[jasonbvr]

Every community has a community center that you can join. You can play many sports there and meet some people to play with. I'd like to add that volleyball and badminton are hugely popular as well. Honestly, just about every sport is popular in Japan. Schools focus a lot on sports from the elementary level all the way through high school.

Winter sports are really big like snowboarding, snowboarding, and some other "sport" where people riding on these pointy stick looking things while wearing tight clothing and carrying poles will get in the way of the snowboarders. I've heard some people call it skiing, but I've never heard of such a sport.