Coming to Japan, one of my goals is to learn Japanese. Though I had traveled here before, I never made much of an attempt to learn Japanese beyond the very basics (thank you, hello, etc). 

My journey to learn actual Japanese in early 2020 after I became shortlisted to the JET Program - at that time it became clearer that I would be going to Japan at some point, but little did I know it would be over a year before I actually made the trip. 

My first task was to learn the Japanese alphabets. For the uninitiated, Japan uses two main written alphabets plus kanji. The first two alphabets are hiragana and katakana. Hiragana is the main alphabet used for Japanese words whereas katakana is used for foreign loan words, or in other words, words that are used by Japanese but are not originally Japanese.

(Please note that my use of "alphabet" might be slightly incorrect here - there might be a more proper term for what hiragana and katakana are, but I will continue to use alphabet for now.)
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Both hiragana and katakana contain 46 characters (you can think of these similar to letters). And, while there may be some exceptions, you will find the same sounds represented across hiragana and katakana. For instance, the sound "a" (pronounced like "ah" in English) is represented as あ in hiragana and ア in katakana. The difference, though, is in usage - you would use the katakana "a" (e.g. ア) if you were writing a foreign loan word whereas you would use the hiragana "a" (e.g. あ) if you are writing a native Japanese word. 

There are many words in Japanese that are not originally Japanese - such as the Japanese word for "coffee" which is "ko-hi" or in katakana コーヒー. Because the Japanese borrowed this would from Dutch traders in the 1600s, they write it using katakana and not hiragana. Again, showing that the word has foreign roots. (see video pronunciation of "coffee" below)

The train station sign above shows an example of Kanji and Hiragana - at the bottom you see the train station name in English (also known in Japan as romaji) - Akihabara. At the top, you will see "Akihabara" represented in kanji - 秋葉原. And in the middle, you will see the same word, but this time in hiragana - あきはばら. The kanji and the hiragana mean the exact same thing - Akihabara.

You could also write this in katakana as well (it would be アキハバラ) but you would never see it written this way because Akihabara is a true Japanese word, thus no need to write it in katakana. Also, another thing to notice - the Kanji spelling uses only 3 symbols, whereas writing it in hiragana uses a total of 5 symbols, thus kanji would be a quicker, shorter way of writing the same thing, hence why kanji is used in many situations (it is more efficient).

I will not talk a lot about romaji much here outside of what I mentioned earlier, but you can think of romaji as yet another way to write Japanese. It is a way to transcribing the sounds of Japanese hiragana and katakana into English/Roman script to make it easier for English speakers to figure the word out. Knowledge of romaji is not common in Japan (I have been with several cab drivers who do not know romaji). But, if you are interested, you can find out more about romaji here.

So, for instance, taking the sounds of what I mentioned earlier in hiragana (あきはばら), you could translate each hiragana character into its English/romaji sound equivalent to get Akihabara. However, to say Akihabara properly in Japanese, you would still need to know proper Japanese pronunciation (for instance the final "ra" sound is actually pronounced more like "la") but it would make things easier for you (ah-key-ha-ba-la).
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I wrote a bit more about my experience learning Japanese beyond what is here, but I will save that for a "Part 2" that I will post next week. So, stay tuned for that!

​All the best,

  As I mentioned in my prior blog post, I flew to Japan this past weekend and will be spending about two weeks in hotel quarantine before traveling onward to my JET Program teaching placement in Kobe. In this post, I want to talk a bit more about some things that we learned during orientation so far that I found interesting.
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Elementary school students will also work in the cafeteria on different shifts, serving their classmates their meals. And, then, there's the cleaning shift during which students (and teachers) clean their schools. ​

   Outside of learning about schools, we are also learning about COVID protocols and different notable Japanese laws. In regards to drunk driving, we were informed that if we're a passenger with a drunk driver, we can be held legally responsible as well for his or her drunk driving - as the passenger has an obligation to stop this situation from occurring. 
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   Additionally, no level of alcohol in your system while driving is considered "legal." Furthermore, marijuana use is strictly prohibited and strongly punished. 

