura has demonstrated new levels of commitment to Australia’s most popular football code. Mt Gravatt Aussie Rules coach, David Lake said of Yoshiura:

“He’s an exceptional young man…. He is the only player I’ve ever had who has thanked me for every game, who thanks you after training… He caught the train from the Gold Coast straight after uni three nights a week to train and never missed a session even before he was in the senior side, he is that committed.”

Should Sean Yoshiura succeed at Australian Rules Football and the Japanese learn of this sport, then Australia may not succeed in their own home brand of football in just a few generations.

When I wrote ‘for the good of the team, a player will sacrifice their own well-being by obstructing or wiping out a defender for the benefit of the team’ did not the term kamikaze spring to mind?

In a nation where honour is paramount in character traits, Australian Rules Football is a far better mesh with the Nippon culture than soccer, where rolling on the ground clutching at your ankle in the hope of a free kick is revered while honour looks the other way.

While I wish Sean Yoshiura all the very best for his career in Australian Rules Football, I can only hope and pray that news of his participation in this most noble and honourable of football code does not reach his homeland, because as an Australian, I don’t think I could cope with my grandson playing Japanese Rules Football (formerly known as AFL) in 2050.

LLP.

Australia at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

reesan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:31:31 +0000

In a recent guest post on jamaipanese.com I discussed Tokyo’s contribution to the Olympic Movement when they played host in 1964 to the Games of the XVIII Olympiad. As an accompaniment to that article, this post explores Australia’s participation at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Australia sent a squad of 243 athletes to Tokyo securing 18 medals (6 gold, 2 silver and 10 bronze) finishing 8th overall. Fencer Ivan Lund was Australia’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony, however, a new tradition was added to the Games finale making champion swimmer Dawn Fraser the first person to carry the nation’s flag at a closing ceremony.

Dawn Fraser was unquestionably the star of the Australian team when she won gold in the 100m freestyle becoming the first swimmer to win a gold medal in the same event at three consecutive Olympic Games. She also set a world record with a time of 59.5 seconds that was not broken until 1972.

Fraser’s appearance at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics was, however, marred with controversy. Amongst a number of misdemeanours, the Australian Swimming Union basically ended her career when they suspended her for 10 years after she stole an Olympic flag from a flagpole outside Emperor Hirohito’s imperial palace. She was arrested but released without charge. The Emperor subsequently gave her the flag as a souvenir.

Dawn Fraser swims to victory in the 100m freestyle final in 59.5 seconds

Sprinter Betty Cuthbert, who had won three gold medals 8 years earlier at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, won her fourth gold medal in Tokyo in the first women’s 400m ever contested at an Olympics.

Betty Cuthbert wins gold in 400m on 17 October

Other golds were won by Kevin Berry in the 200m butterfly, Ian O’Brien in the 200m breaststroke and Rob Windle in the 1500m freestyle. Australia also took their first gold in sailing in the 5.5m yachting class. Yachtsman William Northman was the oldest gold medalist in Tokyo (at age 59) and remains Australia’s oldest Olympic champion.

Yoyogi National Gymnasium housed swimming and was venue to most of Australia's medals

Ron Clarke, who had lit the Olympic cauldron as a teenager in Melbourne eight years earlier, won a bronze medal in the 10,000m.

Ron Clarke lights the cauldron at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics

Want to know more about the 1964 Tokyo Olympics? Go check out my guest post on jamaipanese.com.

Rank	Athlete	Gender	Age	Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Dawn Fraser	Female	27	Swimming	1	1		2
2	Kevin Berry	Male	19	Swimming	1		1	2
3	Ian O'Brien	Male	17	Swimming	1		1	2
4	Bob Windle	Male	19	Swimming	1		1	2
5	David Dickson	Male	23	Swimming			2	2
6	Allan Wood	Male	21	Swimming			2	2
7	Betty Cuthbert	Female	26	Athletics	1			1
8	William Northam	Male	59	Sailing	1			1
9	Peter O'Donnell	Male	25	Sailing	1			1
10	Dick Sargeant	Male	28	Sailing	1			1
11	Lyn Bell	Female	17	Swimming		1		1
12	Michele Mason-Brown	Female	25	Athletics		1		1
13	Janice Murphy	Female	21	Swimming		1		1
14	Robyn Thorn	Female	18	Swimming		1		1
15	Judy Amoore-Pollock	Female	24	Athletics			1	1
16	Marilyn Black	Female	20	Athletics			1	1
17	Theodore Boronovskis	Male	21	Judo			1	1
18	Ron Clarke	Male	27	Athletics			1	1
19	Mervyn Crossman	Male	29	Hockey			1	1
20	Paul Dearing	Male	22	Hockey			1	1
21	Peter Doak	Male	21	Swimming			1	1
22	Raymond Evans	Male	25	Hockey			1	1
23	Brian Glencross	Male	23	Hockey			1	1
24	Robin Hodder	Male	27	Hockey			1	1
25	Pam Kilborn-Ryan	Female	25	Athletics			1	1
26	John McBryde	Male	25	Hockey			1	1
27	Donald McWatters	Male	23	Hockey			1	1
28	Patrick Nilan	Male	23	Hockey			1	1
29	Eric Pearce	Male	32	Hockey			1	1
30	Julian Pearce	Male	27	Hockey			1	1
31	Desmond Piper	Male	23	Hockey			1	1
32	Peter Reynolds	Male	16	Swimming			1	1
33	John Ryan	Male	20	Swimming			1	1
34	Donald Smart	Male	22	Hockey			1	1
35	Anthony Waters	Male	36	Hockey			1	1
36	Graham Wood	Male	28	Hockey			1	1

LLP.

Castrol Ichi-Go Progress Report

reesan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:21:42 +0000

Last month I wrote about The Castrol Ichi-Go Project, the project to create the world’s fastest kicking machine.

Castrol, an official sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa, is developing a kicking machine known as Castrol Ichi-Go that will be the world’s first engine-driven free kick machine that will deliver a free kick in excess of 200 km/h per hour.

Castrol Ichi-Go

The Castrol Ichi-Go boys have proudly surpassed their target of 200 km per hour by clocking a kick at 216 km per hour.

Castrol FIFA World Cup South Africa

Watch the video below as it shows you in slow motion the steel leg striking the ball and the ball being bent out of shape. It then compares the impact of a kick from Castrol Ichi-Go to that of a soccer player and a pro kick boxer.

The next video shows the heart of Castrol Ichi-Go, the engine, roaring as it performs a super-human strike on the ball.

For more information visit the Castrol Ichi-Go Project or follow them on Twitter.

LLP.