白球を追って


■ It’s a World of Baseball Classic – in Japan

 

Baseball round! So I almost forgot that I had planned to shoot cherry blossoms every year to get a sense of the atmosphere at that time. This time, the location for the photo shoot is around “Koshien”, which should be treated as the center of the “Strike Zone”.

Why was Koshien so perfect? The reason, of course, is that the World Baseball Classic (WBC) was held in 2023, which Ohtani-san, famous for his dual role as a pitcher and hitter, participated in, and Japan won the WBC after a deadly battle with Major League Baseball player Trout. It was a very exciting spring that brought a breakthrough to the Corona disaster, well, almost.

Incidentally, for those of you from overseas, I would like to add some explanations as follows; Ohtani-san became a professional baseball player because he played in the national tournament in high school in Japan, and that tournament is held at the Koshien Stadium. Therefore, for Japanese baseball players, Koshien is like Wimbledon for tennis players or Augusta National Golf Club for golfers.

In addition, there are two national high school baseball tournaments, one in the spring and the other in the summer. The spring tournament is held in March and April, just in time for the cherry blossoms to bloom, so it was right in the middle of the season here, too.

Yeah.

…like this, I was saying that with a knowing look on my face. But in the real world, I was not aware of this idea at all. To tell you the truth, “Koshien” is more famous for the SUMMER tournament. Moreover I thought I had already visited most of the famous places around where I could take pictures of cherry blossom viewing, so I was at a loss for ideas. So I was in a quandary. So, I had a talk with that generative AI becoming popular these days if they had any good ideas. Then,

Bing AI “What? You wanna shoot cherry blossoms? Huumm, then I recommend Shukugawa River.”

So I didn’t go to Shukugawa River, but to the nearby Koshien. I must say AI is very useful of these days.

(But I’ve compiled my additional visits to Shukugawa in “Sakura Gradient“.)

 

 

 

 

 

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