Eleven years ago I sat near a high school-aged Daisuke Matsuzaka as he used field glasses to watch a Japan-MLB All-Star game at the end of both leagues’ seasons.
  
I wrote a story based on that image about Japanese wanting to know “How good are we?” It was a question encompassing more than sport, as the same doubts existed for Japan in terms of corporate or diplomatic might, while the way the nation usually measured itself was in comparison to the U.S.
 
The 2009 baseball season, which began with Matsuzaka and Ichiro Suzuki leading Japan to its second World Baseball Classic title and ended with Hideki Matsui winning the World Series MVP in helping the New York Yankees to the crown, hasn’t ended that self-assessment. Instead it has widened it to “How good can we be?”
 
Matsui, whose decision to leave the Yomiuri Giants at the end of the 2002 was broadcast live across the island nation, hit a grand slam in his first New York home game but has been hobbled by injuries in seven seasons that may have made his Series heroics a Yankees coda.
 
Ichiro, who set the record in 2009 for most consecutive MLB seasons with 200 hits and delivered the winning RBI in the WBC title game, is the greatest baseball export Japan has produced so far, but his zen approach to hitting and perceived statistics orientation have not always resonated with fans or teammates.
 
Matsui, meanwhile, nicknamed “Godzilla” in high school for his power display at the national baseball championship, is less polished and a little more rough and ready. But he’s a player that nary a cross word has been said or written about, rather a “slugging salaryman” portrayal whose team focus is absolute, who even hit his sixth game Series homer to the Komatsu banner in rightfield.
 
An MLB-insider told me after Game Six of the World Series: “Ichiro Suzuki will be elected into the Hall of Fame, Hideki Matsui will not. But Ichiro will never achieve what Matsui did last night.”

Ichiro may not, but another Japanese player may, as the once distant fields of dreams across the Pacific have grown closer thanks to the countrymen’s feats in 2009, with Japan’s questions about how it rates becoming easier to answer.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Mike Segar

Toyota team principal Tadashi Yamashina was in tears as the Japanese company announced it has withdrawn from Formula One with immediate effect.

Japan has deserted motorsport on mass during the economic crisis (Honda and Bridgestone to name just two).

Company president Akio Toyoda apologised for the team's failure to record a single race victory since joining F1 in 2002 despite an estimated annual budget of around $300 million.

"It was a very difficult but unavoidable decision," he told a news conference in Tokyo.

The departure opens the door for BMW Sauber's new Swiss owners to take their place on the grid.

PHOTO: Toyota Motorsport Chairman and Team Principal Tadashi Yamashina cries at a news conference at the company's headquarters in Tokyo November 4, 2009 REUTERS/Issei Kato

I have big hands and am 6-ft 4-ins. I can palm a basketball, and dunk it -- just about. It's not often meeting athletes I feel weedy.

Until the All Blacks and Wallabies came to town.

Last weekend's Bledisloe Cup test in Tokyo between the hulking trans-Tasman rivals prompted me to dust down the Dunlop Green Flash and renew my lapsed gym membership. For that I thank them.

I was less happy at being winded by All Blacks captain Richie McCaw and having the bones in my right hand crushed by Jonah Lomu when I interviewed him ahead of his comeback to the game later this month.

McCaw believed he had "rumbled" me when I asked about his blocked nose after a news conference.

"Not swine flu or anything is it?"

"No, mate, just a broken nose."

"None of the rest of the team displaying symptoms?"

"You've got a bet on, haven't you?" he said, clapping me on the back and almost catapulting me down a flight of stairs. I was seeing stars.

But it was Lomu who did the real damage.

Once the most feared man in rugby, Lomu takes a "windmill" wind-up when he shakes your hand. I felt the blood drain from my right arm, came over a bit faint and asked him, please, to sit down for our interview. I certainly needed to -- and he had only given me a friendly handshake. Imagine what Mike Catt felt like when Lomu literally ran over the top of him in single-handedly destroying England in a World Cup semi-final in 1995.

Catt must still get nightmares about big Jonah. "I did see Mike Catt," Lomu recalled. "But he was in the way of where I wanted to get to." A side-step might have been more polite, I thought, but kept it to myself.

