As this year is "Germany in Japan (Deutschland
in Japan)", the World Gateball Union (WGU), with some Japanese Gateball players,
had visited three cities and first promoted Gateball in Germany during September
27 to October 4, 2006.
Since WGU was established, WGU has been successfully promoting GTBL over the world,
but it is still in initial stage in Europe. When the members of the Germany-Japan
Association (Deutsch-Japanische Gesellschaft e.v.) visited Japan for promoting
an event of "Germany in Japan", and they visited to WGU office too,
and the right moment came to make the first step to introduce GTBL in Germany.
In Germany, the population of aged people is increasing same as Japan and they
are looking for a sport that not only for elder people but also can be played
together with all age. |
A group of WGU first visited the Turngemeinde Sport Club in
Berlin that was founded in 1848. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day, so GTBL was
demonstrated inside the tennis court. The Chairman and the Manager of this Club
also joined the game and enjoyed for the first time. WGU promoted the members
of this Club that GTBL is a suitable sport for all ages and ask to try playing
more.
Next, WGU' group visited Wolfsburg city, the focused place for this promotional
visiting. Wolfsburg is the city of 13million populations and located about 220km
west of Berlin, where the headquarters of world famous car company "Volkswagen"
is located. What is more, the city is rich in greenery, and is welcome to new
sports and cultural activities. The promotional activities were held in the VFR
Eintracht Stadium (artificial lawn for soccer) that is organized by a sport club
of city. Thanks to prior PR activity of this trip by the Germany-Japan Association,
a total of more than 50 people, including the Mayor Kolbe, of Wolfsburg city,
members of elderly club, members of Germany-Japan Association, and students from
the local sport clubs, were joined. At first, the participant were observing GTBL
interestingly, but at last they enthusiastically playing GTBL when they took the
sticks. The next day was a rainy day and when the members from Japan wore their
rain coats and played the game, the participants also put up their umbrellas and
joined the game together. The President Teruko Balogh of Germany-Japan Association
was amazed and said "It is unbelievable that we still play while it rains".
At the end, an GTBL exchange tournament was held among the participants of the
local people and the Japanese member team, and the winner was a member from the
local senior computer club. At the last stage of this trip, this group visited
Braunschweig city, located about 50km from southwest of Wolfsburg city. The population
is 26million and is a historical and cultural city since 12B.C. The promotional
activities were held at the local park and about 20people were joined. There were
the participants who joined all activities in above three cities and were very
interested in GTBL. The members of Germany-Japan Association were the main participants
and played the game. The GTBL lover in Germany already seemed to have been born.
Thus, the activities which were accomplished in the three cities, the used sticks
and gates from Japan were donated to the local cities including the sports clubs.
Especially in Wolfsburg city, they wanted to hold the GTBL exchange games next
year and requested visiting more participants from Japan immediately. This promotional
activity was a successful journey for the future GTBL in Europe.
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