Raising Resilient Humans Through Sports and Global Experiences with Yutaka Hirabayashi (#196) — Transcript
Updated: Oct 26
THE PICTURE OF WEALTH · EPISODE 196
What do children gain from sport beyond wins and trophies? Yutaka Hirabayashi joins Dustin Serviss to discuss youth athletics, cultural exchange and the confidence and resilience that can grow from unfamiliar experiences, including Dustin’s family visit to a Japanese baseball team.
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This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. It may contain transcription or speaker-attribution errors. Refer to the recording for exact wording.
Chapters
[00:00:00] A family trip built around Japanese baseball
[00:03:05] What children learn from team routines
[00:06:46] Creating overseas opportunities for student athletes
[00:10:38] The connection between culture and baseball
[00:13:57] Giving young athletes more paths to choose from
[00:17:09] Combining study halls and sports training
[00:23:15] Building GXA and the next five years
[00:32:18] Making the bridge between Japan and overseas work both ways
[00:34:09] Where to find GXA
Guest & resources
Related episodes
Transcript
[00:00:00] Dustin Serviss: Listener, I need to take a moment and set up the situation for this episode. Now Yutaka Hirabashi is a guy I met about three months, four months ago, was introduced from a friend of a friend of a friend. But long story short, I wanted to take my family to Japan and not do just a traditional vacation whereby... I don't know for you, but as you get maybe more financially set or wealthy, call it whatever you want, when you travel, you just sort of spend more to do more or that's sort of been my philosophy that you you upgrade your trip. So as you can afford more, you upgrade it. And there's sort of this treadmill of just...
[00:00:39] Dustin Serviss: It never really ends, and a trip just sort of, you know, isn't really getting materially better just because you're spending more, and I haven't felt that. So for this trip to Japan, I wanted something truly unique, and I wanted something that my kids can experience, that I can experience, and also experience with my wife. And the setup was this. My kids are in baseball. It's one of the sports they love. And I thought, well, Japan is known for its upcoming sort of baseball into North American baseball. So is it possible that I could find a company, a team, something whereby on our vacation, I would have my kids
[00:01:17] Dustin Serviss: play with a Japanese kids' team? And so, ironically, through a sequence of events, meeting somebody, meeting somebody else, and then meeting Utaka, we were connected with a u eleven baseball team. Now this team was a... Almost a... Call it a pro level team. They practice ten hours on a Saturday, and they practice four hours on Sunday. And so we were able to get into the Saturday practice with this team. I had to hire a translator to come along with us for the day because nobody on the baseball team spoke English, and they wanted to give my kids instructions. And so the interpreter was with my kids the full day with this team.
[00:01:57] Dustin Serviss: And truly memorable, once in a lifetime experience, the kids on the team were so... I don't know what the word is. I'm almost choked up. Say it. They were so grateful and so helpful, and yet they couldn't speak English, yet they were dragging my kids around the field showing them where to be, telling them, you know, basically in, you know, kid language, like, where they're supposed to be, what they're supposed to be doing, and the interpreter was also helping. And the highlight really was... And I... I'm... I don't talk about this in the podcast because I'm doing this introduction after.
[00:02:29] Dustin Serviss: But the highlight was getting the picture of the interpreter talking to the kids while they were all eating their lunch, and he was talking to my kids and then translating back to the kids on the team. And there was this great conversation for about twenty minutes back and forth, the kids asking questions, my kids asking questions, and that was just sort of one facet that was truly remarkable the day. The other... You know, the list would... Goes on and on about if you ever see me, ask me about it because, I'll talk, you know, just such so, you know, so highly of the Japanese culture. The parents were amazing.
[00:03:05] Dustin Serviss: The parents were amazing at, you know, taking care of the food. The kids were very well organized in their own rights. There's no parents saying, hey, Johnny. Pick up your thing. The kids all knew exactly where their gloves go, exactly where the helmets go. The pictures really don't show justice, but you can see it when you're there and you witness how organized the Japanese culture is, and that translates into skills that kids develop in the future for business, for sport, for interacting with other human beings, and that is why the Japanese culture is just so efficient. And we saw it in the subways. We saw it all over the place.
