The Most Popular Sport in Japan

Hi. I missed a day of school last week and in order to make up my participation grade in physical education I have to write a report on a sport. Picking a sport was really hard because I do not have a favorite! The first thing that popped into my head was JAPAN JAPAN JAPAN!! So I went onto Google and I typed in “sports in Japan” and I found a Wikipedia site. It said some popular Japanese sports include football, baseball, kendo, and figure skating. Right away I clicked on the link to figure skating, and so I guess if I thought harder, I would have come up with that sooner or later!!!

The reason I like figure skating is because it’s a favorite sport in Japan. It’s also a world wide sport so it a sport that can be found in almost every country. I’ve only been ice skating a few times and it’s pretty hard to do. I thought to do a good job with this report I would have to answer a few questions about ice skating. These are some of the questions I thought about to answer in this report.

Who is the best figure skater alive? Who invented figure skating?
What is the point of figure skating? What is figure skating?
When was figure skating invented? When are the World Championships held?
Where are the World Championships? Where is figure skating most popular?

Now I’ll answer all of my questions! So, who is the best figure skater alive? Currently, and most recently, the best skater is either Daisuke Takahashi in men’s figure skating or in Mao Asada in women’s figure skating. And guess what? They are both from Japan. They were both awarded gold medals at this year’s world championships held in Turin Italy. I did not know that before I started this report. So who invented figure skating? We don’t know exactly who invented figure skating but a man named Jackson Haines, an American, is considered to be the father of the modern sport. So when was figure skating invented? Jackson Haines started the sport in the 1860’s with the first competitions being held about twenty years later. Figure skating can be for fun, but it is mostly used as a competitive sport! It is an athletic event that is both physically hard but beautiful at the same time. Figure skating requires someone to wears shoes with very thin blades on the bottoms that slide on the ice for sport and for fun. I guess that’s in my own words!

Besides the World Championships that are held every year figure skating is an event in the Winter Olympics that are held every four years. But the World Championships are held annually so each year we know who the best skaters in the world are. Guess what? In March, 2011 the next World Championships will be held in Tokyo, Japan!!!! I guess I picked the right sport and that helps me answer my final question. Without a doubt with both men’s and women’s world championship gold metals belonging to Japan and with the world championships to be held in Tokyo, Japan, next year, while figure skating is popular all over the world, currently the most popular place for figure skating has to be Japan!!!

First Week of Middle School

My first day of school was REALLY hard and I did not know anybody yet. All of my friends that I knew last year weren't in any classes with me at all. So the first few days were hard, not just because of the work, but the fact that I didn't have anyone I knew with me to help. At home I did have one friend though! I have known her for 2 years, I met her when I moved down here about 2 years ago.

Her name is Gena. She helped me get through a lot. We are best friends. She is 10 years old and her grandparents are my neighbors. That's how I met her. She loves dogs and now more recently were are both into Japanese Manga and Anime. I taught her about what it was after I found out the epic awesomeness of Japan. So I learned about some culture and I came across something that I really love now, Anime. (Also there are Japanese comics called Manga). We also came across something called Vocaloid, too much to explain about now but it's Japanese synthesized music that is the best.

So here I am in the 1st week of school still and the girl that sits in front of me in world cultures (I think her name is Lexi?) She noticed me drawing a pictue of a cute little Japanese Anime character from Vocaloid. She then asked me if I liked Anime, I was surprised! Later in the day in Gym class she introduced me to a girl named Sabrina.

Sabrina ALREADY loves Vocaloid, watching Anime, reading Manga, and another reason why she is my friend now isn't all because I like those things, it's that she's a very forgiving and nice a person. So she's turning out to be a very good friend of mine.

So to finish this off, Gena and Sabrina are alike and different. Gena is 10 and Sabrina is 13. Gena didn't know about Japanese Vocaloid and Sabrina's been into it for some time now! So I guess the great thing about this isn't about them being alike or different, it's about the good friends I've made! I guess that with Sabrina here, middle school won't be as hard...except for the work!