   As for COVID, many Japanese wear masks year round due to pollen allergies in the spring/summer and then for illness prevention (flu & colds) in the winter. Our presentation specifically said that mask wearing has no negative perception in Japan. In fact, you're more likely to encounter negative perceptions if you are NOT wearing a mask! The screenshot below is from this video that we watched about COVID in Japan.​
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  Also, since the JET Program does not require any formal teaching certification, we are also attending training sessions that give us advice about how to present information to various grade levels and what to expect when we get to the classroom. 

That is all for now! I have included a few links below to several cultural resources. Also if you would like to receive my newsletter, please visit this page to subscribe, or subscribe on the right side of this page! Through the newsletter, you will get all the latest information about my experiences in Japan and abroad. 

All the best,
Tom

CULTURAL RESOURCES!
​As I come across different resources, I will share them on my website here. 
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New since the last update, I came across this website that has short videos about different aspects of Japanese culture! Check it out! A few of the specific videos that I watched and enjoyed are below. 
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   For those that have not yet heard, I have moved to Japan to participate in the JET Program as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT)! I will be living and working in Kobe, Japan, which is near Osaka and is about a 2-3 hour bullet train ride south of Tokyo. I am still awaiting details of my specific job duties, but it sounds like I will be working with elementary school students to start. My hope with the program is to learn Japanese and get connected with the Japanese baseball community. 

Below are a few photos of the meals and how they are left at our doors!

   Additionally, each day, we must visit a desk downstairs to get our temperature checked and receive important information (today, for example, we received a new book about Japanese culture!). We also undergo COVID PCR testing twice during quarantine - once a week, roughly. 

​   While sequestered, we also carry with us a special phone that monitors our location  - we are also prompted to report our location, health condition and participate in video calls every so often that confirm what we report.  The video calls last about 30 seconds, during which time we record our face and surrounding locations (helps prove we are where we say we are!). We will return the phone at the completion of our time at the hotel. 

    I will also will include here a quick tidbit that shows part of Japanese culture - someone in my cohort across the hall was having an issue with her toilet. Hotel staff visited to help fix the issue and as they entered her room, the staff removed their shoes! You'll see a photo of the staff member's shoes sitting out side the door below.

For a week in August, I experienced what I would soon discover to be the holy grail of high school baseball. 
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​No, I was not anywhere near Cooperstown nor Williamsport. In fact, I was halfway around the world from those places (almost 6800 miles away to be exact) at a professional stadium with a skin infield covered by chocolately brown dirt and a perfectly manicured, green outfield in front of an old, barely electronic scoreboard.

​The location? Hanshin Koshien Stadium near Osaka, Japan. A stadium in which the professional baseball club Hanshin Tigers normally plays its home games. The occasion? The 100th annual summer Koshien national high school championship tournament, which is Japan’s, and perhaps the world’s, most prestigious baseball event. It is a multi-week, single elimination affair that features 56 high school clubs spanning the Japanese archipelago, playing in front of crowds easily exceeding 50,000 people and all vying for the title of national champion and a lifetime of glory.

​The games themselves move at a near breakneck pace, with players hustling on and off the field at all times. Pitchers generally take only a few warm-up pitches in between innings, having already been throwing in front of their dugout before their team makes the 3rd out on offense. In what could be described as a form of art, the team departing the field to switch over to offense would drop the baseball exactly in front of the rubber every single time. Full nine-inning games would generally only take between 2 and 2 and a half hours for a total of either three or four games a day.

PHOTOS FROM KOSHIEN (Video)
PHOTOS FROM KOSHIEN (Facebook)

