"yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate's life for me" part II

Yesterday was a big big day. Finally time for my very first Japanese basketball game! It was in Yokohama and in the highest national league - BJ League. Tokyo doesn't actually have a team in this league anymore, as they failed to find sponsors for this season. Strange for a huge capital city as it is. Anyway. The Yokohama B-Corsairs had to be good enough for moi and my friend.

The arena was big, but as with all Japanese buildings it seems, there was a lot of unused space. We had the unreserved tickets which cost about £15 and you could sit anywhere on the stands. See those orange, very uncomfortable-looking chairs on the floor? Yeah, those. Those are the reserved seats and will steal £43 out of your pocket. Mental! Then again you get to high-five the players before and after the game so maybe it's worth it...no, definitely not.

 Cheerleaders as is appropriate were entertaining before and during the game, and in the breaks, dressed like Sailor Moon almost. The players and the coach seemed less amused by them as they jumped past them time and time again to get to the court and dance. They were good though. There was one non-Japanese girl among them, and she added a whole new level of let's say 'cheerleaderness' to the dance (you know what I mean). The Japanese girls were just very cute.

The game? It was decent, but this was the first game of the season, and you could definitely tell there were a lot of new players and they didn't know how to play with each other. Hopefully they'll get better. Imagine the level as Division I (second highest) in Sweden. Some of the mistakes they did were just dreadful! Basic, basic, basic that I taught my girls of 12 when I was a coach...can't imagine what it must have been like for that coach to watch grown men not box out, make passes that wouldn't reach the player even if Hermione was on the stands whispering a Confundus charm, and so on, and so on. 

 So what was that pirate all about? Well, as simple as this - The Yokohama B-Corsairs has a pirate in their logo and naturally there were pirates running around dancing. Afterwards when we took the picture he was super nice and said "see you next time." Indeed, indeed Mr Pirate!

Can you spot the Japanese players? The Yokohama B-Corsairs squad was made up of half American, half Japanese players, and of course the Americans played the most. The coach is also American. One of the tall ones (the bald one) was probably the worst professional American player I've seen in my life. He could only do one thing it seemed - mess up. But he's tall and while you can teach skills, you can't teach tall, so it's all good I suppose.

I'll probably go again. Just love the atmosphere in the arena and if they can get their fricking act together and play like they should, they could be good. Ok, too generous; they could be decent. Yes, that's more appropriate. After all, as in every non-US country, these are the Americans that didn't quite make it/didn't stand a chance to get to the NBA drafts. No offence.

Jo x