My First Baseball Game in Japan

 Stadium Panorama

I’ve seen baseball games before.  Why, I’m not sure.  I think it’s one of the most boring sports in the world (second only to golf).  Mostly it was because my Dad got free tickets and they were very good seats.  Like dugout private box seats that came with free caps and all the hot dogs you could eat.  I kind of watched the game in between putting the third cap on my head and eating my 7^th hot dog.  But actually baseball in Japan is kind of fun (even without totally awesome tickets).

Go America!

 

In fact, the first game I watched in Japan, we actually got the very worst seats in the house.  How bad you ask?  Well, we didn’t have seats, we just stood in the very back of the stadium.  With our back to the walls, we peered down the aisles of screaming crowds while dodging the waving banners and flags of the crazed self designated fan groups.    

Previously Stated Flag Dodging

How We Ended Up in the Nosebleeds

We arrived about 15 minutes before the game started hoping there would still be some cheap tickets left (about $20 USD), but the only tickets that were left at the box office was nearly twice that price (around $40 USD) and none of us were willing to pay that much.  So we decided what any reasonable sport event go-er does in such a situation, we bought scalped tickets.  We were a group of 5 foreigners and 1 Japanese guy trying to haggle for six tickets.  He gave us a price of 3000 Yen (about $30) for each ticket, but after Baptiste spoke up and shocked the scalper, he realized he understood everything that he had been saying in Japanese and immediately pushed the price down to 2500 Yen.  Nice one Baptiste.

Our "Seats"

One Small Problem

We had bought tickets without thinking of asking what team they were for.  We accidentally ended up on the opposing teams’ side amidst thousands of fanatic Osaka Tigers fans.  Luckily none of us was sporting any sort of official Fukuoka Hawk’s gear.  Osaka fans are notorious for being some of the craziest fans in Japan and I’m not sure how long we would have made it if we would have worn some Hawks jerseys.  The ironic turn of events led us to not only to watching from the opposite side of the stadium but also eventually just cheering for the Tigers.  We got caught up in the fury and enthusiasm of the Osaka fans.  Eventually, we were high-fiving fellow Tiger fans, we let off celebratory balloons with the crowd and enjoyed the game from a different perspective.  We even cheered when the Hawk’s lost.

Crazed Fan #1

 Crazed Fan #2  (accompanied by giant stuffed tiger)

 Crazed Fan #3 (head to toe tiger gear ensemble)

 Crazed Fan #4 (and matching son)

 Crazed Fan #5 (not so crazy actually)

The Seventh Inning (Phallic) Balloon Release

Sometimes the jokes about Japan are so obvious and easy, I wonder if they know how funny some of the things they do are for a foreigner.  It’s just too easy sometimes.  I mean do they see the jokes that can be made? 

 

Let My Very Mature Friends Help Demonstrate

During the seventh inning of every game, there is a tradition where everyone blows these balloons that extend to about four or five feet long with a bulbous protrusion at the tip.  Everybody in the stadium is holding at least one if not two of these balloons and all release them at the same time.  The balloons have a special valve at the end which whistles when air is expelled out from the balloon.  So the whole stadium is filled with huge whistling sperm-like giant condom looking balloons wildly swimming through the air around the beginning of the seventh inning.  It’s an interesting sight to see. 

Wooooooooo!

Wheeeeeee!

Bad Parenting

I’m not saying that I presume to know anything at all about being a parent.  But there’s one thing that seems apparent to me, that some people should either be more responsible, or just not have kids at all.  This harsh but fair opinion comes from watching the game near the back of the stadium where there are a legion of self appointed, but very official looking Osaka Tiger fans waving large banner and pounding rehearsed rhythms on large handheld drums.  The drumming is so loud that I was standing above them, with the sound directed downward away from me and I still found it a little painfully loud.  There was one guy however who was standing directing one row below one of the said loud drummers.  With the opening of the drum facing downwards, the sound concentrated in a column of unrelenting booming constantly bombarding the eardrums of any unfortunately soul caught beneath it.  And over this man’s shoulders was his toddler son who will now almost surely grow up near-deaf wondering why this happened to him.  Bad Dad.

 
























 Bad


In general I enjoyed the baseball game.  I might not go again, but it was fun taking some pictures, experiencing for ourselves the love that Japan has for baseball and all for a pretty cheap price.  Baseball game – check.