I’m not sure when I first heard about Koshien, but once I had travelled to Japan several times to watch the professional leagues, I set my sights on attending Koshien. Koshien, from what I had heard, is a very famous national high school tournament where teams vie for the title of national champion of Japan.  I was only slightly aware before attending that this year would be the 100th year anniversary of the summer Koshien, with the first tournament occuring in 1915. Worth mentioning that there are several Koshien tournaments held each year, with one occurring in the spring, summer and autumn seasons, The summer Koshien, the most famous and best attended of the three, is held in the summer heat of August, with temperatures ranging into the mid-90s and high humidity for most games.
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The Koshien tournament is held at Hanshin Koshien stadium, which is the most revered stadium in all of Japan. The stadium literally has a baseball temple & shrine just outside and hosted Babe Ruth and other American stars during a tour they took of the nation in the early 20th century. Koshien stadium is normally home to the Hanshin Tigers, who play in Japan’s highest professional league and have a large following across Japan. Most people compare the Tigers to the Boston Red Sox and you can think of Koshien as similar in a historic sense to Fenway Park or Wrigley field. During the Koshien tournament, the Tigers take a several week road trip, playing games either on the road or at the Osaka Dome (a 30 minute train ride away from Koshien). Imagine a professional team in the United States being kicked out of their stadium for a high school tournament! Koshien is considered to be the “traditional” Japanese baseball stadium, with its world-famous black dirt and old school scoreboard in centerfield. The stadium itself is reported to hold a capacity of 50,000 and is normally sold out for all home games. The rabid nature of the fans was something that I found out in my first trip to Japan in 2016 when I tried to walk up to a game without a ticket - I soon found out that all tickets to the game were sold out! ​

I describe my experience in depth later in this post, including some of the early disappointment of attending Koshien, what I learned from spending many early morning hours at the stadium, and the things that I noticed and learned while watching the Japanese high school games. Suffice to say that attending Koshien was one of the ultimate baseball experiences I have ever had - the Japanese high school game is incredibly fun to watch and eye-opening. It’s a baseball-life changing experience. I’ll mention here that I plan to hopefully return to Koshien in future years - if you’re interested in coming along, I’d love to have you come along or I can help you with any questions that you have - get in touch! ​

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​There are several parts to this post, the first section that I’ll cover is what I noticed about the Japanese high school game. Later in this post, I’ll cover more of the specific story around my experience with Koshien.

Here's a quick menu to allow you to jump around to the various parts of this post.

• Highlights of the Experience at Koshien
• Personal Story of Getting to Koshien
• Advice for Going to Koshien

Highlights of the experience at Koshien

The ambiance - the atmosphere surrounding Koshien is unbeatable. When you first walk into the stadium, the first thing that you’ll notice is the famous black dirt. Most traditional Japanese fields feature all dirt infields, but Koshien is unique in that its dirt is a dark chocolate color. The stadium itself is a very old style stadium, there is no fancy scoreboard and the stadium design itself is very similar to Wrigley Field. High school teams in Japan tend to wear light colored uniforms with high socks, so when they take the field and you see them in this traditional baseball stadium with black dirt, it’s like you’re taking a step into a time machine to watch an old time baseball game.

Each teams will bring their school bands to the game who will sit in large supporter sections down the 1B and 3B lines. As is the case with professional teams, the team’s supporters will cheer and sing almost constantly while their team is batting. The pep bands play popular music (that any American would recognize) along with their supporters’ cheers.  All the games are basically sold out, meaning that there are 50,000 people jammed into the stadium cheering during the game. The stadium itself also features all the normal aspects of a professional game - they sell beer, so vendors are constantly moving about the stadium. ​

Speed of the games -  On any given day, there are usually 3-4 games that will take place starting at either 8:00 or 9:00 am depending on the number of games. Your ticket covers all the games for that day. The teams play 9 inning games and they fly by, with games usually lasting between 2 & 2.5 hours. The starting pitcher would start warming up on the side each inning while his team was batting, usually with one or two outs. When he took the field, he’d usually only need 2-3 warm-up pitches before bringing it down. At least two players would help the catcher get ready so that he wouldn’t spend much time in the dugout. In fact, the catcher would stay outside of the dugout once the 3rd out was made - players would bring him his equipment, glove and a cup of water. Teams would always take an INF/OF before the game, which were quick moving and would last 4-6 minutes. Pitchers would work very fast - sometimes starting their windup almost immediately upon receiving the call back from the catcher. Players hustle on and off the field.

There are many rituals and ceremonies related to Japanese high school baseball, here’s a run-down:

Before the first game of each day, they would go through a ceremonial first-pitch routine. These are quite interesting because in addition to the ceremonial first pitch thrower (usually someone who is a historical Koshien legend), they will have a batter, catcher and full umpire. The pitcher, taking his role very seriously, will usually throw a very good pitch, the batter will swing through it and the umpire will make a ball/strike call.