[00:03:42] Dustin Serviss: But if you've ever been there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So Yutaka takes us through what sport means for Japanese kids and how that translates to the future. I'll leave it there. I'm excited to have you, Yutaka, on the show, and we've connected in a very unique way. And I'm happy that sort of this vision I had of taking my kids to Japan and immersing in some sort of Japanese sport, which it was baseball. And I know we're gonna get into that for you, but I'm super grateful that you made that come together. And in this episode, I hope we can unpack that a bit. So thanks a lot for coming on the picture of wealth.
[00:04:31] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Oh, thanks, Dustin. I'm glad we'd be able to be on your... This podcast, and I'm pretty excited. Thank you so much.
[00:04:38] Dustin Serviss: The more I learn about your business and what you do for kids' sport, I do draw parallels with business, kindness, greatness as humans, building more efficient humans, and just overall betterment. So maybe help listener kinda catch up with your company and, ultimately, what you're actually doing with youth in sport because it is quite unique. And once we kinda get that foundation, then we'll dive into the podcast.
[00:05:09] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Okay. My name is Yutaka. I live in Tokyo, Japan. I grew up with playing baseball because my dad was a baseball coach, and I just love playing baseball, but I just got injuries. I couldn't be able to continue my baseball career at the college levels. I always wanted to be a sports trainer, so I decided to move to the United States to study sports medicine as well as sports man... Management because I kinda wanted to be on the major league level as a staff, not a player. And I made it to the major league level as a Japanese translator slash trainer for the KC Royals. That was back in two thousand nine and ten seasons.
[00:05:54] Yutaka Hirabayashi: And, it didn't last long because the Japanese pitcher I helped with, he he only had a two year contract, and team decided not to continue his contract. I I had to go home to Japan, and I always wanted to do help Japanese baseball players who wanted to come to the come to overseas to play baseball. And I... Even though I didn't play baseball in the US, but I met a lot of coaches, a lot of baseball people around. So I decided to start the... This business, like, placing Japanese student athlete into US club teams as well as high school and college. Since then, I bring a group of Japanese youth baseball players to mainly Southern California
[00:06:46] Yutaka Hirabayashi: in the US every spring, summer, and now wintertime because down there, it's pretty warm even though it's in January, February. And, and we also have been placing student athlete into US high schools, colleges since then. So now there are about roughly twenty, thirty Japanese ball players at the college level in the US, and some of them are even the NSCW division one levels in competing at highest levels. And not only baseball, but also we place basketball, soccer, volleyball players, student athlete to a bunch of schools within the US. We have placed couples... Players into Canada too, but at college levels, a lot of
[00:07:39] Yutaka Hirabayashi: student athlete in the United States.
[00:07:41] Dustin Serviss: I'm sure like everything more, the US, there's the dollars. People go for the dollars in the US versus the dollars in Canada or to... And colder winters.
[00:07:50] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[00:07:53] Dustin Serviss: So the... For the players in Japan, so these kid... You know, children... I'm calling them children, but their kids are coming up. Is it a cultural thing that they are, like, trying to get out of the... Is there... Not say that that sounds about trying to get out of the country, but almost there's more opportunity for careers and more robust sort of spokes in the wheel in the sport outside of Japan. Is that is that true? It's...
[00:08:20] Yutaka Hirabayashi: When I was in high school levels, they are really... That was so rare to see players going overseas other than professional players. My era was, like, Ichiro Matsui. Those are two big icons from Japanese ballplayers going to the the major league and play at highest level. But now the kids see more major leagues on TV, like Otani and Yamamoto and all that kind of big names. Every morning, as soon as I turn the TV on every morning, the kids sees how he did. Even though he struck out three times, that was on the news. Right? You know? That's a big... You know? I think so. Kids wear a Dodgers cap in a hat in school, T shirts, all that.
