Ichiro was traded to the Yankees

I’m not a big baseball fan but I have written a few baseball related posts…including two about Ichiro Suzuki.
( Click here to read the post I wrote about Ichiro playing baseball in Japan against Japan…and click here to read my post about Ichiro and the rest of the “Samurai Japan” team).

Even to someone (like me) who isn’t a baseball fan, it’s well-known that Ichiro was a member of the Seattle Mariners MLB team…but that’s no more.

Ichiro was just traded to the New York Yankees.

(Picture from the New York Yankees website).

And, in a bit of ironic fate, his first game as a player for the Yankees is today…against his former team, the Mariners!

Japan in the Guinness Book of World Records

Have you ever looked through the Guinness Book of World Records?

Some of the records in there are amazing. Like the “World’s Fastest Professional Boxing Knockout” which was dealt by Mike Collins to Pat Brownson with the first punch in their match in November 1947. The fight was over four seconds after it started.

And some of the records are odd. Such as that currently held by an American woman named Lee Redmond…”World’s Longest Fingernails”. She hasn’t cut her nails since 1979 and now they’re about 90 cm (3 feet) long!

I was just watching a TV program tonight about some of the unusual records in the Guinness Book and it made me wonder what types of records are held by Japanese people.

So I checked the Official Guinness World Records website.

It seems that there are many records currently held by Japanese people.

For example:

– Megumi Suzuki of Saitama, Japan has held the record of the “Most Jump-Rope Skips in Thirty Seconds ” for four years now. In September 2006 she skipped 152 in thirty seconds.

– The record for “The Largest Toast at a Single Venue” was made this past June in Tokyo at a Swallows vs Tigers baseball game. 27,126 people held up their drinks in unison and said 「かんぱい！」 (“Cheers!”) together.

– The famous Japanese TV host Mino Monta broke the record for hosting the “Most Live Hours on TV in a Single Week” when he was on TV for a total 22 hours and 15 seconds in one week.

– When 569 Honda car drivers got together in Tochigi, Japan this past July they set the record for the “Longest Parade of Honda Cars“.

– The parade of Honda cars must have been quite a sight…but couldn’t have compared to the procession of 323 young women in bikinis at a shopping center in Tokyo this past May. They broke the record for the “Longest Bikini Parade“.

– Since 2008, Toshie Kawakami of Tokyo has held the record for “Longest Eyebrow Hair” when she had a single eyebrow hair officially measured at a length of 15.1 cm (nearly 6 inches) long.

What types of world records are held by people from your country?

泣きピタ！

There is a website by the Japanese company “Benesse” called 「たまひよweb」 (“Tamahiyo web“) based on their 「たまごクラブ」 (“Tamago Club“) magazine for pregnant women and their 「ひよこクラブ」 (“Hiyoko Club“) magazine for new mothers.

「たまごクラブ」 (means "Egg Club") magazine for pregnant mothers.

「ひよこクラブ」 (means "Chick Club") for new mothers of babies.

Their 「たまひよweb」 (“Tamahiyo web“) website has a new feature called 「泣きピタ！コンテスト」 (“Nakipita!  Contest“)…which means basically “Suddenly Stopped Crying! Contest”.

On this site people upload videos of their baby crying and then suddenly stopping because the baby was distracted by something else…often the baby resumes crying as soon as the distraction is gone, and then stops again when distracted again.
And then visitors to the site vote for their favorite one.

It’s cute.
My kids sometimes did the same thing when they were babies.

Here’s one of the videos from the site:

Click here to see the site. On the site you can click the pictures of a clip from the different videos to watch one…and you can vote for the ones you like by clicking the round, pink button on the right-side of the video.

You can also see the current “Top 3” listed on the site.

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Unrelated, but do you know 吉田えり (Eri Yoshida)?

She’s only eighteen years old. But she’s a baseball pitcher with an unusual style…she’s a “sidearm knuckleball” pitcher.

There are few male pitchers that throw this style, let alone female ones.

She has recently been signed to play professional baseball in the U.S. for the minor league team the “Chico Outlaws“.She was playing pro baseball in Japan for the Japanese minor league team the “Kobe 9 Cruise” before getting signed by the American team.

This makes her only the second women to ever play pro baseball in America…and the first women ever to play pro baseball in two different countries.

(You can click here if you want to read more about her story on the the “Chico Outlaws” website.)

Sporting event news

Did you watch the 2010 Olympics women’s figure skating event?