Then, both teams would go into the outfield where their fans were sitting and greet them with a bow. ​ 

After greeting their fans, the teams would then head into the infield to complete their INF/OF routine (I captured several INF/OF routines here). ​The video below is part of a playlist of videos, so stick around to see a few infield and outfield routines.

Following their INF/OF routine, the players would then great the other team and the umpires which consisted of the teams lining up across from each other in front of their dugouts then charging the other team. Both teams would stop just before reaching one another, line up, exchange a bow, and then the home team would take the field. ​

After the game, a similar ritual occurs as the two teams and the umpires line up at home plate, but this time the players shake hands. The losing team then lines up in front of its dugout whereas the winning team lines up in front of home plate (facing center field) and listens as its school song is played over the stadium loudspeakers. Most teams sign along to their school songs and some teams get really into it, bending backwards as they sing. ​

The losing team will then grab their bags and walk off of the field, usually to a nice applause from the crowd.

Reliance on the players -
One of the most interesting things about Japanese high school baseball is how the role of the player is often elevated above that of the coach. Coaches are not allowed to coach the bases during the game, so you’ll see players (wearing helmets) coaching both 1B and 3B during the game. Further, coaches are not able to visit the mound during the game. Teams may call up to 3 time outs, during which they can gather their team-mates on the mound. A player will generally join the conference from the bench, rather than a coach coming from the bench. What you would generally see is that a time out would be called, a player would run up to the coach in the dugout, the coach would give him some instruction and then that player would run out to the mound to talk to the team. Remember, that this is the national championships of all of Japan! The most important games that these teams and players will ever play - and players are heavily relied on to coach the team and make key decisions.

Some teams were even more reliant on their players. One team, in particular, that I saw - I never saw the coach once! The team conducted all of the team meetings in front of the dugout in addition to doing all of the other things that I mentioned before (coaching the bases, handling mound visits, etc.).

These player coaches were very good at their jobs and took the jobs seriously - giving a lot of great instruction to their team-mates. They appeared to be very seasoned coaches. ​

Player coaches would also handle all injuries. One funny feature of the player coaches is that without fail, every player coach would have a can of cold spray jammed into his pocket. As soon as an injury happened, the player would whip out the cold spray and start spraying the impacted area.

Now, from what I noticed, offensive signs would always come from the dugout with the batter and base-runners peering into the coach to get the next sign.

General hustle - The Japanese players would fly around the field, always hustling from one place to another. In addition to their being player-coaches on the team, you would also see players taking on the role of “bat-boy” - hustling out of the dugout to grab the bat just discared by the batter and then the same players would also hustle out to the bases to grab the player’s equipment (shin & elbow guards, for example). Players would also hustle back to dugout after striking out (I believe I have a video of this).

Always dropping ball exactly on the mound - when the 3rd out was made, there would always be a player calling for the ball from whoever had it last. He would drop it down exactly on the pitching mound every time - not in area, but exactly on the pitching mound.

Players helping each other - any time the 3rd out was made, the players would always be helping each other. Players would come out of the dugout, bringing water to players coming off the field. If a player was coming off the field and was due up next in the order, a player would bring him his bat, a cup of water and take his hat/glove back to the bench.

Also, every team had catcher “pit crews” who would help the catcher get ready before each inning. Two players would help put on the catcher’s shin guards while another would help the catcher put his chest protector on and hand him his helmet. This same player would also generally be holding a cup of water for the catcher.

Some other minor things noticed -

The Japanese players were very conscious about gaining ground towards the target. Some taking small, jogging steps towards their target before making a throw.

A lot of fake stealing - Japanese base runners would fake steal a lot.

During OF Fly balls - get it to cutoff man and bag it

During INF/OF routines, they would generally do their INF routine first and then incorporate the outfielders next. I’m not sure of the exact benefits of doing this, but it did allow the players to practice hitting a cut-off before having to hit a cut-off with the rest of the team during cuts and relays.

Numbered by position - players would generally hold numbers relative to their position. So pitchers generally wore #1, catchers #2 (or #12), 1B (#3 or #13), 2B (#4 or #14) and so on.