For the record, a friendlier guy you could not hope to meet and listening to Lomu talk about his son, his recovery from a kidney disease that almost left him in a wheelchair, and his hopes for the future, was a true privilege. Jonah stayed in Japan in his ambassadorial role for the 2019 World Cup and spied me at a JRFU news conference a few days later.

He had come over to say hello and to tell me he had the same headphones as me. "Great sound, eh?" he smiled as his huge right arm swung in and crumpled mine once more, leaving it claw-shaped and unable to do up the laces on my plimsoles. An unusual excuse if ever there was one for avoiding the gym.

PHOTO: Former New Zealand International rugby player Jonah Lomu speaks during a news conference in Tokyo October 28, 2009. REUTERS/Issei Kato

There was no U.S. representative at a recent summit of Asian leaders but, one official told me, Washington still played a leading role behind the scenes at the meetings held in the Thai seaside town of Hua Hin.

A top Japanese government official told us as we flew south with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to Thailand that his boss would tell Asian counterparts that the U.S. “involvement” would be important when he pushes for his idea of an East Asian Community.

When we arrived in Hua Hin, Hatoyama did just that. He pitched his idea of forming an East Asian Community when he met with his Asian counterparts, but in almost every meeting, he started out by explaining the U.S.-Japan alliance was at the centre of Tokyo’s diplomacy.

That was in contrast to his comments at an earlier meeting in Beijing with counterparts from China and South Korea, when Hatoyama said Japan has been somewhat too dependent on the United States and wanted to focus more on Asia.

His new approach was seen as an attempt to ease growing worries about friction over a long-planned rejig of U.S. bases in Japan, the first big test of ties between Washington and Japan’s month-old government.

Hatoyama denied any direct link to the touchy topic of where to base U.S. troops in Japan, but he acknowledged that he was sending a message that both the United States and Asia were important to Japan and that he was trying not to be one-sided.

Japan’s cautious and ambivalent approach to the U.S. involvement in an Asian bloc has frustrated some others.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd floated a second model for a pan-Asian economic bloc, challenging Japan’s idea by making U.S. membership a key component of his plan.

Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada has previously said the United States would not be a member, but he has recently toned down his comments.  Hatoyama has not said in public which countries should be included, instead saying there is no need to decide this now.

So what’s going to be? Should Asia’s regional grouping include the United States or seek a course more independent of Washington?

Photo credit: REUTERS/Erik de Castro

Nintendo still expects to make $4 billion this year and Sony to lose over $600 million, but last week may ultimately be remembered as a crossroads where each firm’s fortunes began to change directions, or at least when a 15-year battle for gaming supremacy again became competitive.

Electronics conglomerate Sony trimmed its overall loss forecast on Friday, while some of last quarter’s bleeding was attributed to what is now seen as its successful price cut for the PlayStation 3 console, jolting the PS3 ahead of its Kyoto-based rival’s Wii in monthly sales.

Nintendo, meanwhile, saw profit and sales declining at its earnings on Thursday with the main panacea a bigger screen handheld DSi LL console coming in late November, a move industry-watchers say is certain to diversify consumers’ handheld options but by itself won’t counter growing ennu-Wii.

On Friday, shares of each underscored investors’ views on whether a shrinking loss or slowing profit was more attractive, with Sony bought before its statement and Nintendo sold after its numbers.

Still, Nintendo, which began as a cardmaker and may have a thing for trumps, held its analyst briefing Friday at the same hour as Sony’s earnings, debuting the DSi LL. This followed a Nintendo price cut in September at nearly the same hour as Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai was addressing the Tokyo Game Show, an event the reigning game giant eschews.

Before an interview with Reuters that day, console war veteran Hirai laughed when asked about Nintendo’s cut, adding: “Interesting timing.”

Sony now has more than consoles on its plate in a battle to return to the black, but the hour is indeed  key and this year’s holiday push a game not to be missed.

If Japan is struggling to shake off a recession, then clearly nobody has told Tokyo’s party people as dance floors heave and thud to techno-house raves at the city’s clubs.

With summer gone and the nights drawing in, DJ events continue to pack in club-goers, like those of events organiser Phonika, which hosts outdoor parties around a rooftop pool in Tokyo.

Tokyo models, fashion designers, cash-flashing expats and well-connected OLs (office ladies) sip champagne and cocktails overlooking the city, blissfully unaffected by the credit crunch, or simply intoxicated by the brief sense of escapism.

