Aichi Prefecture

Since being introduced to Japan in 1872, baseball has risen to become a national pastime bordering on obsession, in many eyes supplanting sumo as the nation’s number one sport. In its near 150 years history, one man has risen as perhaps the greatest player to take to the diamond: Aichi’s own Ichiro Suzuki, best known on both sides of the Pacific as Ichiro. A Small Kid With Big Dreams Ichiro was born in 1973 in Toyoyama, a small town to the north of Nagoya near the old airport. From a very young age, despite his slight frame, Ichiro’s father, Nobuyuki, recognized an innate talent in his son. After the boy expressed a desire to play professionally, Nobuyuki designed a grueling training routine. When Ichiro attended the Aikodai Meiden school in Nagoya’s Chikusa Ward, known for its sports prowess, Nobuyuki went as far as to instruct the school coach not to praise his son to develop his mental toughness. Ichiro himself later compared the treatment by his father as something akin to hazing. However, there can be no doubt that future mental fortitude has been a continued attribute to his phenomenal success. Ichiro led Meiden in the prestigious Koshien high school baseball tournament,…