Youth players would also sit right behind home plate during the game. If you saw them on TV, they were usually locked into the game, usually with a bottle of water sitting uniformly on their right side.

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​I decided to try to take the bullet train as early as possible on Saturday morning. While reserving my bullet train ticket for Saturday, I should have seen some of the warning signs for what was to come. The first one was that I could not get a reserved bullet train ticket for Saturday morning - they were all sold out. In fact, the ticket agent said that they were sold out all day on Saturday. I found this to be strange because I have never had a problem getting a reserved ticket in my prior travels to Japan. Japan bullet trains offer the ability to travel in “un-reserved” cars, which basically means open seating - you show up at the train platform and go to the cars designated as un-reserved and try to find an open seat. I decided that I would go the unreserved route and try to get to Osaka as soon as possible.

I arrived at Shin-Osaka on time, which is the bullet train station in Osaka. I had overnight accomodations in Kyoto given that my original plan was not to get to Osaka until Sunday and spend Saturday day and night in Kyoto. Given my new plans, I left my luggage at Shin-Osaka station in a coin locker and began the journey to Hanshin Koshien stadium, which is the stadium at which the Koshien tournament takes place. ​

I arrived to quite an overwhelming scene at Koshien stadium. Much like the bullet train to Osaka, the area around the stadium was packed and there were people lined up all over the place. I admit to feeling some despair at this point, given that I had planned this whole trip around attending Koshien and now was facing the fear that I might not be able to get into the stadium. Add to this that it was sunny and 90 degrees or more; needless to say that the situation was crazy. ​

I set off to figure out how the lines worked - I began asking around of the various staff members. It took several tries until I was able to find a staff member who spoke English. He spent a lot of time answering all of my questions. He explained that today was unusually busy given that it was a weekend and that it was a Japanese holiday weekend. This explained why the bullet train was so busy - many Japanese were traveling around the country to enjoy the holiday. He also helped explain the line situation. There were 6 major ticket windows - A, B, C, D, E, E, F. A&B ticket windows sold tickets for the outfield. C&D tickets are for the 1st and 3B lines, respectively, whereas E&F are sections for supporters of the team. One team’s supporters plus their band will sit in one section whereas the other team’s supporters and their band will sit in the other section.

He also explained that getting to the stadium between 6 and 7 am is usually ideal although it depends on the popularity of the team playing and their proximity to Osaka. Additionally, he mentioned that coming on a weekend versus a weekday makes a big difference, as crowds will tend to be more prevalent on weekends. Lastly, he mentioned that stadium personnel would be standing holding signs with each line that indicate what ticket window that line is for. That would be helpful later on.

​The lines currently assembled outside the stadium were ones for games later that day. The ticket that you buy entitles you to attend all the games for that day. However, even after the stadium sells out of tickets for the first game, it will release more tickets as the day goes on and people leave the stadium after their team is done competing. That’s what people were currently lined up for - they were lined up for tickets for games later that day.

Given the length of the lines and the weather conditions, I decided it best to not try to go to a game that day and rather spend some time going to the souvenir shops around the stadiums and checking out other parts of the crowd. I then headed back to the train station to ride back to Shin-Osaka to grab my bag and head back up to Kyoto.
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After spending some time in Kyoto on Saturday, I thought about trying to make it down to Osaka again for the games on Sunday morning. However, after looking at the train schedules, I found that to get to Koshien at an appropriate hour, it would mean leaving Kyoto in the very early hours of Sunday, with several different transfers involved. I decided to sleep in in Kyoto, travel to Osaka to drop my bags off and then head out to Nara, which is a town about an hour away from Osaka that I hadn’t been to before. I planned to get back early to Osaka Sunday evening and head to bed in order to get up early Monday morning for the trip to Koshien.

