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Post by Otaku on Oct 27, 2008 21:40:55 GMT 8
...to put it simply...I HATE IT!!! The let's-only-focus-on-our-peeps grinds on me at this time of year. Either fire all Japanese players from foreign baseball teams or report the HIGHLIGHTS of the game!!!
Right now, American baseball is getting down to the finals. In a game that was played last night, there were two Japanese players...one on each team. They both sucked big hairy balls! Iwamura's suckiness actually helped insure his team's loss.
An entire baseball game was played between two American baseball teams, Rays and Phillies, but with the two Japanese players pictures plastered all over the front of each team's logo and with the type of reporting on the news, you would have thought these two sucky athletes were not only the franchise players of their teams but they were the only players on the teams. But, that wasn't even the worst part, the news actually kept showing over and over again Iwamura missing a crucial defensive play that helped cost the game.
Then, instead of going on to showing ANY type of highlights, it cut to two separate interviews of Iwamura stating how he is going to try harder tomorrow.
I'm going to put this in laymen's terms so even the most stupidest of people can understand...IWAMURA, YOU SUCK!!! GET OFF THE TELEVISION SCREEN!!!
GROW UP, JAPAN!!
Prove to me you are more mature than the woo-wow-Japan-is-so-great-because-a-minute-fraction-of-the-country's-athletes-are-good-enough-to-play-sports-outside-the-country!!! Prove to me that competition and performance is more important than nationalistic pride!!
Somehow, that rant was rather therapeutic...
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Post by junkdna on Oct 28, 2008 7:31:30 GMT 8
Dude, that rant was crazed. American TV only shows American baseball. And besides I have seen plenty (far too much if you ask me) of coverage of the US baseball finals (or whatever they are called). As for me personally, I could really care less for sports on my TV at anytime. I hate sports news and I hate sports games. Sports Day drives me nuts, cuz all the students do is run. Run this way, run that way, run this fast, run that fast, run up, run down, run sideways. Play a little baseball or dodgeball or something other than fucking running.
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Post by Otaku on Oct 28, 2008 7:48:27 GMT 8
I don't have a problem with local baseball games being aired or reported on when they happen within the country...the TV does an adequate job airing and reporting the games. The problem I have is the blatant disregard for the spirit of the game in place of blatant display of nationalism.
I'm not going to get into a comparison debate between Japan and American TV because America obviously throws a lot more money into the TV industry. However, I will say you can find non-American games on the tube back home and when you do, the TV camera doesn't focus on ONLY the American players...it's about the game. The reason the game is being aired is so people can watch THE GAME...not just a couple of people playing the game. A couple of weeks ago I was watching a Boston Red Sox game on Japanese TV and the only thing I saw all game was Daisuke Matsuzaka. Even when his team was batting, the camera would constantly be cutting to him sitting in the dugout picking his nose or rubbing his arm. Only when someone would step in front of the camera did it seem like they would go back to watching the actual game. It got so bad that I was hoping Daisuke would pitch a full game because I was afraid if he came out, the TV station would start cutting pieces of the game out and skip to the end.
Now, if you wanna argue that American sports are only aired because Japanese players are playing, be my guest. I would whole-heartedly agree!
I know it doesn't look good for an admin of the forum to go off on a rant...but blatant disregard for the 'spirit of game' in favor of nationalism makes me cringe, just like scratching a chalkboard.
NOTE TO SELF: turn off the TV...
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Post by matt on Oct 28, 2008 9:06:20 GMT 8
I agree with Otaku on this one. I really don't enjoy watching sports on TV at all except if there's nothing else on or it's my team who's playing. But even back in the States even though it's mostly American sports being showed, the focus on the game is not on American players but rather on the sport itself. More attention might be payed to stars, but it's not exclusive. The focus is on what can the stars bring to the game; not the game being played by the stars. I remember when Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa were going for the new record for home runs in a single season. They got a ton of coverage. But nothing like what the Japanese press gives the Japanese players who play Major League Baseball. The non-Japanese players get pretty much NO coverage (I have seen a few games on TV, mostly because there was nothing else on and I was tired of studying). Just ask your students about MLB players. They all know Ichiro and Matsuzaka and a few other Japanese players. But what about American, Cuban, Domincan Republic(an), or good players from other countries? Even my most adamant baseball club students don't know anyone but the Japanese players. They don't even know Babe Ruth, one of the most famous baseball players in the history of the sport! Just the name alone is famous! Generally, I think it's because of the us-vs-them mentality here. It dictates that only their side's story has value.
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Post by junkdna on Oct 28, 2008 13:49:02 GMT 8
Okay, I'll agree with you guys that their focus needs to be broader, but you have to remember, this is a little island country with a history of self-esteem problems. It's only natural that they would do things to make themselves feel good. I think this has a lot to do with the way non-Japanese are treated in general.
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Post by matt on Oct 28, 2008 14:58:56 GMT 8
I agree with that Junk, but I don't agree that Japan is a tiny little island country. Japan is a major player in the world economy. Their population is almost that of Russia's (but not for long, considering the decline in the birthrate), (tenth in the world for population), and Japan is the world's third largest economy. Japan is as first rate as North America, Europe and Australia, and any other first-world country you can name, simply by living standards alone. My problem with this country stems from the fact that for being such a predominant country in the world the way they treat foreigners is like that of a tiny little island nation who has never seen a foreigner before. If Japan were truly a tiny little island nation, then all that we foreigners experience here wouldn't be of any surprise at all, and, I think, would be expected, considering the size and isolation. But because Japan is as big as it is, and as economically powerful as they are, the nationalistic tendancies which are so against foreigners and anything un-Japanese are what bother me.
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Post by junkdna on Oct 29, 2008 7:38:35 GMT 8
Hi Matt, I meant tiny in size. Yes, the population is big, but the archipeligo itself is small. That's how Japan compares itself I believe. They see a small island nation amidst large countries like China, Russia, the US, and think flonkin' A, we are small. So they have huddle together like they historically huddled together in their tiny villages when they needed passports just to travel around the country and 'gaijin' were actually people from the next village (ie someone outside the village, someone we don't know, someone to distrust, someone outside the 'us').
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Post by matt on Oct 29, 2008 15:19:12 GMT 8
Ok, well I thought you were actually saying that Japan is a tiny little island nation, which is something I have heard from almost every Japanese, as well as countless ALTs (who probably heard it from other Japanese). But yeah, seeing how Japanese culture seems to be slow to change, that makes sense that since that is what they used to do, they still do, in a sense, do it. I wonder if this is where the 'uchi' and 'soto' concepts of thinking/communicating come from? or is that from something else entirely?
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Post by junkdna on Oct 30, 2008 8:55:32 GMT 8
'uchi' and 'soto' derived from a long, complicated history I am sure, however, in a very general sense, I think it derived from isolation, and then perhaps that was later compounded with the fact that they were suddenly thrust upon by larger forces (before Perry I mean -- mongol invasions and chinese scholars and franscican (sp?) monks and the like). anyway, i went over to wikipedia and dug this up, but i think it falls completely short by failing to discuss cultural and historical factors and simply breaks the idea down into its current components -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uchi-soto
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