West Japan Yo-Yo Contest

Saturday, March 27th, 2010 in: News, Travel

This past month there has been a yo-yo contest every weekend in various places in Japan running up to the Asia Pacific Contest in Singapore on March 27th. East Japan in Tokyo, North Japan in Hokkaido, West Japan in Osaka, and South Japan in Fukuoka. I wasn’t able to go to them all, but since we got our REWIND-mobile, or as I call it, the yo-yo clown car (it’s the size of my hatchback back home and it seats 7), we all piled into to and drove out to Osaka for the West Japan contest.

Once there, I realized what celebrities my friends are in the yo-yo world. Some of the people there were starstruck at Shinya, but as approachable as everyone is, they were soon all laughing and joking around. Sometimes I think that many yo-yo players are usually very shy, but when they get together they come out of their shells and show their true personalities to each other. Uchi and Soto, in-crowds and out-crowds.  Another interesting point is that yo-yo is a great icebreaker, since everyone is familiar with it and easily impressed with a few simple tricks; most players carry their yo-yos around and practice in public, but the way people react to them and their interaction with those around them is indicative of the cultural norms. In the states people will just walk right up to you and start talking “oh that’s awesome! you must be popular with the ladies!” (why that’s a logical conclusion to come to I have yet to figure out). In Japan, they will usually just watch from a distance and wait until you acknowledge them, and then it’s your own reaction that determines the extent of your interaction. Some players are more outgoing and will talk to the interested strangers, and some will just smile and nod and go back to their practice, conversations ended before they can begin.

We walked around the meeting hall, affixing our helmet-cam to various players and taping their tricks. Though he jokes a lot, Hiro is well known and respected, so he had no problem asking some of the best yo-yoers in the world to strap a camera to their head for a few minutes. I later cut together the clips into three videos set to Ratatat and  Justice songs. We had over an hour of footage but I was able to boil it down to about 20 minutes. Hope you like em!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_DPZiezFjk

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTKC2kpqND8

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QMFx85hAdM

After the contest, all the yo-yoers piled into an izakaya for a little nomikai. I got to hang out with Kengo, Shinya’s older brother and the maker of the fine yoyorecreation line. I also met a Korean 4A champion; once again, Japanese was our only shared language. At the nomikai, I realized that yo-yo players are pretty much the same as any other group of friends here; they may have some pretty amazing skills, but even the celebrities within their own in-crowd are just regular guys who do extraordinary things, looking for friends and having fun doing it.

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