[00:09:08] Yutaka Hirabayashi: So I think it's becoming more popular for kids to seeking dreams to outside the countries than staying in Japan?
[00:09:18] Dustin Serviss: I... My wife and kids, we spent twenty five days in Japan in the spring, and we kinda saw the full spectrum of Tokyo down to Okinawa and kinda traveled all the way south. In Tokyo, it seems, and this may be just my... It seems very business, and it seems very suit, ride the subway ten hour days, and just that's your life. Now is there a life that these children are seeing these younger generations where there's a there... There's a different life that's vision? Is that happening?
[00:09:53] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Yeah. The... I think the Tokyo... The scene of Tokyo you saw was very, pretty traditional. I just got off the train thirty minutes ago. It was pretty packed. At some point after they finish career, the baseball, they have to make their living somehow, be on the train every day and sitting in the cubicle, maybe in a working office. But just playing baseball, in background until you see a lot of connection. Right? Networking with people around. Just saying, hey. I played baseball at high school level. That that made people connected so easily, and that's how popular it is. Just becoming a baseball player, even at the high school level, that's
[00:10:38] Yutaka Hirabayashi: something you get a big value of networking people and getting to know somebody. I'm not sure if I can work questions correctly, but culture and the baseball is always connected.
[00:10:50] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. That's... I... That was my kid's observation, and we were at the fields for seven hours on the one day. And just seeing the efficiency, seeing the parents were there all day, seeing the organization of the children's gear was very impressive. I don't know if that's like that in all teams, but it was very organized. The water bottles, the helmets, the gloves, everything was a certain way. The shoes were a certain way. And then from the various fields along that peninsula or whatever that is where the fields are, other teams were almost running military in a good... They were chanting, and it was high energy.
[00:11:28] Dustin Serviss: And so we were very impressed as a family at how the skills that although it seems so trivial in sport lead to such positive influence in in life. So
[00:11:43] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Yeah. I did that one as a kid. I think it was pretty normal to me. Waking up really early, get on the car, or maybe riding the bike to the field every morning, every weekends, and start practice at eight AM, maybe doing a doubleheader games during the gay... Day. And after the game, post prac... Postgame practice until seven PM or eight PM, have a snack, and another extra batting things, like, till ten PM or something. And my dad didn't care if I have to do a homework or not, just to do push ups and do little jogging aside. And I
[00:12:26] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:12:27] Yutaka Hirabayashi: That's how much he put a lot of effort and commitment on baseball to me.
[00:12:32] Dustin Serviss: So bring... Just... This is not in my questions that I had given you before, but is the life of a... So you're in between. You are a sports agent or you aren't? You're more of a a bridge that gets people abroad, or do you actually have people in your organization that agent for people once they're established? And so that's my first part of a question. The second part, is it as glamorous of a life, or do you have a story of the the Jerry Maguire I'm almost thinking about, like, that it... Is it a very exciting career being in baseball, but maybe not being a pro player? But you still get that that that rush.
[00:13:11] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Yeah. The first question, yes, I am in rural... I mean, building a bridge between Japan to the other countries through sports. But we also have our own club team, travel ball teams in Japan, in Tokyo and Osaka. It's both under fifteen, under eighteen teams. Right? And, those kids, of course, they want to commit to go to a good high school, good colleges. But as a company, we have two big programs, like domestic baseball programs, like... Such as those club teams and just baseball clinics all over. And the other part is going overseas. We have two phases of our business, like, you know, continuing
[00:13:57] Yutaka Hirabayashi: baseball within Japan, and the second part is just having another opportunity to go overseas to play baseball or to learn baseball culture overseas. So it's hard to say. I like both. Right? We have options. When I was kids, there's no options. Just stay in Japan, play baseball, try to become a professional players. Otherwise, you just work in... As... All day long. But now kids have so many options. That's... But the parents have... We have to get to know the opportunities, and and we have to... Parents have to give kids to a lot of opportunities for the kids to make the future broad. Right? Yeah. So we have two main programs within Japan
[00:14:46] Yutaka Hirabayashi: overseas.