It was probably the biggest event of these Olympics in both Japan and Korea.

Japan’s best skater 19 year-old Mao Asada competed against Korea’s star Kim Yu-na, who is also 19 years old.

Of course, both Japan and Korea were sure that the skater from their country would win the gold medal for this event.

In the end though, Korean Kim Yu-na won the gold and Japan’s Mao Asada won silver. Canadian Joannie Rochette got the bronze medal.

Asada Mao is in the black dress.

Mao Asada tried her best and she did two “triple axel” jumps. It’s her signature jump and she is the only current women’s skater in the world who can do that particular jump.
She executed the triple axels perfectly, but she tripped up and almost fell at another point during her rountine and it cost her points.

Mao Asada skating in the 2010 Olympics women's figure skating event.

The 2010 Olympics will be over tomorrow. Japan currently has a total of four medals from these games…two silver and two bronze.
It looks like Japan won’t be taking any gold from these games.

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Also, tomorrow is the day of the annual “Tokyo Marathon“.

32,000 people will running 42 km through the streets of Tokyo.

This year a friend of mine will be running in the marathon.
ガンバレヒデキさん！ (Good luck, Hideki!)

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And the pitcher from the Japanese baseball team, the Chunichi Dragons, Maximo Nelson (from the Dominican Republic) was arrested yesterday for bringing a bullet in his luggage in the airport in Okinawa (where he was going for his team’s spring training).

Japan is very strict with it’s drug and firearms laws.

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Speaking of Okinawa, there was a very big earthquake in Okinawa this morning.
Hopefully everyone is OK.

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Different subject, but I finally admitted that my eyesight isn’t what it used to be and got eyeglasses yesterday.
So, now, for the first time, I wear glasses for reading.

I can’t deny that I’m getting older. 😦

Godzilla will move to California

I just heard on TV today that the Japanese baseball player Hideki Matsui, who was recently chosen as the New York Yankees MVP (Most Valuable Player) in the World Series game that they just played not long ago, will be changing teams after playing for the Yankees for six years.

Once the 2010 professional baseball season starts, Matsui will begin his one year contract playing for the Los Angeles Angels baseball team…and will earn US $6.5 million (about JPY ¥583 million).

Hideki Matsui started his professional baseball career playing for the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants baseball team from 1993 -2002.

He was given the nickname “Godzilla“…originally because of his bad skin complexion, but later it referred to his powerful batting.

Tokyo Giants

In 2003, he began playing for the New York Yankees of the Major League Baseball (MLB) in America.

Even in America, he was still called “Godzilla“…and he still batted powerfully!

Godzilla demolished his bat!

I guess New York Yankees fans are disappointed to see him leave for Los Angeles…possibly the same way Tokyo Giants fans felt when he left to play in America six years ago.

World Baseball Classic ’09

Do you know what the World Baseball Classic is?

World Baseball Classic logo

It’s a new international baseball competition. Like soccer’s World Cup.

The World Baseball Classic 2009 started today.
This is only the second time that the World Baseball Classic occurred.
The World Baseball Classic 2006 was the first and only other time this competition took place so far.

Japan was the champion team of the World Baseball Classic 2006 games.

The first game of the World Baseball Classic 2009 was Japan vs China. This game took place this afternoon (Japan time) at the Tokyo Dome.

Japan beat China with a final score of 4-0.
The next game will be Korea vs Taipei, also at the Tokyo Dome. Japan will face the winning team of that game on March 7th (again at the Tokyo Dome).

At the Tokyo Dome

The Japan team has high hopes of winning the World Baseball Classic again.

The host cities for the World Baseball Classic ’09 are Tokyo, Japan; Mexico City, Mexico; Toronto, Canada; San Juan, Puerto Rico; San Diego, USA; Miami, USA; and Los Angeles, USA.

The countries that have teams competing are: Japan (with Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka on the team), South Korea, China, Taipei, Australia, Canada, USA, Mexico, Dominican Republic (with Alex Rodriguez on the team), Cuba, Italy, The Netherlands, Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and South Africa.

The World Baseball Classic 2009 will go from today’s game that Japan won until the final in Los Angeles on March 23, 2009.

Do you like baseball?
Are you following the World Baseball Classic? Which team are you supporting?
Did you watch the Japan vs China game today? If so, did you watch it on TV…or were you at the Tokyo Dome?

By the way, if you wanna visit the official World Baseball Classic homepage…then, click here.