Ready?! [Japanese] Dodgeball!

So, one of the folks who visited last fall/winter are having a Japanese festival back in the U.S. and they sent a fax/letter to one of my elementary schools to ask some questions and whatnot. One of them was how the Japanese kids play dodgeball - which is a beautiful thing.

I also read their explanation that I think they sent back describing the game, and, despite having played the game, I couldn't exactly follow it. To be fair, I think it might be actually describing an older, more traditional version of the game, but it's not one I've ever played.

So, anyways, I spent 5 minutes in Paint and another 10 in Google Docs to knock out a description of the way the kids have taught me how to play. I don't know that this is THE way to play, but it's how we do it round here in Tsuyazaki.

And I figured I'd post it up because, surprisingly, Googling "Japanese dodgeball rules" didn't get me any hits that I could find in the first couple pages that clearly and simply explained it. So, here's my stab at it, if anyone else needs it.

Japanese Dodgeball Rules

2 teams, in this example, Team A and Team B.

Captains are decided and choose up teams. Who goes first is usually decided by rock-paper-scissors. Winner gets first pick, loser usually gets the ball first. Though sometimes they rock-paper-scissors again for the ball.

Team A plays both in the large area A and in the boundary area A1 - the color blue on the picture. [And B plays in both B and B1 - the red.] Usually only two or three students start the game in A1 and B1, depending on the number of students playing.

Gameplay: In this example we'll say a player in A has the ball. They can either throw and try to hit a player in B or pass the ball over the heads/around/through the players in B to their teamates in A1. If A throws it at a player in B and hits them, the struck player in B must move to B1. A player in A1 can also throw at a player in B or pass back to A, however they rarely pass to the players in A because if a player throws the ball from A1 and hits a player in B, that frees the thrower from A1 [they return to A] and the player in B who is struck has to go to B1. In this way the players are constantly rotating from A to A1 and from B to B1. This makes the game much longer and less cutthroat than the American version [emphasizing teamwork, cooperation and all sorts of other Japanese-y traits.] You can 'win' by eliminating all the players from either A or B. Though it takes a lot longer and usually only happens when there's a few players. So you can end up playing for a good 20-30m without a clear winner or finish. That's what the school bell is for.

Random rules - you can catch any ball thrown at you, with no penalty for the for the thrower or the catcher. Any shots to the face/head don't count and the player stays in A or B. I know this only because I've hit too many kids in the head. Not a lot of body mass to aim for on those midgets. And the last one I can think of is that the players in A and B are stuck there, but the players in A1 and B1 can run for a loose ball. But the boundaries and halfway lines [areas A1 and B1] are considered to extend indefinitely, so if a loose ball passes into "their" area, only players from that team can retrieve it. In other words, for example, a player from A1 can't cross the center line into B1 to retrieve a loose ball.