August is the hottest month in Japan, a great time to enjoy shave ice and watermelon and maybe some ice cold Ramune. It’s also time for the Koshien High School Baseball championship held near Osaka, a huge event in which the teams from Japan’s 47 prefectures battle it out to win the national prize. To go to Koshien is the dream of every high school baseball player, and millions watch the televised games to root for their prefecture, vicariously reliving their own youthful days through the players. There are many anime series that capture the romance of the high school baseball championship which have become as big a part of Japanese pop culture as Star Wars is in the U.S. This most famous of these is Touch, the story of twins Kazuya and Tatsuya, who both love a girl named Minami; when Kazuya is killed in a car accident, Tatsuya must take his school’s team to Koshien in his brother’s place. This year J-List’s home prefecture of Gunma is kicking some serious butt, making it all the way to the final championship game tomorrow. I hope we win
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Summer is time for high school basebal.l