[00:14:47] Dustin Serviss: Do you have a story that you kind of pops out in your head as one of your highlight stories of being on the agent side of working with the sports, an up and comer and establishing them whether they work with you still or not? Do you have one that stands out where it maybe had some unique traits to it and only share what you can share? But
[00:15:08] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Yeah. You told me I'm a agent, but I'm not really a professional agent. I'm... We don't deal with any professional players, mainly amateur student athletes. But every time when I talk to coaches at college level and high school levels, since I was in the US, I was in Mississippi in the US. It's such a suburb area. They're kinda country area. There's no Japanese, you know, students and anybody. I was the only Japanese student at school, and they're like, why did you end up with Mississippi, you know, study sports training? And I was like, that's pretty affordable down there. Yeah. And that there's no big Asian community.
[00:15:53] Yutaka Hirabayashi: I wanted to place myself into kind of challenging situation. That kind of stories, I was in a professional level for two years with Japanese players. Those kind of stories, when I whenever I speak to baseball coaches in the US or Canada, we always connect easily. Right? Because we have common language baseball. So it's not very unique stories, but it's... Well, it makes me proud myself, and it kinda makes me happy to... When when we connect people with baseball. Yeah. Like, me and... We are connected because of baseball. Right?
[00:16:34] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Yeah. Listen there. I'll try to do my best in the intro to to to fill in the gaps of how you, Taka, and I are talking. But I do wanna hear your... So in in the local... I think I just wanna touch on this before we go by it. The local u fifteen and u eighteen, are those profit centers, like, in Japan where there are stadiums that people buy tickets for and the players do... They get paid, or are they not paid, but it's still organizational that still sell
[00:17:06] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Ball teams?
[00:17:07] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Baseball teams.
[00:17:09] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Oh, not at all. Just the... Those two are just trouble ball teams, and they have actually have to pay monthly enrollment fees to play. But our under fifteen teams are unique. They... We have a study halls every time because we also have indoor facilities, both Tokyo and Osaka. So kids come to our facilities. We divide two groups. One, just one group takes doing a homework and a little extra study hall. And at the same time, the second group doing the paddings and pitching stuff, and they just switch over after not one hour. The parents are pretty happy about what we do because they just have to send their kids to our place,
[00:18:02] Yutaka Hirabayashi: and we could take care of their education and the sports at the same time. Right? So that way, they don't have to take care of their education at home. We we we do all the one package at the same time. And the... On the eighteen team, these are very unique programs. This is a kind of crazy number of... It's kind of issue here at high school levels that so many freshmen decide to step out the regular high school programs because of the, such an intense training all day long and, there's so many number of players in one team. So they decide to step out the club. That means they they decide not going to school anymore.
[00:18:47] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Because of the baseball, they have to stop going to school. Approximately fifty hundred players decide to stop playing baseball at the freshman level high school. So on the eighteen team, we received those who didn't want to continue high school program at the regular level. We received them, and we just play at the easy level. Right? There's no... We only play nine AM to twelve PM every day and just take it easy. No punishment, anything. So... Yeah. It's not really typical high school teams. We just do for fun. It's not... We still want to play games and want to win, but that's not top priority. We just keep them in a safe place and,
[00:19:42] Yutaka Hirabayashi: give them great coaches, staffing, and great coaching environment, and play baseball Monday through Friday. And they're pretty much weekend off. It's not really regular high school baseball here.
