2008年3月5日水曜日

Japanese Elderly People After Retirement





These pictures show elderly people playing gateball in a park. These pictures represent today’s Japan because they remind me of the aging society of Japan. More and more elderly people who retired spend their time on playing gateball with their local gateball teams. Playing gateball is one of typical leisure activities after retirement in Japan. A lot of elderly people participate in their local gateball teams. It is a good moderate exercise for elderly people. Moreover, it encourages them to go outside and allows them to have friends in their teams.

Gateball was originally invented in Hokkaido as a children’s sport in 1947. However, actually it didn’t become popular among children at all and fell into a decline at that time. Instead, it became very popular in 1960s as an elderly people’s sport because of its less physical fatigue. Now, it widely spread among elderly people and we can often see them playing gateball in parks. They are not only playing for their enjoyment but also practicing for official games. In fact, a lot of official gateball games are held in Japan.

My grandfather was a member of the local gateball team so I know a little about the activities of gateball team. I’ll write about it because it will help you to know more about gateball teams. Team member come together in the local park 6 days a week and play for about 2 hours in the morning every time. There are often special events especially on Sunday such as joint practices with other gateball teams or official games which are usually held in other parks, so the team members sometimes wake up early in the morning and go to far places to participate in the official games. The team members sometimes eat out together after 2 hours practices in the morning. And they sometimes clean up the park by picking up litter, fallen leaves or stones. Thus, gateball teams play a role not only as sport teams but also as city communities.

Under the today’s aging society, gateball has flourished as one of elderly people’s enjoyments after retirement. Gateball is a good way for them to communicate with others and to become a member of communities even after they retire from their companies. It is important for people to be involved in communities somehow or other.

1 件のコメント:

visual gonthros さんのコメント...

Once again you have picked an interesting topic. But maybe your title should be "Gateball..." rather than "Japanese Elderly People..." Do all older people in Japan play gateball? Probably not. So you lost your intended focus early on.

That is not to say that gateball is not important or a part of some elderly people's lives in Japan. Your post gives information that is not so common. I like how you use your Grandfather as an example. Maybe more details about his participation in the game might be useful.

Some links to other sources would be helpful.

For more on gateball in Japan, check out the work of John Traphagan:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/t227531v7x287606/

There is also a webpage for the World Gateball Union:

http://www.gateball.or.jp/jguweb/

Another student blogged about older people in japan as well:

http://earlytimes-shizzle.blogspot.com/2008/03/when-is-work-over.html

As for your photos... At first I didn't like the second one much, but after clicking and enlarging it, I think it is useful in showing off the whole field of play; the mansions and cemetery in the background give it some interesting context. Perhaps more of a close-up in your first shot might have been nicer. Maybe even a shot of your Grandfather playing?

Overall, another nice post.

-scf