Most sports in Japanese are referred to with borrow words.
フットボール - futtoboru
サッカー - Sakka
バスケットボール - BasukettoboruBut baseball? You think that’s besuboru? Hell nah, that’s mother fuckin yakyu (野球)
To me, that’s the greatest sign there is of how integrated into the culture the sport is.
I feel like sumo is the Imperial sport and baseball is the National sport
Sumo’s the national sport but baseball is the popular one. People even get excited for the high school national baseball tournament. I don’t think people care about watching any sports in the US below the college level.
Fuckin sigma. Sumo has so much AURA
But, to be sure, it has great physical impact too
Isn’t it more like WWE than Greco Roman Wrestling though?
A sumo wrestler is like a defensive lineman in gridiron football, combined with a judo competitor. Sumotori can shove their opponent down or out, they can hit with an open hand, they can do BJJ-style “no gi” throws, or grab the belt for leverage and/or do judo-style trips and throws. Yeah they’re fat but beneath that they are like half muscle. Most matches are over in under 30 seconds, many under 10.
For more info see this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA8wS_t5Lv8
For English-commented matches see: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/sumo/
Dude, watch some high level matches, they collide like freight trains, punch each other in the face five times and someone inevitably ends up making a 300 pound mass of muscle and fat their bitch.
I’ve been writing brief (a few sentences) breakdowns of many of the daily matches over in the sumo sub. Today (day 9) had some good stuff to check out.
The live videos go down not too long after streaming but this one’s up for now, and I recommend checking out this match. If it’s gone when you get to it the highlights will be up tomorrow.
Even professional wrestling like WWE is more intense in Japan, Strong Style is not a joke you can see the impact difference in striking power
It’s all real if thats what you’re asking
oooh… for some reason when they said “WWE” my sleep-deprived brain read “MMA” lel.
Damn, professional KFC eater’s? You really are stealing America’s culture.
I would like to see what Japan could pull off playing Banana Ball.
They can have it!
Why did you use THAT flag?
Lol, this isn’t my creation and I wondered the same thing. I assumed that maybe this was what the flag looked like in 1872, but looking it up now - nope! It says this was the war flag.
Yeah that’s something we like about Japan. Our countries keep getting into things the other introduces us to.
That’s fine. The more the merrier.
That’s why we’re invading Cuba: to teach them baseball! We might even share our American love of classical cars.
Wasn’t Fidel a big baseball player/fan?
Its a joke because there’s a high population of Cubans in the MLB.
Baseball, huh?
Their Little League are always top tier, and the best player in MLB is Japanese.
Kids, play nice, you can share a national sport, just like everybody else does with footie.
America: No.
So should rugby be called handegg, too?
manly handegg
There are a lot of very valid criticisms of American football. I love it, sometimes in spite of myself, but I won’t fault anyone who thinks it’s an overly-managed made-for-TV snoozefest with no rhythm whatsoever. For better or worse, though, those helmets and pads do not make it any less of a violent “manly” sport. Far from it: they are the way Americans make ourselves feel better about watching a literal bloodsport with a ball.
The way the game moves and the ruleset reward explosive impacts, and the unlimited substitutions mean players are selected and trained to optimize delivering and enduring that violence instead of, say, actually running for 80 minutes. The result is a dozen hits a game that would make a “biggest hits of the season” compilation video for rugby or Aussie rules. Also chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Hand egg without brain shell.
Vs cushioned hand egg?
Rugby is real sport for real men.
It is. And so is American football. You don’t believe that because you’re ignorant, but just because you don’t like or understand a sport doesn’t mean it isn’t a real sport.
Only real men argue seriously in meme conversations.
Most of the points are scored by kickers these days 😠
still egg
AckSHully an egg has a pointed end and a rounded end. American footballs are prolate spheroids.
I had prolate spheroids once. I spent two weeks in the hospital.
prolate spheroid sounds like a good insult
Or a band name
Geef me mijn HONKbal. Het is honkbal hier in Holland. Honk. Bal. Honkbal. In het Japans: honkubalu.
How many countries claim football?
Which football?
The one with the foot and the ball
If it was the American version, the question wouldn’t make any sense.
Rugby is also football. The official name is Rugby Football.
every football game starts with a foot kicking the ball, just say soccer
I didn’t say American football. That’s not really something that would make sense since it’s not the national sport and definitely not a national sport in any other countries.
just say soccer next time. the rest of the world can get football back if they win a super bowl ever
Can’t decide if to down vote you for “soccer” or updoot you for funny. Argh. Got a headache now.
Take this updoot and get out.
Also Finland
That’s what happens to colonies. Look at how popular Cricket is in Commonwealth countries.
Most Commonwealth countries, Canada is different because of our close connection with the US.
There’s a group of Indians near me who play cricket every weekend so sometimes I’ll go by and bother them. “You’re playing the game wrong, you know. Have you guys never watched baseball before?” They’re always super nice and will spend ages explaining everything about the sport. They have a level of zeal for the sport which cannot be matched by even us hockey fans. Last summer we went down to the Galapagos and our group was mostly Brits and I would wait until late in the evening after they had started drinking and ask if they play soccer over there, and that is just as much fun to me.
ask if they play soccer
I mean, that is where the word came from originally.
I know the story: “association” → “assoc” → “soccer”, but they apparently didn’t get the memo, and there was much arguing.
We have Rugby and Gaelic Football as our sports from the Commonwealth. We just suck at them because there’s only 3 months a year to play it.
I’m a big guy, so someone decided that I’d be good at Rugby, and I got invited to the high school rugby practice. I had a good time even though the practice was in March and there was a foot of snow on the ground, but to this day, I have zero idea of how to actually play the game.
The worst part of snow is how hard the ground is.
Move ball from one end to the other, touch it down. Don’t throw it forward.
are you saying that japan was a US colony in 19th century?
Pretty much was after WWII.
iirc baseball was japans national sport before ww2
Really? I’m anything but an expert in Japanese history but weren’t they very anti-western back in the empire’s days?
Also not an expert, just talking from what I remember from history class: in the mid 19th century, Japan underwent a period of rapid westernization and industrialization called the Meiji Restoration. This was at least in part a response to western interference in the region, including a pivotal moment when the US forced the country to sign unequal trade deals by showing up with some big naval vessels.
So it was kind of a love-hate relationship. They didn’t like the westerners invading their country, but they also admired them enough that they not only adopted western tech, but also a bunch of social and political customs.
All I know about japanese baseball is the number 34-2
