(June 5, 2011) Sports has been in the news in Stillwater this past week with the Cowgirls playing in the College Softball World Series, the Cowboys playing in a regional tournament trying to earn a spot in the College Baseball World Series and the NCAA Golf Championship Tournament being played at Karsten Creek with the Cowboys as the host team. Sports are also very popular throughout Japan but not so much so at the collegiate level as in this country. Sumo has been Japan’s national sport for well over a century but since the end of WW II baseball has been extremely popular from elementary school to professional baseball with several players from Japan playing professional baseball in this country. Girls play softball from an early age through college but volleyball is more popular with them. Golf is very popular with adults but is very expensive and is therefore something of an affluent person’s sport. Land is very expensive, therefore few universities can afford to have their own golf course for practice and tee times at public courses often must be made weeks in advance and this would not be practical for university golf teams. With a large percentage of the country being mountainous with heavy snowfall, skiing is very popular. Our friends in Kameoka can be on the slopes in the southern areas of the Japan Alps a couple hours after leaving home. Gymnastics and ice skating are popular with a smaller segment of the population and Japan usually does well in these sports in the Winter Olympics. But for the foreseeable future, sumo and baseball will probably continue as Japan’s most popular sports.
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