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Sports in Japan
The most common sports in Japan include baseball, football (soccer) and other ball sports. Some of the martial arts, such as Judo, Kendo and Karate are also practiced by many people. There is no legally official sport of Japan, but professional sumo association describes themselves as the national sport of Japan.
There are opportunities to play various sports for all age, and school plays an important role in community. Kindergarten and lower elementary school students can play in a private sport club that can be joined for a moderate fee. Most martial arts can be started as little as 4 or 5 years old. When a student starts 5th grade, school offers free after-school activities for its students to participate. Middle and high schools also encourage their students to join school sport clubs.
There are 239,660 facilities for various sport activities in Japan. 62.2% of these facilities were built for under secondary education, 3.8% are university's and college's facilities, 23.6% are public facilities, 3.5% are built by private companies for their employees and 7.0% are other uses.
 Baseball
Baseball is probably the most popular sport in Japan. Yakyu, as baseball is called in Japanese, was introduced from the United States during the early Meiji Period. There are two professional baseball leagues in Japan: the Central League and the Pacific League. They consist of six teams each.
Sumo
Sumo is a Japanese style of wrestling and Japan's national sport. It originated in ancient times as a performance to entertain the Shinto gods. Many rituals with religious background are still followed today. The basic rules of sumo are simple: The wrestler who either first touches...
Soccer
The J-League is the professional soccer league of Japan, which debuted in 1993. Since 1999, it has been consisting of two divisions, J1 and J2. Amateur soccer leagues had existed in Japan long before 1993, but the J-League caused soccer to gain much popularity.
Aikido
Aikido originated from Aiki jujutsu, founded by Minamoto Yoshimitsu in the twelfth century. The aikido as we know it today was developed by Ueshiba Morihei in the 1920's. This form of martial arts emphasizes self defense and is often considered to be a spiritual exercise.
Judo
Judo is a graceful Japanese martial art of grappling, throwing and falling. It trains and disciplines the body and mind. Most of these techniques involve grabbing the Gi or uniform of the opponent. Unlike Jiu Jitsu, Judo does not intensify on the ground and involve full contact wrestling.
Karate
In karate one is defending him/herself with fists, elbows and feet. Karate is related to the Chinese Kung-fu and the Korean Taekwondo. Karate-do means "the way of the empty hand" since usually no weapons is used. Two basic kinds of traditional karate performances are...
Kendo
Kendo is Japanese fencing. It means "the way of the sword". Swords used to be a main weapon in Japanese warfare for many centuries. They continued to be the symbol of the samurai into the 19th century.
Skiing
Japan offers several world classes skiing and snowboarding resorts with abundant, high quality snow, beautiful scenery and relaxing hot springs. The country has staged the winter olympic games twice in the last 40 years. There are over 500 ski resorts across Japan...
Mountaineering and hiking
Until the turn of the century few Japanese would have considered climbing one of their often sacred mountains for anything other than religious reasons. These days, prime highland beauty spots such as Kamikochi are widely popular with day hikers and serious mountaineers...
Beaches, surfing and diving
As Japan is an archipelago, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it is blessed with some pleasant beaches. The truth is that industrialization has blighted much of the coastline and that many of the decent beaches are covered with litter and/or polluted.
Ski Resorts in Japan
A ski area is a developed recreational facility, usually on a mountain or large hill, containing ski trails and vital supporting services. It is common for a ski area to have food, rental equipment, Ski Lessons, parking facilities and a ski lift system catering to the sports of skiing and snowboarding. Normally located in high mountain areas (or at least on well-built-up hills) for adequate snow coverage, they have become ubiquitous in areas where skiing is a popular pastime. The paths are usually marked and known as runs, trails or pistes. Ski areas typically have one or more chair lifts for moving skiers rapidly to the top of hills, and to interconnect the various pistes. Rope tows can also be used on short slopes (usually beginner hills or bunny slopes). Larger ski areas may use gondolas or aerial trams for transportation across longer distances within the ski area.
A ski resort is a ski area plus amenities to make it a destination resort. This includes accommodations and other amenities adjacent to the ski area. Some Ski Resorts and Ski Schools offer lodging options on the slopes themselves, with ski-in and ski-out access allowing guests to ski right up to the door. Ski resorts often have other activities, such as snowmobiling, sledding, horse-drawn sleds, dog-sledding, ice-skating, indoor or outdoor swimming, and hottubbing, game rooms, and local forms of entertainment, such as clubs, cinema, theatre and cabarets. Ski resorts may be self-contained and entirely devoted to ski tourism, or they may be near a village or town that had a significant existence before the ski resort was built.
Marinas in Japan
A marina is a sheltered harbor where boats and yachts are kept in the water and where services geared to the needs of recreational boating are found.
The marinas may have re-fueling, washing and repair facilities, ship chandlers, stores and restaurants. Slipways are used to get a trailered boat into the water. Marinas may offer a boat hoist well, a type of traveling crane, instead of a more space-wasteful slipway, operated by service center personnel. Marinas may offer out-of-water-storage, which is useful out of season and important in latitudes susceptible to freezing waters. Marinas may include ground facilities such as parking lots for vehicles and boat trailers.
Boats are moored either or on buoys or on fixed or floating walkways that are tied to an anchoring piling by a roller or ring mechanism (floating docks or pontoons). Buoys are cheaper to rent but less convenient than being able to walk from land to boat. Harbor shuttles, also known as "water taxis", may be available to transfer people between the shore and boats moored on buoys. The alternative is a tender such as an inflatable boat. Facilities offering fuel, boat ramps and stores will normally have a common-use dock set aside for such short term parking needs. And Boats.
In regions where the tidal range is large, some marinas use locks to maintain the water level for several hours before and after low water.
Marinas may be owned and operated by a private club, especially yacht clubs - but also as private enterprises or municipal facilities. They are most frequently located along the banks of rivers connecting to lakes or seas and may be inland, sometimes up to as much as twenty-five kilometers) from the river's mouth.
A marina will charge fees for most services. Fee-based services like parking, picnic area, pub, and club-house for a shower, are usually included as part of any monthly long-term rental agreement package. Visiting yachtsmen usually have the option of buying each amenity from a fixed schedule of fees, and arrangements can be as wide as a single use, such as a shower, or several weeks of temporary berthing. The right to use the facilities is frequently extended at overnight or period rates to visiting yachtsmen.
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Diving schools in Japan
If you are an adventure seeker, an explorer or simply love being in the water, training from diving schools can help get you started on an exciting and diverse career in commercial diving. No prior diving experience is necessary and many diving schools can have you trained and ready to begin your underwater adventures in as little as five months!
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There is no legally official sport of Japan, but professional sumo association describes themselves as the national sport of Japan. Although sports betting is technically legal in Japan, the culture discourages this practice.
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