Sunday night, while I wanted to get to Koshien around 4am on Monday morning, I quickly realized that trains to Koshien from Osaka were not running that early. In fact, the earliest train that would get to Koshien would arrive there at around 5:30am. Because of that and my desire to get there as soon as possbile to give me a good chance at a ticket, I decided that a cab would be the best course of action -- it was about a half hour cab ride from the hotel to Koshien.  I woke up early Monday morning as planned hopped in a cab and headed over to Koshien. On the way to Koshien, the cab driver mentioned that there would already be a lot of people at the stadium and even though we were not yet at the stadium, I could see signs of that in the surrounding area as I could see lots of fans walking in the general direction of the stadium. When we pulled up at 4:15am, it was extremely crowded around the stadium and you could see signs that people had stayed all night to get in line. What I later found out was that an Osaka team was playing in the first game that day, meaning that lots of people from Osaka would be attending the game (since Osaka is very close to Koshien). I had a decision to make about what line to get in - I first thought that I would give the 1st&3B line a try and headed in that direction. The line stretched all around stadium to gate number 21 which is down the 3B side of the stadium. I initially got in line to see how the line would move but then quickly decided that there was much more seating in the outfield and that being in the outfield line would give me a much better chance of getting a ticket. I abandoned the C&D line and headed over to the A&B lines which stretched out around Koshien station and around the corner.

The A&B line moved pretty quickly and by 6:30am, I had a ticket and then shortly thereafter I went into the stadium.

Seating in sections A-D are open seating - meaning that you can sit any where in the stadium in that section. As I found out, people will put towels or other items over seats to reserve them and then head to other parts of the stadium to eat or hang out until the game starts. I did the same. Game 1 on this day was at 9am with two games following it. The games move very quickly and generally have a half hour break in between them for the other team to get warmed up and for the maintenance crew to fix the field.

Given the early start that I had on Monday morning, I decided to take Tuesday off from Koshien and travel to some other areas in Japan that I hadn’t been to yet. I also had tickets to the Tigers-Carp game on Tuesday night, so I already had some baseball activity planned for that day.
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I ended up getting back from the Tigers-Carp game late on Tuesday night, which impacted my plans on Wednesday morning to get up early to get to Koshien. By the time I got going, it was already close to 5am, meaning that the trains would soon be running and it would be just as well that I take the train over to Koshien rather than paying for a cab. The train platform was packed with other Koshien-goers and we all got into Koshien station around 5:30 am. From there, the race was on! People started running from the train platform towards the stadium - I did not run with the same enthusiasm as the others, but did engage in a slight jog. I decided to give the 1st&3B side a try - the line there was shorter than Monday (line was queued to gate 15 or 16 which was several sections shorter. This is how I learned to start gauging the line - by seeing to what section the line was backed up to. As I would find out, this line moved much more slowly and by 7am, game time was approaching and we were not yet to the front of the line. Wednesday was a 4 game day, meaning that games would start as early as 8am. You could feel the tension in the lines as they all converged on the ticket windows. Each ticket window had a video board above it and 1 by 1 the windows started flashing Japanese characters with a “<” sign mixed within the characters. I theorized that that meant that they were starting to run out of tickets. My theory soon turned out correct, as the flashing sign was soon replaced with solid red Japanese characters. In lines around me, this started happening - which set off a large groan from the people in the line and then large commotion as people in those lines started to hustle over to the A&B line (which was still open) to try to get outfield seats. The whole time while I was in line D, the A&B line looked pretty short and was continuing to move. I was starting to get nervous as I got closer and closer to the front, knowing that I was moments away from my line selling out of tickets. But, as luck would have it, I got a ticket! It had to be one of the last tickets available.

​I took my ticket, which was on the 3B infield line, and went into the stadium to find a seat. Many good seats under the overhang were still available, so I picked one and settled in for the game. While I was at the game, I met someone who spoke very good English and he explained that there was a holiday earlier in the week so lots of people were free to come to the Koshien games. I asked him about Friday and what the lines would be like - he said that they should be fairly light because not many people would take time off to come to the game.

In the later afternoon on Wednesday, given that I had tickets again to the Tigers-Carp game that night, I had to leave Koshien before the start of the 4th game. I headed out to the Tigers-Carp game then got back to my hotel later on Wednesday night because I had no plans as of yet for Thursday.

