It might surprise a few of those back home that it is baseball which is the number one sport here in Japan. Now I have never liked the game despite going to a game a few years back. However, I have swung a bat on occasions in the past but it had been three years since I went to a batting centre before today.

Despite all the parents observations and other work projects of late I’m not actually too stressed but if I was, then taking my frustrations out on those balls would surely help relieve that stress. The batting centre a couple of stops from my house has a variety of pitching machines varying in speed between 80km to 130km and needless to say I chose the beginner one but did move up to the next level for my second round. It was only 200 yen (one pound thirty) for 25 balls of which I managed to hit most albeit many slices at first!

If it had been cricket (a game almost unheard of in Japan) I would have been caught at slip many times. It was also quite tiring and my shots definitely had less swing as I got nearer to the last few balls. Such a simple idea and in this hectic city it was good fun to take a short ‘time out’ and whack a few balls.