Koshien Baseball Tournament

In Japan The Koshien Baseball Tournament is probably the biggest sporting event in the nation.  Over 4,000 high school teams compete to become one of the 49 that make it to Koshien during two weeks in August.  (It is probably the biggest high school sporting event in the world.)

It attracts up to a million spectators over the ten days, not to mention millions more following proceedings on television, radio and in national newspapers.

Two Arcticles on the Koshien Baseball Tournament:

JapanVisitor.com Article

Pilgrimage to Koshien

Many describe Koshien as "the Super Bowl and World Series rolled into one". Even those Japanese who are not ardent baseball fans pay attention during Koshien. Many see it as a national treasure - an old-fashioned showcase for the purest virtues of the nation's youth: effort, teamwork, dedication, and good sportsmanship.  (both article mentioned that the honor and sportsmanship present during the Koshien tournament and Japanese baseball in general is something absent in the American Major Leagues today) Every young baseball player dreams of one day competing on the "sacred" dirt of Koshien.

The players themselves endure rigorous training that hardly allows time for anything else:

"The time, effort and sheer physical pain that players put into the team - or, if you like, put up with in order to get into the team - are all very real but, when it comes to Koshien, they are also heavily romanticised." 

For some, it pays off.  The glory of winning the Koshien tournament is probably unrivaled (esecially in high school sports) in Japan.  Also, it has become a popular site for Japanese and American professional baseball scouts.  MLB players such as Ichiro and Hideki Matsui gained recognition at Kochien.

YouTube Video of a Kochien game