Hanshin Tigers

26th May, 2007

In Japan baseball is very popular. The Hanshin Tigers is one of the most popular teams here so naturally we wanted to go and experience a game. Getting tickets was the hard part. We asked a number of different people to try and get us tickets and finally the baseball coach at Lauren’s school was able to get us 4 tickets. So Steve, Marie, Lauren and I were on our way to the baseball!!

It took us about 20 minutes to get in once we got to the stadium as there were so many people there and the line up was huge. Once we were in and found our right seat we got comfortable and enjoyed the game. The atmosphere was terrific – very pleasant and lively. There were no arguments, brawls or bad words uttered amongst the crowd, the fans just cheered happily for their team. There were people blowing trumpets, people playing drums and others hitting mini baseball bats together to make noise. It was amazing because there was a rhythm that the whole entire crowd followed. The drummers and trumpet players led the rhythm and the crowd followed. It didn’t take us long to pick it up and so we joined in the spirit of the baseball with our mini bats (which Marie and I bought and Lauren bought a fan).

Now what’s a baseball game without a hotdog? Luckily we were able to buy these here – so we ate our hotdogs and drank our drinks out of plastic cups just like you would imagine. They were actually pretty good hotdogs too.

At one stage of the game we noticed everyone blowing up balloons. We weren’t sure what was really going on. A lady next to Steve was kind enough to give Steve and I a couple of spare balloons that she had. I struggled to blow mine up but I eventually got there. Anyway pretty much the entire crowd had blown up these balloons and were cheering with them until it was time to let them go. Everyone somehow knew to let them go at the same time and all you could see were hundreds of balloons flying into the air. It looked fantastic. At one stage of the game Steve looked at the TV screen and noticed that the four of us were on TV. We were on for a good minute. It was a close up too. Of course we waved and carried on for a bit – we couldn’t help ourselves. We probably stood out like sore thumbs so they zoomed in on us.

The Hanshin Tigers ended up losing to the Orix Buffalos 7-0 which was disappointing but I still enjoyed the game nevertheless. I hope I get the chance to see another game.