When the plane landed, because Japan and Taiwan are in the same time zone, there is no need to suffer jet lag. The only thing that needs to be paid attention to is that they are not accustomed to the acclimatization, so after the Japanese team arrived at the specified hotel, they booked nearby Japanese food.
The first day was repair time. Coach Ninomiya was busy coordinating related matters. The team members were practicing swinging in the back garden.
As I continued practicing, some people began to feel disoriented.
"Can you go out for a walk tonight?"
"It may not work today. I don't know where to go shopping."
"Didn't you also exchange Taiwan dollars? When will you buy something?"
"Didn't Kōshū say a few days ago that he was Chinese? Wouldn't that be a good time for him to take us shopping?"
"That's right!"
Kōshū, who was a wallflower next to him, received everyone's attention. "I have to ask the coach first if it's okay."
"Yeah! The biggest obstacle is gone!"
"This obstacle disappeared a few days ago. Did you get distracted during the meeting?" This meeting refers to the internal communication meeting of the players. Everyone will chat for thirty minutes before lights out every day.
"Yoshi, everyone should practice swinging the bat well. Please pay attention during this time. I will ask the coach and we will go out together." Hayakawa saw that after the discussion, it turned out that the serious people also started to swing the bat softly, and immediately guided everyone.
"Okay! Captain"
Kōshū muttered to Hayakawa on the side, "Don't even think about going shopping at night Night Market. What if you are not used to eating and have diarrhea before the game? It's better to wait until after the game is over and go shopping."
After coming to Japan, Kōshū also had a long period of discomfort. The food here is very extreme. If you say it is light, most soups are watery. But if you want to eat some meat, it is either tempura or barbecue. You can also make staple food with staple food. For example, the ramen that the Japanese eat is a pile of noodles covered with fried things. The only green is chopped green onion, and the only thing that is considered healthy is a pile of bean sprouts.
In the evening, Coach Ninomiya came back and announced the order of the preliminaries. The Japanese team is Team A. In the same group are Australia, Cuba, Russia, Chinese Taipei Team and Venezuela. The opponent on the first day is the Chinese Taipei Team team.
Hayakawa quietly touched Kōshū, and when Kōshū looked over, Hayakawa raised his eyebrows, which was quite meaningful.
"It's okay. I don't feel bad about beating them. Anyway, the civil war between us and Taiwan hasn't stopped yet."
On the third day after the Japanese team arrived, the game officially started, Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, at 6:30 pm.
Chinese Team was ranked fifth in the last game, while the Japanese team was seventh. Judging from the data over the years, Japan's ranking lags behind Chinese Team a little more often, so the starter for this game is Kōshū.
In this game, the Japanese team was on the back foot. When they were warming up on the field, people at Chinese Team on the third base side were talking.
"Kōshū, the opposing pitcher's name is Kōshū. Is this person's surname Gao or Gao Zhi?"
"Of course the surname is Gao. I have never heard of a Japanese surnamed Gaozhi, haha."
"What's weird? I was watching the news a few days ago and heard that someone's surname was 'Abiko'. I laughed to death."
"What Onion news were you watching?"
Among the discussions, someone finally thought about it, "This name looks like a Chinese name. Do you want to ask where he is from?"
Everyone was silent, and then burst into laughter. "Who are you going to ask, if there is a hole in the brain, hahahaha."
The man said weakly, "I can ask you one last question, why are you laughing?"
"Then leave it to you."
Kōshū didn't know that his name caused a commotion on the opposite side. He looked back at his teammates behind him. This was the first time he was with them in an official game. The strangeness came out of his heart. Half a month of getting along could not erase the memories of a year. Fortunately, Hayakawa after Home Plate was familiar to him.
Air Raid Siren sounded, and Kōshū didn't waste any time. He threw the ball directly. The ball fell from more than 2 meters to the batter's knee.
"Good shot——"
After the first game Three Up, Three Down, Chinese Team and Dugout, the atmosphere became not so good. Although I had seen it on the video, after actually facing the power of this ball, I still couldn't help but feel sad. Isn't this guy too difficult to deal with? Are all Japanese teams this year like this?
After that, Chinese Team couldn't open the situation for two consecutive games. At the same time, its own Bullpen was still setting fire and had lost 5 points in total. After three games, the current score is 5:0, and the Japanese team is in the lead.
"You guys have already watched the Japanese pitcher's ball for one round. Please show me clearly and hit it out quickly."
"Okay-"
Unfortunately, things went against expectations. At the beginning of the fourth inning, there were more Changeup balls from Kōshū, Fast Cutter balls running towards the outside corner of the right-hand batter, and Two-Seam Fastball balls running towards the inside corner of the right-handed batter. ball, the falling Changeup, because Coach Ninomiya restricts him to pitching straight pitches, so he can only work on the co-orbital degree of these pitches, allowing the hitters to constantly guess the speed and ball type, and finally end the game one after another.
'Damn it, are we going to eat duck eggs this time? ' In his own home court, if he had such a bad start, he might be scolded by the media. Head coach Chinese Team could only dare to say this in his heart, 'The next game is Russia, let's get more points from them. '
In the end, Kōshū still had no end. He blew off the extra Anti-Slip Powder on his hand, stared at Hayakawa's Signals and nodded.
The first pitch was a straight ball from Outside Low Corner. Although the batter who had been waiting for the ball had a taste of the path he wanted, he still couldn't control it well. The power was not fully transmitted to the ball, causing the ball to get stuck near second base. The second baseman quickly picked up the ball and blocked it at first base.
"One out!"
Seeing that the work is about to end, Kōshū no longer saves energy, Hayakawa feels the pitcher's mood, Changeup decreases, since they are all waiting for a straight ball, then give them a straight ball!
The next batter hit two balls, Foul Ball, and the last ball was empty.
"Two out!"
Two straight balls and one Changeup successfully struck out the last batter.
The current score is 9:0, and there are still attacks in the second half of the game. If the game is in a junior high school, it can be stopped completely, because the junior high school game is based on winning or losing, so the Japanese team has won. But in the U15 game, it is Score Difference Ratio, so all half of the game needs to be played.
The morale in the second half of the game that had already been lost can be imagined, so the Japanese team scored three points in succession. When Air Raid Siren sounded in the sky again, the score of the game stopped at 12:0, and the Japanese team won.
After the game, Kōshū turned around and left with everyone, but was stopped by someone speaking broken Japanese.
"You can speak Chinese." Kōshū was a little helpless. In fact, before going on stage today, he was thinking about whether to communicate with the other party, but he denied it first.
"Ah!" A shocked voice came from behind, "You can speak Mandarin."
"I'm from Mainland China." Kōshū's words didn't resonate much with the other party. They talked about some things, such as "So my surname is Gao", and they stood quite far away, a little unfamiliar. When Kōshū saw this scene, it didn't mean much. It seemed silly to stand with no one paying attention to him, so he turned and left directly.
Finally, when they were about to leave the venue, they met Chinese Team again. The person who stopped Kōshū at the beginning left the team and asked for Kōshū's Facebook account.
On the way back, Kōshū was a little depressed and couldn't explain how he felt. He still remembered the lessons he learned in elementary school. When he was a child, he wondered why everyone was in the same mood but still couldn't return. After he went abroad and started to really get in touch with Taiwan people's thoughts, he realized that it was just one side of the mainland. When he was young, he taught the children to like the other side, but after real contact, there was a huge contrast.
Although the scenery outside the window was not familiar, he could understand what they said, and the food was from the same set of recipes, but he didn't feel like he was back in a familiar place.
It's really a hell today, two groups of people @ each other in the group, blaming each other