In this guide I will tell you what I learned about Japan's sports and foods. Some popular sports they play are baseball, soccer, skiing, golf, running, martial arts, ice hockey, racket sports, and basketball. The main foods they eat are fish and rice. Teens in Japan enjoy many different types of sports and many kinds of food.
Baseball was first brought to Japan by an American in 1873. There are little leagues in Japan for younger kids to play baseball. Japanese baseball is mostly like American baseball but a little different. Baseball is very competitive at all levels.
There are two professional baseball leagues with six teams in each league. Teens like to watch the games on TV. There is a central league and a pacific league. Many high schools and colleges have baseball teams. The finals are even on TV!
Sumo wrestling is a traditional sport that is more than 2,000 yrs old. At age 15 some teens train for sumo wrestling. They go to a special school that teaches sumo wrestling. At the school they follow a special diet and training routine to put on weight. Some people can way up 440 pounds!
Each match begins on a ritual, where they put salt on the ring to purify it. Sumo wrestling was performed to please Shinto gods. They fight on a straw mat known as a ring. Sumo matches are normally one minute long. To win, the opponent must fall down or go out of the ring. The sumo wrestlers wear loin cloths and tie their hair in a traditional Japanese topknot. There are six tournaments each year. There are 50 wrestlers in each tournament. The wrestler that has the best record through 15 matches wins. Many teens watch these matches on TV.
Some types of martial arts are Judo, Karate, Kendo, Kyudo, Aikdio, and Samurai. Judo, Karate, and Aikidio are performed without weapons. Kendo, Kyudo, and Samurai are performed with weapons. Kyudo is a form of archery where you shoot arrows at targets. Kendo is where you use bamboo sticks or wooden sticks as swords. Samurai uses regular swords.
Golf is very expensive to play. Many teens go to the driving ranges to hit golf balls. In 2002, Japan held the soccer world cup with South Korea. Many teens went to the games or watched them on TV. The J-League is professional soccer league that started in 1993. Since 1999 it has had two divisions, J-1 and J-2.
Many teens like winter sports such as ice hockey, snowboarding, and skiing. In Neagon, Japan, they hosted the Winter Olympics. Many teens go to the Tokyo marathon because many people participated in it.
There are many different kinds of food. The traditional breakfast is fish, rice, and vegetables. Rice is served with many meals. They use rice for many things like rice cakes, rice wine, rice flour, and rice vinegar. Fish and soybeans is where they get most of there protein.
For lunch they eat lots of noodles. They use chopsticks to eat a lot of their food. Japan even has fast food now! Teens also go to vending machines for snacks. They like to put many spices on there food.
Some Japanese types of Sushi are nigiri-zushi and norimaki. Teens like to go to the street vendors that sell food. They normally have longs lines because they are very popular.
Most of the time they will eat there dinner with family. Before they eat they say, “Itadckimasu” which means, I receive. After the meal they say, “Gochiso-sama-deshita” which means, it was a magnificent feast. They have three types of seaweed they eat and six types of mushrooms they eat.
Some similarities U.S. teens have with Japanese teens are we both have gym classes. Also baseball is the most popular sport. Some differences are they call soccer football and we call it soccer. They do sumo wrestling and we do wrestling.
I know I learned a lot by doing my research for this paper. I learned that Japan has a great variety of foods. They have many sports that keep them physically active. The most interesting thing I learned was that a person could way up to 440 pounds and could still be considered an athlete.
