Youth Sports Ambassadors @ Beijing 2008
When Beijing was selected to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, surely the last thing IOC or BOCOG officials were thinking was how a mega-event like the Olympics could help bring Japanese and Chinese youth basketball players together for grassroots cultural exchange across borders. Despite numerous attempts to gain top-level support and corporate sponsorship, our efforts of building a goodwill project at the 2008 Olympics came up empty. Then, Hope 81 decided to take the initiative from the ground up and build our very own 'Youth Sports Ambassadors' campaign. We rallied our community in hopes of promoting a culture of peace in East Asia, and growing new lines of international friendship and cooperation in the spirit of the Olympic movement itself. Here's a look at how we made it all happen, with the help of several great friends and supporters...

One thing we knew going in was that millions of people in the region (an estimated 500,000,000 in China alone) were already buzzing about the game of basketball -- thanks in large part to Chinese player Yao Ming's recent success in the NBA. A basketball boom in East Asia, in combination with China's first-ever hosting of the Olympic Games, meant that a perfect 'window of opportunity' was here for our generation to begin taking action across borders. Common dreams and shared interests in the game of basketball would provide civil society members with a friendly vehicle to help ease ongoing tensions and move beyond unresolved historical issues. Not to mention, it would be an experience of a lifetime for our YSA members!

The road to Beijing started with several activities in our local Tokyo community, including: awareness-building for our organization's mission, promotion of the Olympic movement, design collaboration for web/promotional materials, language exchange activities with the help of local Chinese university students, video interviews of local street basketball players posted on social networking platforms, YSA uniform design with the help of local sporting goods stores, fundraising/sponsorship recruitment, and much more.

Once we finally arrived in Beijing, the local Chinese basketball community there had heard of our YSA campaign (via the web) and were excited to welcome us into their neighborhood. One person in particular, More Free (pictured above), a leader of Beijing's top street basketball team called the "CL Smooth Crew", was incredibly supportive throughout our entire stay. He arranged Japanese-speaking friends to help us communicate with his players, introduced us to the best street courts in town, and one evening, he put on a high-flying slam dunk contest with his crew that we'll never forget. If that wasn't enough, More Free took us all out for dinner at one of his favorite spots in the famous "Ghost Road" restaurant district. We really owe him a huge thanks for all his kindness and leadership that he brought to make our project a success.

Another Chinese community member who found out about our project online contacted us mid-way through our stay, and offered to donate his Men's Basketball/Gold Medal Round ticket (USA-SPAIN) to show his support for our grassroots efforts. The opportunity to see a Gold Medal game featuring the world's most elite professional players in Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Pau Gasol and others, certainly doesn't come around very often in one's life. While we only had one ticket to see the game, all of our members were still there in spirit! Hope 81 is extremely grateful to our Chinese donor (pictured above, with YSA members) for allowing us to fulfill that dream for our aspiring Japanese youth athletes.

When we weren't playing ball, we were busy touring some of the city's historic (hu tong) areas like Nan Luo Gu Xiang and viewing China's newest galleries at the '798' underground art district; getting traditional Chinese massage from blind practitioners, sampling the city's most famous dish, Peking Duck; and cheering on the Japanese baseball team as they battled against the USA in a preliminary-round matchup. We also distributed hundreds of red ribbons to promote HIV awareness along the way, in partnership with the Ribbon Magnet Group. And on our final day, we had one last mountain to climb...the Great Wall of China! As we made our way to the top, it was a great chance to reflect on our journey to the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and all we had gained from our trip.

Here's what our YSA members had to say about the experience:

Yuki Sato, Japanese High School Student
"My greatest experience was learning that sports will always help you make friends, no matter which country you are in. Although there are a lot of different languages spoken in the world, a game such as basketball has it's own language. It is a language itself. You can learn new words, like we learned a few chinese expressions through playing with local kids. And the greatest part is that you can make friends- definitely! Even if you go up against one another during the game, there will be great respect after the game, and naturally, you become good friends. So what I learned is that sports has no borderlines..."

Masataka Umehara, Japanese Sanitation Worker
"Walking out to the Great Wall was so much fun! That’s the most important thing, to have fun. I also got to watch the Olympic Gold Medal basketball game between USA-SPAIN, and I played a lot of streetball with Chinese players at the parks. I would like to go back to China someday, so I could try to play in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) or some other pro-league there. Of course I’m interested in working on another project with Hope 81, too! I wanna make a lot of friends all over the world, in peace.”

Thanks for the memories, China! We look forward to returning the favor someday. And we'll be launching a new documentary of our YSA adventures in Beijing to show the power of sport at the grassroots level. For now, please enjoy a few highlights from More Free's dunk contest. To all our friends in Beijing, our Japanese basketball community members are waiting for your first visit to Tokyo...