Japanese Team Appreciates Crystal Lake Hospitality

On March 11, 2011, one of the largest earthquakes recorded to date bombarded Japan. The 9.0 magnitude quake triggered tsunamis and hundreds of aftershocks, threatened the stability of multiple nuclear power plants, destroyed the economy and took the lives of over 20,000 people.

Enduring through the rubble of a still-grieving nation desperate to rebuild, the Japanese baseball club JBLA makes its 16th consecutive appearance at the local youth baseball championships: McHenry County Youth Sports Association (MCYSA). They arrived to find that before the tournament a “Blues for Japan” fundraiser for earthquake relief had been planned on their behalf. 

Japanese and Brazilian players, parents, host families and coaches gathered at and each competed in two games with local Crystal Lake clubs.

The teams enjoyed blues music provided by Prairie Ridge High School graduate Jimmy Pinkl and his band Black Cat Bone.

“Players like this kind of music, the blues,” explained head coach Sadao Nakashiro as his team sat on a picnic bench, sipping Slurpees and enjoying music.

His face grew more serious as he said, “we really appreciate the city is having this event.”

The team’s captain, Taisei Nakoh, shared the same gracious sentiments regarding the fundraiser.

“It means a lot what Crystal Lake is doing for us,” he said.

“Every player and coach was affected by the disaster in their own way,” Nakashiro said. “We were considering not coming to this tournament at one point.”

Eventually, JBLA reconsidered and made the decision to return to Crystal Lake, a serene break from busy Tokyo.

“Crystal Lake isn’t very busy,” Nakoh said. “It’s nice to play baseball and be able to concentrate.”

The small-town feel of Crystal Lake is appealing to Nakashiro as well.

“Crystal Lake seems very safe to me, and everyone is very warm and kind.”

This small, Illinois town becomes much less so as teams from Japan, Sri Lanka, Puerto Rico, Brazil and The Dominican Republic arrive at the end of July to compete in the MCYSA tournament.

“Playing with people from all around the world is a huge part of the experience for us,” explained Nakoh. “All of us really look forward to that.”

The camaraderie between teams is often the most exciting for the young competitors and their families, as players from the diverse nations trade pins and take pictures together.

“We mostly play in tournaments up and down Japan,” explained Koki Adachi, a member of the JBLA team. “Being able to watch and compete with other players from around the world is really enjoyable for us.” 

The players experience Crystal Lake by living with host families — local Crystal Lake or Cary residents who choose to take two or three young baseball players into their homes for two weeks.

The home-stay families were in attendance at the fundraiser, clad in shirts with Japanese flags on them and driving cars decorated with Japanese writing in various different colors. They take a vested interest in the team. Diane, Bill and Emily Rowe took in Adachi as well as two of his teammates.

“We love having the boys stay with us,” the couple said, and tells great stories about the experience of hosting young baseball players.

“The communication is hard at first,” described Diane as her family nods in agreement – none of them speak Japanese. “There are a lot of charades.”

She described how she demonstrated how she successfully mimed the description of her job as a travel agent for the players living in her house.

Despite the language barrier, the players have supportive and involved home-stay parents who enjoy the couple weeks their visitors stay.

For a printable schedule and list of events, visit www.mcysasports.org/.

For exclusive coverage of the MCYSA Summer International Championships, click here.

For more photos of the tournament, visit rfpphoto.smugmug.com/MCYSA2011.