The volleyball game I saw was Hiroshima (red) versus Osaka (blue). Osaka was supposed to be the better team, but they lost in three, and Hiroshima ended up losing in the finals to Aichi (I think) Prefecture. Volleyball was actually pretty exciting, and confirmed that tall Japanese people do exist: All of the players were highschoolers and the shortest person on each team was about my height!
Some action shots, and then the end handshake. Hiroshima won because they had two serious goons that Osaka had no answer for!
I also went that same afternoon (finally, after over a year of not having gone considering all the biking that I do) to cycling, or keirin. Although my students went in the morning, I had a make-up day for elementary school so I went in the afternoon. It turns out that this was lucky because the morning there were only time-trials, thus only one rider at a time, and it was VERY boring. I got to see races in the afternoon where 15 riders would start, and after one preliminary speed-up lap, each ensuing lap the field of riders would narrow by one with the last rider in the pack dropping out. This continued until there were only 6 riders (then the next day those 6 would get into a pack and do the same thing again, just many many heats really). This was actually very exciting, and boy these riders are going fast. One lap (which I am guessing is your standard 400 meters) takes a good rider under 40 seconds. The track is also very sloped, allowing for some wild turns. I'd like to try, even though it does look slightly dangerous.
Here's the building, and written in English inside. You would think the mascot would have huge legs and tiny arms (since that's what most riders look like), but no, his upper body is weightlifter-esque!
Here are some riding shots. This was during the groups first lap, so I think there are 15 riders, count them! When I went, there were only old people who were watching, nobody even close to my age. The supervisors of teams also came to cheer on their riders and watch, and they wore their team colors in ridiculous outfits like this green/white ensemble from Nara.
I was fortunate (unfortunate?) enough to actually see a crash, since although they aren't exactly rare in the sport, considering I was only there for about an hour and a half, I guess I picked the right time. In keirin, what's really interesting is that it's not the first person that goes down that is hurt the most, it's the people behind him. They not only snap their feet into place, but strap them into the pedals as well, so there is no way to quickly dismount from their bike. It is also a fixed gear bike, so if the wheel turns, the crankshaft does too and your legs must turn, so it is impossible to stop the bike quickly anyways. Regardless, after the first speed-up lap, on the first turn of the first lap, a rider went down and the three people behind him were royally screwed. One flipped completely, the front wheel of his bike snapping like a twig, and two others just wiped. All four had to be carted off the track (the race immediately stopped). The rider that flipped wasn't moving at all right away, just motionless.
What really impressed me the most, but not really in a very good way, was how quickly they cleaned up the mess. People appeared from everywhere to help, moving the bikes off the track, sweeping it clean, carting people off, etc. All the old people watching were all murmuring about how dangerous it was and how he flipped and wasn't moving. So after about 5 minutes, everything was spic-and-span, and they started the race again (albeit with 11 riders instead of 15), and seconds later, what had happened was just as quickly forgotten. Nobody dwelled on it at all, confirming that although dangerous, it's just considered to be a risk you take in cycling.
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