[00:19:56] Dustin Serviss: I wanna clarify something because I think I understand it, but in Canada, the premier... So in Canada, hockey is a big thing, but it's like premier private school is for... Is... It's not marketed like this, but it is for top athlete in sport as a hockey athlete, elite level. Go to private school. It's thirty thousand a year or whatever it is, and the kids get a little bit of schooling and they play hockey. But what you just explained to me is interesting. It's... You can leave traditional school, and you can go into a baseball program for sport and also do your schooling, but it provides a more flexible way to finish out high school.
[00:20:37] Dustin Serviss: Is that how you said that?
[00:20:39] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Yeah. That's it. It's not hardcore.
[00:20:43] Dustin Serviss: But they get their graduation of grade twelve or whatever the high school is by the
[00:20:47] Yutaka Hirabayashi: We provide the, online courses, homeschooling programs. So they still get a high school diploma. And, actually, last year, one of the pitchers, lefty pitchers, they... He he ended up with the... One of the top competitive college after our program, and he got drafted by the professional baseball team.
[00:21:07] Dustin Serviss: Really?
[00:21:07] Yutaka Hirabayashi: That's a... Yeah. That's a first prayer from our franchise history, and a lot of coaches scouting was out of blue. Who is this lefty pitcher? He's very good. Look at his high school where he went. What kind of high school is there? Now we receive a lot of phone calls and emails and, hey. What kind of program do you guys provide?
[00:21:29] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. We actually went and practiced in your facility in the one... Is it the north... Northeast?
[00:21:37] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Tokyo.
[00:21:38] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Tokyo. It's
[00:21:39] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Yeah.
[00:21:39] Dustin Serviss: It's a warehouse.
[00:21:40] Yutaka Hirabayashi: The little one. Yeah. That's pretty big in Tokyo, by the way.
[00:21:44] Dustin Serviss: We we were so tired from the practice outside all day that when it was Kenshin. Do you know Kenny, or is he Taku's
[00:21:51] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Kenny was our client, actually.
[00:21:53] Dustin Serviss: Kenny...
[00:21:54] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Yes. Kenny went to high school in Canada. Actually, when he... When I met him the first time,
[00:22:02] Dustin Serviss: So this is the interpreter that we took along with us for a day in doing baseball. And so Ken Ken Shen, or his name is Kenny, was with us, and he was helping my kids speak Japanese to the Japanese players. But in the afternoon, we went to Itaka's site where he's he's talking about where this facility is. So I'll carry it.
[00:22:23] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Kenny was pretty that's pretty good.
[00:22:26] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. He was unbelievable. Yeah.
[00:22:27] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Yeah. The no English skills when I met him. Actually, he was one of the clients when I brought a group of Japanese kids to over California when he was, like, eleven or twelve. I've known him since then.
[00:22:44] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. So finish finish the facility because it's it's pretty... It's small but big, but it's it was
[00:22:52] Yutaka Hirabayashi: That's why the kids get so surprised whenever we bring a group of kids to overseas, in fact, US and Canada, how big everything is. Right? Stores and houses and facilities.
[00:23:08] Dustin Serviss: The cars. The trucks. We were so surprised at how small the cars were.
[00:23:13] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Dude, drinks. Everything's big.
[00:23:15] Dustin Serviss: Maybe give us an update on building GXA. And if if that stands for anything, that's your company name. But on what sort of has evolved or what you've noticed evolving. You kinda touched on it. But in the last five years, that's changing in sport slash entertainment, athlete development, and then what for the next five years with GXA?
[00:23:40] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Unfortunately, the number of baseball participants in Japan decreasing, actually. But I think it's all the increasing the cost of baseball gears. That kinda hurts on the family side. Right? And a lot of travel fees, obviously, gas has been increasing. It's a lot of commitment on baseball for parents' sides concerning times all day long. So now the teams currently, they try to decrease the practice time, like, from all day long to only ten to one PM, and they try to avoid heat, things like that. So it's been really changing, but still the number of participants are decreasing. And we have basket programs, valuable programs,
[00:24:28] Yutaka Hirabayashi: and soccer programs. And that's interesting that those kids who are attending the... Our baseball clinics, they decide to... They just change their sports from baseball to basketball, but they are still in our programs. Uh-huh. But it's hard to see them leaving from baseball environment because I was a baseball guy, and I still love baseball, but, yeah, that's very reality here, decreasing players. But because of and all kind of Japanese ball players going overseas globally and even professional leagues in Japan. They're big... Keep people still... Kids still have big dreams to becoming professional players. My role, need to...
