Annual "Hatsu-uchi (first
play of the new year) Tournament held" Interest shown in doubles and triples
matches
In March last year, Kauai Island of the Hawaiian Islands held its first international
friendship tournament. 4 teams each island participated in the World Championships
in October. Although no team made it past the preliminary round, their spontaneous
and enjoyable play was impressive.
This year on January 18, the annual "Hatsu-uchi (first play of the new year)
International Friendly Tournament" (5th Happy New Year Friendly Tournament)
was held at Ala Moana Park in Honolulu. At this tournament 12 teams from Japan
and 19 teams from Oahu, Hawaii, and Maui took part. The league competition was
held on 8 courts with 3- 4 teams and the tournament competition (the top 2 teams
from each court an other teams) to decide the winning order. This year Japanese
teams came in first and second giving Japan the honor of victory this year.
In response to a request from participants a doubles and triples exhange tournament
was held the next day. This kind of game variation is not common in Hawaii. It
was the Japanese players who formed teams with Hawaiian players joining in. The
Hawaiian players showed deep interest in this unusual style of game. |
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At the World Championships, players from various islands formed Hawaii
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the Kauai Gateball Club who took part in the World Championships |
The very noticeable big Hawaii Island team at the "Hatsu-uchi" Tournament
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The Japanese team which dominated the "Hatsu-uchi" Tournament |
The runners-up team from Tokyo |
Ala Moana Park, site of the '89 World Championships and the venue of the "Hatsu-uchi"
Tournament |
Participant's comment
Fun with local players on the same team
Sonoko Nagano and Yuriko Kurokawa (Saitama)
After learning about the tournament in this magazine, I invited my gateball friend
Ms Kurokawa to take part in our first tournament overseas. We played in a mixed
Japan-American team with second-generation Japanese. Although local members could
understand only a few Japanese words, Gateball was the "language" which
helped us to become friends very quickly. While they gave us instructions in Japanese,
like "Gate tsuka", when the game got heated, they used English "Through!
Through", which was fun. The next day I was fortunate to have the nice "souvenir"
of winning my court's doubles" tournament. It was a wonderful memory. (Nagano)
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With our friends in the Japan-America mixed team. Ms Nagano 2nd
from the left, Ms Kuroda 4th |
