Japanese

Recreation

Traditional Sports:

Every traditional sport of Japan has been ritualized. Participants must follow a strict code that gives each sport the quality of an artistic performance.

Sumo, the Japanese style of wrestling, is an example. Sumo professionals are mostly country youths of extraordinary weight, brawn, and height. A sumo match takes place in a small, circular, sand-covered arena. The object is to force the opponent out of the ring or to touch the ground with some part of his body other than the soles of his feet.

Most other popular traditional sports also are two-man contests of bodily contact. In judo, wrestlers--clad in jacket, sash, and trousers of tough material--use hip, leg, back, and foot throws to force the opponent off his feet.

Karate adds slashing and thrusting blows of the rigidly open hand or the foot.

Kendo requires padded armor and a mask, being a stylized slashing sword play of wooden staves.

Archery is an exception to the pattern of bodily contact sports. The bow, an extremely long self-bow, rises high above the archer, who is urged to practice concentration on the arrow's impact on the narrow target rather than on his technique of release.

Games:

Some of the favorite recreations are sedentary. There are two kinds of card games, various board games, and games with domino like pieces. Of the board games, the two most common are go, in which one places seedlike counters on squares in an attempt to surround and capture an opponent's piece; and shogi, a form of chess. Mah-johgg uses domino like pieces of various denominations; every city has mah-jongg parlors.

Modern Sports:

Baseball is the most universally enjoyed team sport in Japan. Virtually all boys play sandlot games, often in temple or shrine grounds for lack of parks in cities.

Other team sports that are played in colleges and high schools are rugby, soccer, volleyball, and basketball. Tennis, swimming, diving, track-and-field events, Western gymnastics, boxing, and table tennis have long been widely popular. Since World War II, golf has become a popularity.

While hiking and mountain-climbing clubs had been active on college campuses for decades, these recreations have begun to attract thousands of young people.

Also, ski resorts have sprung up throughout the Japanese Alps.

Modern Recreation:

Calligraphy and traditional chanting and dancing are favorite pastimes in Japan. Some Japanese play traditional or Western musical instruments for recreation. Japan has many clubs for the writing of haiku and tanka, two forms of Japanese poetry.

The Japanese like to travel in their beautiful country, which has numerous inns, hot spring resorts, and other lodging places.

Many people in cities play a pinball game called pachinko. Tokyo has hundreds of pachinko parlors.

Concerts, plays, and motion pictures attract large audiences in Japan. Coffee houses and tearooms are popular places for friends to meet. Many Japanese enjoy dining in restaurants. At some older Japanese-style restaurants, young women called geisha entertain patrons. The geisha have been trained from childhood in the arts of conversation, dance, and music.

Festivals:

The Japanese celebrate many festivals during the year. One of the most popular celebrations is the New Year's Day Festival, which begins on January 1. On this day, the Japanese dress in their fanciest, most colorful kimonos. People visit their friends and relatives and exchange gifts. Dances, parades, and many sporting events are held throughout the country.