The events have taken off over the past year despite the economic gloom. Restaurants are closing, but queues outside club events snake around corners.

“We haven’t felt the economic pinch,” said Phonika Tokyo’s co-organiser Mark Oxley. “In fact, over the past 12 months numbers through doors have steadily increased.

“In a downturn it’s about catering to demographics. The events are solid, and promotional and VIP offers have proved a good draw, bringing in repeat customers.”

When Japan’s new opposition leader compared ruling party lawmakers cheering the prime minister’s policy speech to “Hitler Youth”, the comment grabbed headlines, though it was perhaps just a sign of the depth of opposition frustration.

“I got  the impression that the atmosphere in parliament was similar to the Hitler Youth agreeing to Hitler’s speech,” Liberal Democratic Party leader Sadakazu Tanigaki told reporters after Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s first policy speech since his Democratic Party ousted the LDP in a historic August election.

Hatoyama’s Democrats trounced the LDP in the lower house election, taking 308 seats in the 480-member chamber, while the conservative party that had ruled Japan for most of the past half-century lost its grip on power after its presence was slashed to a mere 119.

The LDP defeat was particularly stunning given that in the previous general election in 2005, popular LDP leader Junichiro Koizumi had led his party to a massive victory with talk of bold reforms, only to see the tables turned four years later.

Despite some rough patches in his first month in office, Hatoyama is riding high in opinion polls, which also show Tanigaki has failed to excite voter enthusiasm.

Hatoyama, the wealthy grandson of a prime minister, promoted his core philopsophy of “yuai”, a fuzzy concept of  “fraternity”, in his speech and pledged to protect the weak from harsh economic competition while reallocating spending to improve individuals’ lives.

“It is obvious that leaving everything to the market and pursuing market efficiency to the point where you sacrifice people’s livelihoods and only the strong survive will not work,” Hatoyama said, although he also gave a nod to the benefits of market economics.

It was not the first time an LDP executive had compared support for the Democrats to the trend that brought the Nazis to power. Former Prime Minister Taro Aso, who led his party to defeat in August, made a similar analogy last year when he was LDP No.2 and was told by a Democratic Party lawmaker that voters were deserting the LDP.

“If you look at history, you will see that as a result of the people moving away from the party of government, regimes like the Nazis came into power,” Aso was quoted by Japanese media as replying.

Hatoyama’s younger brother Kunio, an outspoken LDP lawmaker often critical of Yukio’s policies, had an entirely different take on his sibling’s 52-minute speech,  which some Japanese media criticised as long on rhetoric but short on policy details.

“It was full of talk that seemed like scenes from a ‘manga’ comic for young girls,” the Sankei newspaper quoted Kunio as saying.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Kim Kyung Hoon

Ever thought about taking a fitness pole dancing class? I certainly hadn’t, and I was getting cold feet as I made my way into the Art Flow Tokyo dance studio. (corrects name of studio in original post)

I’m a free-weights guy, I thought; isn’t this pole dancing stuff for women? Is it too late to back out before I make a fool out of myself?

But I went ahead - and the class was a lot tougher than I expected, more gymnastics than dance. And pretty fun, too.

Pole dancing has been climbing in popularity among fitness enthusiasts as an alternative to mainstream workouts like aerobics and yoga, and in my debut lesson I could see why: it’s a serious full-body workout that combines cardio and strength movements to help fight fat and build muscle.

“During one class, you’re doing at least three sets of different kinds of classes,” says Ania Przeplasko, who founded the International Pole Dance Fitness Association in 2007 to promote the exercise and who was sitting in on this day’s class.

“It’s a major workout in terms of burning calories,” says Przeplasko, whose association is holding this year’s International Pole Dance Fitness Championship in Tokyo on Dec. 3.

(Click on the video above that I took of Przeplasko to see a demonstration of some of the basics)

The intermediate-level class had three other students, all 20-something women dressed in typical gym attire of T-shirt and shorts; none of the high heels or racy outfits that I’ve come to associate with the more erotic side of the dance.

Our instructor led us through a comprehensive warm-up of basic flexibility and bodyweight exercises for about 20 minutes. I grimaced at the tightness in my back as I struggled with stretches that the others were doing with ease. Familiar moves like push ups and abdominal exercises came as a welcome relief after the stretching.

