Reppin Oakland in Japan

Oakland A's caps in the Japanese countryside! I'm pictured above in "Kip's" store in Ena with the owners, the Katos, and three A's caps. The Katos, especially Ken, are HUGE fans of American culture, clothing and coffee. I used to tutor the Katos' two sons, Kent and Kenny, and loved hearing Ken and his store workers get excited about the Bay Area. Ken entertained both my sisters when they visited with nonstop excitement about American products, places and people, and nonstop beverages and food.

The store is named after Kip's Bar on Durant Street in Berkeley -- a place Ken loved to go while at Cal. Peet's is also repped in the store, along with In N Out, LL Bean, Starbucks, Ruehl, Abercrombie and dozens of other American companies.

Fremont Tiger fans, check this out!

One of the biggest sports events of the year in Japan is not professional, not collegiate, but high school. The Japanese national high school baseball tournament is underway and there are now just four teams left in each ken (prefecture). And as you can see from the video above, the fans go nuts -- at least when their team is at bat. Strict rules allow the fans for the team at bat to stand up, dance and yell out chants for their team, while the other fans may only clap their megaphones together politely while sitting with their mouths shut. At the end of the game, the losing team bows to the winning team and each team then bows to its fans. The tournament gets huge play on Japanese televsion and professional scouts are out and about, looking for the next Ichiro.

I got to experience the tournament first hand today, traveling to Gifu City with my hosts to see Toki Commercial High School fans cheer their team on to 6-3 victory. My host, Mr. Murai, was the principal of TCHS until April of this year when he retired. (Murai is famous in Gifu Ken for being the first college player to dunk a basketball!)