For Friday, I wanted to get up earlier than I had on Wednesday knowing that I came very close to not getting in and that I wanted to get a good seat on the infield. When my alarm went off at 3:05am, I debated staying in bed and calling it good for Koshien - I had had two great days at Koshien and thought about relaxing on my last full day in Japan. I slowly overcame those thoughts, hopped in the shower and headed over to Koshien, arriving at the stadium around 4:15am. When I arrived, the stadium was the least crowded that I had seen all week - the C&D line was in great shape and not yet wrapped around the stadium. It wasn’t long before I had a ticket and picked out a great seat several rows from the field. The weather was great all day!

Getting to Koshien -
Koshien can be a very popular event to get to, with 50 thousand fans at every game and many more outside the stadium looking to get into the stadium. Here is some practical information how getting into Koshien.

Things to think about before you go -
What teams are playing? If you can, it pays to do some research ahead of time of what teams are playing on the day that you want to go. If the teams that are playing are close in proximity to Osaka, then there will probably be a lot of people wanting to go to the game. There are not a lot of English websites on this topic, but you can search on google and make your way through some of the Japanese sites to find the schedule.

What day of the week is it? If it’s a weekend, then lots more people will go. I encourage you to avoid going on a weekend unless it’s your only chance to go. If you have to go on a weekend, get there very early.

Is it Japanese national holiday? If so, treat it like a weekend day - try to avoid it if possible. Lots of people will attend on holidays.

What round are they currently in? Koshien has 56 teams and the year I went (2018), they played 3 preliminary rounds before the quarterfinals. I attended rounds 2&3. Quarterfinal tickets are very popular, as you can imagine. The earlier in Koshien that you go, the better chance that the crowds will be smaller.

How will you get to the stadium? Keep in mind that rains to Koshien don’t start running until around 5am. If you can plan early enough,  I’d recommend getting accommodations as close as possible to Koshien, preferably walking distance - you will need to secure these accommodations early, however - months in advance. I stayed near Osaka Station, which isn’t terribly close to Koshien but a decent train or cab ride away. Cabs from Osaka Station to Koshien will run around 5-6k yen ($50-60).

What should I take to Koshien? The stadium is pretty loose about what you can bring in. There are no bag checks at the entrance. Essential items are - sunscreen (research this on google about how to buy sunscreen - generally it’s available at all convenience stores like 7-11 or Lawson), a light towel preferrable white in color (this will help keep yourself covered and allow you to brush away sweat), a hat (bucket-style hats are generally best as they block the most sun), and a fan (fans are big staples of Japanese game, critical to help keep yourself cool). Keep in mind that you can also bring in drinks and food into the stadium - I brought several drinks and caffeinated beverages - the caffeine is necessary to help with fatigue you might experience from getting there early in the morning!

​#第100回全国高等学校野球選手権記念大会 #野球#甲子園 #baseball #甲子園球場 #japan #koshien

I’ve been meaning to write down some notes on Infield & outfield routines.

Here are some thoughts on routines plus where I’m at currently on a routine.

Inspiration - I’ve taken inspiration for this from several places. See YouTube links below.
Vanderbilt INF/OF - YouTube Link - What I really liked about this routine was how they incorporated their catcher throws into the OF portion of their routine. I thought that this was pretty unique.
Japanese INF/OF - YouTube Link - The Japanese routines were the first ones I saw where they would not include the traditional 1B-3B throw which usually happens in American I/O routines in the first round or two. Rather than doing this rep, they’ll have the 1B turn 2.
Lake Brantley HS INF/OF - YouTube Link - I really liked this routine and thought it was truly efficient. What I got from this routine, plus other FL HS routines, was that they eliminated short throws from their OF routine. For example, they didn’t make LF-3B throw, nor did they have CF or RF throw to 2B. Those are short throws so this team eliminated them. Makes a lot of sense.

Here’s a sample routine -
Gather players together near your dugout - sprint onto field (coaches included) to your positions.
Personnel required -

• ​Full infield/outfield plus your catcher.
• Assistant coach to hit GBs to 1B.
• 2 POs - one to catch for you and another to provide pitches to catcher.

