Sports

Sports are a much more personal aspect of life in Japan than in America I think. Sports are huge worldwide and in America they're huge on the national and professional level (in my opinion). I think sports are the foundation of more personal bonds in Japan though. One of my theories about this is that because an extra-curricular activity is mandatory throughout much of the Japanese school career, there are simply more people who play sports together as children and so learn well how to form strong connections quickly as team. I also think that having to develop the ability to survive in a team in a (relatively) competitive context while children are maturing and dealing with all that problems that entails emphasizes the existence of the bonds within a sports team and makes them stand out more in people's memories.

Another of my theories focuses on the worn out stereotype of Japan ad a group based social system [really, all societies are group based so it's a little off] and so the group building and bonding aspects of team sports somehow unconsciously draw people to be interested.

I see a lot less of the 'boys play sports and girls dance and play the piano' division in Japan than I do at home. I think that because everyone does some sort of club in school and because everyone is expected to be have a certain level of athletic ability and are taught how to maintain that ability in school, that sports is something that comes more easily to Japan than America. In the US it is very easy to divide the jocks from the nots based solely on appearance and friend groups but it is not so much so here in the little I have seen.

I think, though, that since I am from Chicago (ish) and Japanese people associate Chicago with the baseball teams that Japanese players have joined I get a lot more sports conversation than other people in the group might. Also, because my host brother is in basketball, I go to more sports related events than the rest of the group. I personally have an extremely low personal interest in the topic so . . .