Gateball (Japanese: ゲートボール, Hepburn: gētobōru) is a mallet team sport similar to croquet. It is a fast-paced, non-contact, highly strategic team game, which can be played by anyone regardless of age or gender.
Gateball is played on a rectangular court 20 meters long and 15 meters wide. Each court has three gates and a goal pole. The game is played by two teams (red and white) of up to five players. Each player has a numbered ball corresponding to their playing order. The odd-numbered balls are red and the even-numbered balls are white. Teams score one point for each ball hit through a gate and two points for hitting the goal pole, in accordance with the rules. A game of gateball lasts for thirty minutes and the winner is the team with the most points at the end of the game.
Gateball was invented in Japan by Suzuki Kazunobu in 1947. At the time there was a severe shortage of rubber needed to make the balls used in many sports. Suzuki, then working in the lumber industry on the northern island of Hokkaido, realised there was a ready supply of the wood used to make croquet balls and mallets. He revised the rules of croquet and created gateball as a game for young people.
You just ignore me when I pass you
although we stop and talk awhile
you turn away as I'm listening to you -
I try to force a smile.
You're like a flame that's burning up inside
yes I feel it when you talk
and though I try to understand your mind
there comes a time when I must stop.
And I'm rocked to stony silence, I just can't
communicate
in a one-way conversation where there's nowhere we
relate
yes I'm rocked to stony silence by the things you think
and say
it isn't too surprising if you could see it round my
way.
I see it everywhere in action
it's all around like some disease
you might call it self-protection
I know that that's what you believe.
From where you stand it's just confusion
you never step outside the dance,
you can't escape certain conclusions
when you assume them in advance.
And I'm rocked to stony silence 'cause you think that
you've got free
from all the old conventions, but they still hang round
your sleeve
yes I'm rocked to stony silence, 'cause you say you
know what's real
but that doesn't look so obvious when you don't know
what you feel.
You can blame it on the system
it isn't hard to criticise
or on the pain that you've been through -
there's always something you can find.
I've been through all of this too often
I thought I'd know how to react
but when it's someone saying they're my friend
I thought I'd seen the last of that.
And I'm rocked to stony silence by the emptiness you
bring
to things that mean a lot to me, and it's happening
once again
yes I'm rocked to stony silence 'cause our words just
sound the same