by Sharna Steer

Something that I didn’t expect to experience in Japan was watching an American Football game. You heard that right, American football in Japan? Turns out it is a really big thing here with massive regional university competitions. Kwansei Gakuin’s team, the Fighters, is one of the best teams in Japan, with their main competitor being a team in Tokyo.

The whole experience was amazing. First of all, it was my first time ever being in a big outdoor sports arena. In New Zealand, I wasn’t a very big sports fan and the only live games that I would watch was indoor Netball. The grandness of it all really took me by surprise and for being a university competition it was taken as a big deal. Our team’s colour is blue so our side in the grandstand was covered completely by blue. We got some classic sport-watching snacks in Japan such as warm pretzels with mustard, karaage, and beer of course. 

Our spot in the stands gave us a really good position to watch both the cheerleaders and the game. We watched the cheer squad on our first day of orientation but being able to fully watch their performance on the field was so cool. They did a lot of tumbling, dancing and pyramids which was very impressive to watch. As for the game itself, I have never felt so much energy for the game. Everyone was so into it and was incredibly responsive to anything that would happen. Our team played fantastically with multiple touchdowns and by the end of it I felt like I had a better understanding of how the confusing game actually works. I can’t wait to go to another one very soon!