Pick Up Game Experience

So a couple of nights ago I went out with one of my JTs(Japanese Teachers) to play basketball. His name is Yoshiya and lived in the states for a number of years, so his english is excellent. That makes it easy on me, but sometimes he'll speak to me in Japanese so I can practice.

We went to a sports complex to play and for this month the open hours were from 9 PM - 11 PM. Here you have to sign up to play and only a certain amount of people are allowed to join. So, first come, only served. This placed allowed for a maximum on 20 people so we got there early just in case. To sign in you are given little sign in slips with numbers on them, fill it out and give them about 5 bucks. I think that's how the teams are formed. First 5 are a team, second 5 are a team, and so on. I'm really not sure but it seemed that way.

Once it was 9, the players went in the gym to shoot around and warm up. About 15 people showed up. After about ten minutes one person stopped everybody and they all moved to the outside of the court. Then he started leading a stretch for everyone. I was like what's going on right now? Then I heard him counting, looked more closely around and was like oh everyone is stretching, I guess I'll stretch too instead of just standing here looking special. The guy leading the stretch was the manager for open gym. After we finished that he called out for the 1st and 2nd team to play.

While two teams are playing the non-playing team members manage the game. There is a score card they keep and at as referees. That's very nice actually. People can't start complaining about the score at the end of a game 'cause everyone forgot, like in the states. They also keep the time. All the games are timed, so no playing to 11 by ones and you have to win by two.

There are no 'check ball's here. You take the ball out of bounds where it went out. They really don't wait either, hahaha. Just run over there and throw it in.

And if you haven't guessed already, winner doesn't stay on. They just go through a rotation, so everyone gets to play.

I really enjoyed playing, it was a good little work out. I needed to do some running. I particularly liked the idea of the people not playing keeping score and ref'ing. It took me forever to walk home 'cause I was tired but man, did I sleep good that night.