Sports

Japan and Australia have not traditionally shared the same sporting preferences, with Australia choosing Aussie Rules and cricket while Japan preferred baseball and sumo. But the great friends are increasingly becoming sporting rivals, too, in soccer and rugby as sporting fields have broadened in recent decades. Learn more here.
「日本とオーストラリアは、これまでスポーツの好みがあまり重なってきませんでした。オーストラリアはオージールールズやクリケット、日本は野球や相撲を中心に発展してきたためです。ところが近年、競技の幅が広がるにつれ、サッカーやラグビーでは“仲良し同士”がライバル関係になる場面も増えてきました。詳しくはこちらでどうぞ

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    Little League Laps Up Kanga Clout

    Kangaroos play a prominent role in encouraging kids to take up baseball in the Aichi Prefecture city of Kota. Kosuke the Kangaroo is the marsupial mascot of the Aichi Kota Boys youth baseball club that runs age-group squads including its Kangaroo Kids for first and second graders new to the game. The club has been around since 2009 but has not given a public explanation for why it chose the kangaroo as the animal to promote its game. It’s possibly because youth teams often pick animal names to sound friendly and energising. A kangaroo fits a young-players programme because it suggests bouncy energy, protection and youthfulness — easy, family-friendly branding…

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    Kangaroo FC’s Kids Turn Hops Into Large Leaps

    The littlest joeys from the Kangaroo FC youth soccer club in the Chiba Prefecture bed town of Matsudo have won regional tournaments, going from tiny hops to large leaps befitting the team’s monicker. Kangaroo FC’s team of first graders have taken home the Yachiyo Okamura Cup in the past. Kangaroo FC has been around since 1981 and looks to be a youth team powerhouse. Nor do I know why a club from a city best known for being a bed town community for commuters to the capital chose to be the kangaroos. It’s possible the team chose the kangaroo because it evokes jumping, speed, and protecting younger players. And the…

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    Superstar Prodigy Makes Cricketing History

    Australian-Japanese prodigy Ayaka Kato-Stafford has created cricket history. The 15-year-old all-rounder made her international debut playing for Japan, a cricketing minnow and still only an Associate Member of the International Cricket Council. But the dual national with a career batting average of 32.67 and bowling average of a miserly 14.25 has been snapped up by Australia, cricket’s most powerful nation, to play for its powerful under-19 team. Her phenomenal achievement has been lauded by the Japan Cricket Association. Few Japan Australia developments have given me the pleasure that Kato-Stafford’s elevation to the top grade under-age competition. Here’s hoping she keeps up the great progress, promoting cricket in Japan and Japanese…

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    Up There, Kazari!

    Australian Sports Day was a fantastic event held at Komazawa Olympic Park yesterday, and I got to go and enjoy some of the proceedings that were a decorative display, (or should I say kazari?), of some of Down Under’s favorite pastimes. The day itself was a ripper, starting with explanations, demonstrations and games of cricket, moving on to games of footy and then ending with a netball exhibition, with sales of Aussie foods, wear and fare such as meat pies and banana bread and cuppas from Club Australia‘s Tad Watanabe and the Australia Cafe van. Needing to deal with duties in the garden and home and able to enjoy lunch…

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    Putting The Limp Into Olympics

    Japan did the most amazing job of hosting the Olympic Games under the mostr trying of circumstances, and I would argue there probably isn’t a country on earth that could have done it nearly as well. But the big question is: Why? We held the Games behind closed doors. Only the most privileged of guests were able to see the athletes do their thing, and I’m sure the quarantining rules were broken for many. Personally, I got to see almost nothing. I saw none of the downtown Tokyo events, but did get to perform an errand near Horse Park, where the equestrian events were held. The park was surrounded by…

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    No Wonder the Wallabies Were Wallies in RWC2019

    Australia’s rugby team, the Wallabies, were ignominiously dumped from the 2019 Rugby World Cup that Japan is currently hosting (and being lauded for both its organization skills and the rousing performance of its unfancied team). The Wallabies lost badly to England in a quarter final, mostly because they were not good enough as a team. But Kangaeroo.com has also discovered another reason for the Wallabies’ woes. Gorgeous Jindaiji Temple, which supported the Wallabies’ woeful World Cup, is situated in the Tokyo suburb of Chofu, location of the Aussies’ group stage loss against Wales on September 29 that effectively derailed their campaign on the field. Jindaiji had proudly displayed Wallabies jerseys…

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    (Costumed) Kangaroo Stars In The “Worst Sports Movie Ever Made”

    Matilda has been described online as “the worst sports movie ever made.” Kindly, as it turns out.Matilda was a dreadful, alleged comedy about a boxing kangaroo that challenges for the world heavyweight champion title.The movie was made in 1978, when Muhammad Ali was probably at his most widely popular (and the reigning world champion), and starred Elliot Gould, who was then still not too far off the peak of a career that continues going strong today.Co-starring was another A-lister, Robert Mitchum, so it’s hard to argue that the cast and circumstances surrounding the movie didn’t pack a punch.Unfortunately, the kangaroo featured in the film was clearly a bloke in a…

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    Boomerang Shrine And Shooting The Rapids

    Mrs. Kangaeroo and I got another wonderful experience shooting down the rapids in the delightful Saitama Prefecture town of Nagatoro, which is also home to a shrine hoping to draw people back with something of an Aussie touch. Boomerang Kaeru Shrine, just outside Nagatoro Station, is dedicated to the worship of frogs, but is actually a play on words. The Japanese for frog is kaeru (蛙), but also a homonym for returning home (帰る), hence the boomerang, which (allegedly) returns to the thrower upon being hurled. (This is a story for another day). Also got to find some Engrish that appealed to my eternal schoolboy side.

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    AFL – Modern Australia’s Religion and Failed Proselytizing in Japan

    If post-European colonization Australian has any sort of religion, there’s a good argument to be made that it could be the indigenous code of football, known as Australian Rules. For most Australians in the southern part of the country, footy provides them with the closest opportunity they will have to a tribal allegiance and generally loyalties toward their team are fervent and frequently location based even now (and almost exclusively the further you go back into the past). The Australian Football League (AFL), administer of the sport, to this day tries to spread the Aussie footy message overseas, but the reality is that the game remains local. Nonetheless, its impact…