[00:25:17] Yutaka Hirabayashi: I have to pro... Provide more unique baseball programs within Japan and just keep continuing building bridges to other countries, like, not only US, but Canada, Australia, maybe Taiwan, Chinese Taipei, things like that. We try to provide as much... As many opportunities as possible both Japan and overseas next five years.
[00:25:43] Dustin Serviss: That was a question I had a while ago, and it's come back to me is I wanted to know. So if it's not... If the kids are going to US or Canada, where else are hotbeds or places with up and coming sports culture?
[00:25:57] Yutaka Hirabayashi: We had a couple inquiries from parents that are... They are interesting in sending their kids to Chinese Taipei, Taiwan
[00:26:05] Dustin Serviss: Okay.
[00:26:06] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Australia, New Zealand. I understand Taiwan because that's a pretty competitive baseball country, and it's very close. Right? Two hours and three hours from Japan. Yeah. Australia. Yeah. There's a... The team Australia played for the WBC. It's maybe safer there and pretty affordable down there. Yeah. But, anyways, that's something I couldn't even imagine sending bold prayers to, you know, Australia and New Zealand in... Before, but that's something I have to work on next couple years.
[00:26:41] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Yeah. That's the kids bow before they go on the field always at the thing, and so there was this level of respect. And so when I asked Kenny and he said, oh, yeah. You respect the baseball god before you go on. So it wasn't like a religious thing, but it was like the sports god to bring you superpowers or whatever on the thing. Is there other cultural, unique Japanese sports things? And not maybe not specific to baseball, but is... Because I was like, wow. That's cool. The kids at eight to ten years old are learning about whether you call the universe or whatever energy. I was digging on that for sure.
[00:27:25] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Yeah. Bowing is a tradition. I... That's... We are very forced to do that even though I really didn't want to do it. I just did it for no reason. So
[00:27:38] Dustin Serviss: Youngster, you were worried what other people would think, or it just seemed odd?
[00:27:43] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Yeah. That too. And my high school, I had to bow at ninety degrees. That specific angles we have to go bow. Like, it's crazy for no reason, but it became so natural. Okay. Having baseball gloves, after you use... After you practice, after you play games, I think you guys just place gloves on a dugout. That's it. Right? Yeah. Maybe throw it away.
[00:28:16] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. In a bag. Yeah.
[00:28:17] Yutaka Hirabayashi: I Same Yeah. I know where you're going. Throwing to somebody. We just maintain equipment as a... Just most important things in your life. You are just cleaning them up and putting a certain bad glove bags and just sleep with it. That's how important it is. In baseball bat, cleats, you have to polish them every time after you use. And we believe that if we do that, baseball god watches you when you, come to the very competitive games, and that's how we do it. So a lot of... If you go to baseball gear stores, there are a lot of lotions and oils and all kind of equipment.
[00:29:03] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:29:04] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Yeah. I got the glove section. So it's really unique. That that was my big culture shock when I moved to the US. They just throw baseball gloves away and throwing them to each other and sitting on them. I was like, oh, stop doing that. They're like, why?
[00:29:21] Dustin Serviss: I... The story I... I'm sitting here, so my son and I kart race, and so I keep my helmet. Listener, I'm just holding up my helmet Oh. Is not with the tools and the gear. It's more of an important piece, and that's one thing that I've always kinda like. It sits in the back seat of the truck. And I... At one point, I don't know if I was in Nagoya or somewhere, I Googled, is there programs, like national programs or in towns that you have to keep your car of a certain maintenance standard? Is that real?
