I'm not a baseball aficionado. But last month I was carried away by the "fighting spirit" of Japanese teenage baseball players. NHK cancels all its daytime programs to live broadcast an annual national tournament over two weeks of August.

The teenage boys with their closely cropped hair bow every time they step on and walk off the field. At the end of every game, players of two teams exchange bows and handshakes. The winners rush toward their supporters to celebrate. The losers drop to their knees in tears and scoop handfuls of the dirt from the ground into their bags as mementoes of their fleeting time at their dream ballpark.

This is Japan's national high school summer baseball tournament, known simply as Koshien after the stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo prefecture, on Honshu island.