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Spikes in Kusa Yakyu?

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Spikes in Kusa Yakyu?
I know that they use the nankyu balls, but do the kusa-yakyu guys wear metal or rubber spikes? Since they use nankyu, my inkling would be rubber, but I thought I'd see if anyone here knows.

I'm moving to Japan and going to start playing with a team that plays on Sundays, so I'd like to know what to take with me.

Last time I lived in Japan, I had a bit of trouble finding regular shoes in my size (~30cm). There was really no selection above 28cm for the most part, it seemed. But what about sports shoes such as cleats? Do they carry stuff in bigger sizes for that? I'm going to take cleats with me to start off in case I can't find any that are big enough, so no issue at the moment. I'm just thinking, when they wear out will I need to have another pair sent to me or can I find them in Japan?

Thanks,

Steve
Comments
Re: Spikes in Kusa Yakyu?
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Mar 10, 2008 8:30 AM | YBS Fan ]

That's an interesting question. Now that you mention it, I haven't even seen metal spikes offered at any of the sports stores I've visited over the past several years. So plastic (rubber) spikes would be the safest way to go.

As for size, I find that a size 28 is often only available in one style at discount stores, many more at the more expensive sports specialty stores. But there is a "Big and Large" chain of shoe stores throughout the Tokyo area that may have what you need. Considering how big some of these kids are getting now days, it's hard to believe that larger spikes aren't available at all. It may just take some time to find the right place to get them.

Gambatte!
Re: Spikes in Kusa Yakyu?
[ Author: tsm_ice9 | Posted: Mar 10, 2008 11:28 AM ]

Thanks for the reply!

I went ahead and bought a pair of molded spikes to take with me, and I still have three weeks or so before I leave, so I figured rubber was the safe bet, but I could take 'em back and trade for metal before I go, if I wanted to.

I asked here first because though I know quite a bit of Japanese, I didn't know what they call metal and rubber spikes in Japan. I looked it up on Japanese wikipedia, and it turns out the article differentiated them as "koushiki-you" and "nanshiki-you" just like hard-ball/rubber-ball. "Kinzoku" seems to be the word for metal spikes though.

So I e-mailed the guy in charge of the team I'm going to play with and asked if I should bring "nanshiki-you" spikes. He first said that whatever spikes are OK, but then a couple hours later he sent me a message saying that for a particular game they have scheduled, the other team told him they couldn't use metal. He checked with the "shimin-kyujo" and said that metal spikes were OK, but that only applies through March of this year, and they don't know what the rule will be on that from April, but for now I could just bring whatever I have.

I'll just stick with rubber for now, it'll do the job just fine I think.

Thanks again! I'll try to report back on my kusa-yakyu experience later. Looks like my team is in a league with 9 teams total, divided into groups of three. Each team plays three games against the teams in their own groups, and one against the teams in the other groups. And it seems like they'll play practice games whenever they aren't scheduled for league games. Should be lots of fun!
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