Is what you will hear chanted at our house tonight starting at 6pm PT (9pm ET) as we watch Korea face off Japan in the World Baseball Classics. The tournament has been on our set a lot during the last week, and in very rare form we consumed our dinner in front of the TV during the last two evening's semi final games. Korea and Japan have already played each other twice during the tournament. Korea won the first game. Japan won the second, and now we'll just have to see tonight.
Korea played Venezuela on Saturday and won. Last night, Japan trounced the USA team. My parents were rooting for USA fervently because it's such a tense and crazy game when Korea and Japan get together. They say they didn't want the stress, so they wanted team USA to win because they'd rather lose to USA than Japan. I, however, wanted Japan to win because 1) I'm always conflicted a bit when it's Korea vs the US. I am both. I know both sides of the story and want good things for both, and 2) I think it'll be way more exciting tonight for everyone if the final game is Korea vs Japan.
It's always interesting to me how much Korean Koreans have a problem with the Japanese. I really see them as similar in a lot of ways. In fact, the language was easy for me to learn because there was a lot of the exact same words and sentence structures in both languages. People from both countries bow all the time, and share the love of raw fish. Yes, I know the history. But to me, it's just history. It happened, and most of the people who live in both countries had nothing to do with it.
Then again, it helps me better understand the continued rift between the black and white communities even after everything is supposed to be all better now. I guess there's a lot of old stuff still there.
In any case, I predict there will be much yelling and throwing things at the TV tonight at our place. Hopefully there will be some cheering too. Will you be watching?