[00:29:52] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Every three years, you have to put your vehicles to the main hall.
[00:29:58] Dustin Serviss: Inspection.
[00:29:58] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Wet and... Yeah. Just make sure maintain the engine is running correctly and everything is precisely no scratches, no dent, anything. That... Yeah. You're not supposed to have any cracks on your grass and everything. So... Yeah.
[00:30:15] Dustin Serviss: That, like, that does speak volumes to sport in Japan, to the efficiency of the subway, to the vehicles, to the way they move people around. We went to f one, and they... There was never eb through. There'd be... So total side tension on the vehicle. So thanks for... But the glove's important because that then goes back to what we originally started talking about, which was the Japanese sport leading to one more better human, one more productive human, one more successful outcome, and and probably from the connections that they make. So is there any final thoughts that you wanna leave us with, that you're most excited about? You can...
[00:31:00] Dustin Serviss: Whatever popped into your mind that maybe you wanted to talk about, but we we bypassed it. I'll give you the free
[00:31:07] Yutaka Hirabayashi: I couldn't imagine that, the guy like Dustin, your sons, your family come to Japan to play baseball, and I couldn't imagine that five years ago. My thought was just we just one way sending Japanese boys to overseas because we think that just going overseas makes your skills better. Right? But last couple years, we received a lot of baseball prayers from overseas, and they want to learn something from us. That's something I couldn't imagine ten years ago, twenty years ago. In such a small country here in Japan. I know baseball is a brand national sports and pretty competitive level now, but that's something I couldn't imagine.
[00:31:57] Yutaka Hirabayashi: And that's becoming my, work too, receiving a guest from overseas, taking them to a baseball field, have them join, baseball prac... Programs with base... Japanese players and buying baseball ticket for them. That's something I can imagine. And... But it's really fun.
[00:32:17] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:32:18] Yutaka Hirabayashi: My final thought is just... I'm saying I'm building a bridge between Japan and the overseas. And I only could see one way from Japan to the... This arrow, only one way arrow, but now it's both ways. Right? I really wanted to do some kind of a world Facebook classic for a youth version somehow. Ah. Yeah. Like, u fifteen, a u twelve level.
[00:32:45] Dustin Serviss: That would be cool.
[00:32:46] Yutaka Hirabayashi: That's my dream now. And the... Obviously, there's a language barrier between us, but baseball is a world standard, same rules, you know, and the same language. So it really connect the kids, people very close to each other easily. So...
[00:33:05] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. If we could put it out to the podcast gods, there's some big financer listener out there who wants to help you, Taka and I build this world series for u twelve. That would
[00:33:16] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Oh, yeah.
[00:33:17] Dustin Serviss: Would be very cool.
[00:33:19] Yutaka Hirabayashi: So I was just waiting for a lot as many as people as possible, baseball players coming to Japan. Just help me. Just... I'll help you guys out, and it's only ten hours, twelve hours was from North America. Three or four movies.
[00:33:33] Dustin Serviss: I... That's my feedback for everyone we run into that traveling Japan for eight, nine hours of flight time to go to a completely different world is pretty cool. It's very close, and it was seamless. The air travel was good, and the food's really good.
[00:33:48] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Oh, yeah.
[00:33:51] Dustin Serviss: Thanks a lot, Yitaka, and I'm sure we'll be talking. And where can people find you online?
[00:33:58] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you so much.
[00:34:01] Dustin Serviss: You're welcome. Can you give us a website, or are you on LinkedIn? Or where... If people got questions, where can people find you?
[00:34:09] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Oh, yeah. Just... We have a Instagram GXA International, that and also our website, GXA dot c o dot j p. But I think it automatically switched it to English or whatever the country's language where you are in.
[00:34:26] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks a lot for coming on the show.
[00:34:30] Yutaka Hirabayashi: Thank you very much.