The second phase involved learning basic pole positions with an emphasis on developing strength, using not just one’s upper body but really focusing on the core muscles. I felt silly doing a spin called the “Peter Pan” but have to admit it was fun trying to get the movement down.

In the final segment of the 75-minute class, the students put everything together into a mini-routine, which also served as the major cardio section of the workout.

What struck me the most was the athletisism involved, with the instructor and the more advanced students pulling off some spins and upside-down flips that would have landed me in hospital.

“Pole dancing in the past two years has developed so quickly in this very acrobatic way,” says Przeplasko, noting that the growing number of male participants has played a role in the sport’s shift towards fitness-oriented performance.

“Three years ago anyone could do pole dancing, but now the advanced level is way above what the typical person can do. So in five years, I think it’ll be like full-on, fantastic gymnastic shows based on pole dancing.”

The modernity as well as the occasional indifference to change in Japan bookmarked my week, with both moments anchored in the countryside about one hour from Tokyo.

On Monday in a rice field converted into a school parking lot, a 6-year-old, Boston Red Sox cap-wearing Japanese youngster stormed my way. We had chatted in the past, although our last conversation consisted of “Chase me!”

Today it was all business: “The Red Sox came in second, but Daisuke Matuszaka didn’t pitch for them in the play-offs,” he said, adding that Dice-K had hurt his arm during the regular season.

“Yes, they lost before he had his chance,” I said. “The Red Sox actually have four Japanese pitchers.”

“Four,” he noted. “But not Hideo Nomo – he retired after pitching for the Dodgers, right?”

“Yes, but he did pitch for the Red Sox in 2001.”

“The Yankees are the best team now,” he told me, saying he had decided this after watching MLB games on satellite TV with his grandfather. “Alex Rodriguez is amazing.”

“What’s the name of Boston’s stadium?” he asked, and on hearing Fenway Park, replied: “Babe Ruth played there? And the left-field wall is really high?”

“Yes, they call it the Green Monster,” I nodded with growing amazement at how small the world had become. “Babe Ruth was a pitcher there initially before joining the Yankees.”

“You shouldn’t throw curves or sliders in elementary school,” he concluded, and the future ESPN analyst left the rural field of dreams in a cloud of smoke.

Ending the week was an express train ride to Tokyo in a car full of farmers, who appeared to make it to ancient Edo once every new emperor. Dressed in their best Munsingwear and turning the seats to face each other unlike other commuters, one man took pictures of Tokyo Disneyland as we sped past.

The crowning moment was when one gentleman could not exit the car because he was unfamiliar with the automatic door function, trying desperately to pull it open until turning to me for help.

We were not far from his home, but it was more a matter of milennia than miles.

Photo credits: REUTERS/Adam Hunger (top); REUTERS/Toru Hanai (bottom)

The race is on for the world’s tallest tower, pitting Japan against China and South Korea.

Tokyo’s Sky Tree Tower, now under construction, has upped its projected height by 24 meters to 634 metres, in hopes of toppling China’s Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower – due to be completed this year at 610 meters (2001 ft).

The Tokyo team are not shy about the resasons. Asked at a press conference why the extra height was needed Tobu Tower Skytree President Kinya Miyasugi told us he wanted it to be “the tallest in the world”.

Tokyo is aiming at the tallest freestanding tower (pictured as an artist’s impression)  rather than the tallest manmade structure, which is set to be the 818 meter Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

But the tallest tower would still be a marketing coup and Tokyo has time on its side versus Guangzhou’s version (pictured below ), which is due for completion this year — leaving Tokyo time to match any last minute growth spurt.

However even if Tokyo can win the tallest tower crown, it won’t hold onto it for long, as Seoul has already broken ground for the 640 meter tall DMC Landmark tower due for completion in 2015 and slated as “Asia’s tallest building”.

And Guangzhou’s title will soon be taken by Tokyo Sky Tree, the crown could return to China with the Shanghai Tower, currently slated for completion in 2014 at a height of 632 meters, only two meters shy of Tokyo Sky Tree and 8 meters shy of Seoul’s DMC Landmark Tower.

With Tokyo Sky Tree’s growth only due to an extension of its antenna, there is plenty of time for Shanghai to extend its own antenna and take back the bragging rights.