OF Rounds -

• ​Have your OFs do 2 reps each on throws below.
  • ​LF-2B, CF-2B, RF-2B​
  • LF-3B, CF-3B, RF-3B
    
• After the 3B round, work on a double-cut to 3B in each major gap 
  
  • ​LF/CF gap, CF/RF gap
    
• Then do 2 reps to home plate
  
  • ​LF-HP, CF-HP, RF-HP

After this, your OF is done. You can have your assistant coach go into the OF to hit your OFs fly balls and/or do other fly ball tracking drills. 

Catcher then throw it around the infield -
C-5-4-6-3-C -- do this as many times as you need to give everyone 1 rep. 

Infield-In round -
5-2, 6-2, 4-2, 3-2

Take it to 1B - every infielder take it to 1B. Rather than having your 1B throw to 3B on its rep, either have the 1B turn 2 -- 1B-SS-Fake Return Throw to 1B-whirl and throw to 3B-C. Or, complete a PFP rep, hit a GB to 1B, have a spare pitcher cover 1B, 1B flips to pitcher covering. 

"One & Cover" - hit GB to infielder, infielder throws to 1B who then throws to the catcher who catches and throws to the infielder covering a base. Ball goes around the horn back into the catcher. 

Turn 2 - every infielder turns 2. Don't forget about your catcher - hit a dribbler in front of HP that they have to field and fire to 2B, SS turns the play to 1B. 

"Two & Cover" - similar to "One & Cover" but once you get to your middle infielders, you can start working in your 1st & 3rd play throws. So, if you have a SS or 2B cut play, have them work on it here. 

Finish off your INF by doing a throw on the run for every position. Have your 1B make the throw to the plate -- catch & tag!

I spent the course of 2 days watching Ron Gardenhire run the “Good Morning America Drill” with the Detroit Tigers. The first day was the first day that I saw the drill and was able to get some video of it. The 2nd day, since I was mostly familiar with the workings of the drill, I focused on documenting the different rounds and movements. Attached below is a video of some of the movements (not all) and my notes for how the drill is run.

The drawback of the drill is that you end up having groups of players standing around for several minutes at a time. Also, the way the drill was run at this level was that the ground ball roller gets refilled by a line of 6-7 catchers who relay the ball back to the roller who is running the drill. Both of these points have definite positives for the major league level - you want to give your guys ample rest while avoiding injury. For youth & HS players, I would likely modify this drill to keep the idle players busy and have the roller refill via a bucket while having the receivers (1B) drop their baseballs into empty buckets. What I present here is the “unmodified” drill as it was run by the Tigers.

Setup -
Have infielders at all 4 positions (3B, SS, 2B, 1B).
Have 1 coach as your “roller”
Have a line of players from 1B to the roller to relay/exchange the ball from 1B back to the roller.

Rounds - there are multiple rounds, here’s a breakdown -
Round 1 - consists of several different types of GBs- Conventional groundballs at the player, backhands, backhand bouncers (ball played on one bounce to the backhand), Forehand plays. Throw to 1B after fielding each ball. 3-4 reps on each GB for each player. Rotate through to other positions (SS, 2B). Other position groups wait until you rotate back to them. When you get to the 1B-men, they make DP turns to the SS - roller tosses them a ball in the air, 1B-men turn inside and turn it to the SS. No return throw.
Round 2 - consists of DP turns. Roller provides both convention ground balls and backhands to players. When you get to 2B, you can include forehand spins. 1B hold runner on then catch ball in the air and then turn 2. You can bounce it to the 1B-men as well.
Round 3 - on the run plays. Coach presents a roller that requires an on-the-run play. 1B-men again turn 2.

At some point, you should also have your 1B play deep and receive a deep ball in the air that they then turn to SS — so they turn DPs on the OF-side of the baseline as well, like they’re playing deep on a 1st and 2nd and get a GB where they are throwing on that side of the baseline. 

You can also include other types of GBs, such as glove side spins, for all players. This is shown in the video below. 

Random thoughts from the first day of the Dubai trip -

• ​English is very widespread in Dubai, much more so than Japan - but it has been tough to understand the spoken English at times here.
• I flew Emirates air to Dubai. I wasn’t as overwhelmed by the airline as I thought I would be. The seats were actually very small with almost no legroom. ANA, which flys from Tokyo to Chicago, was much better. But, Emirates food was pretty decent.