The other day, I went to Spencer View (graduate students' apartment) to see a foot ball game. Some of my friends invited me to see. In the end, almost 15 people gathered in a community room in Spencer View. Some of students came with their families.
I found some big difference of Japan and US at the night. First of all, food ball games are not so popular in Japan. Those are baseball games in Japan. These days, the level of Japanese baseball is increasing. You may know Suzuki Ichiro, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Matsui. They are very famous and achieve excellent results. On the other hand, Japanese foot ball teams do exist in universities or companies. However, no professional foot ball teams in Japan. Moreover, only a few football teams around Tokyo are famous.
At the night, a lot of foot ball games were held all over US. I could see a lot of universities and their current points in the bottom of TV screen. Japanese are not so enthusiastic to see foot ball game like that. I feel the same situation in Japanese high school baseball tournament in summer. In the season, most of Japanese see the competition which is held in Koshien, a baseball field. High school teams of representative of their prefectures play exiting games. Because of consumption of energy for air-conditioning at the time, Japanese electric company had to supply a lot of energy at the time.
I would like to remind you of another difference. Students took their families. That is unthinkable in Japan. Generally speaking, if some party held in Japan, no one takes their family. I think it is a very good custom in USA. We can expand our friend ship and increase time to shear with our family.
What I experienced was not so difficult thing. We just gather at a place and see foot ball game. However, some large difference sometimes lay in the simple part of our lives. Popularity of sports and how to enjoy it was very simple and fundamental part of our lives. This experience taught me an important part of culture-observation.
