Anyway! It's baseball season here in Japan, and I've been lucky enough to go to two games! The funny thing is, I'm not going to the games with other Americans. In fact, I'm going with my French and English friend. Neither of them know very much about baseball. And, I'll be honest, I love watching baseball but I only know the very basic rules! However, I think I did a pretty good job of informing them of all the important parts. They seemed to have understood the game anyway!
The first game was the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters versus the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. I think its interesting that all the teams here in Japan are named by private companies. And, they often have games in stadiums that are neither of the teams home stadium. I watched the two games in Tokyo Dome stadium, but neither of the games I saw had teams from Tokyo. But, they were fun to see all the same!
The food at the stadiums was an interesting mix of Japanese food and American food. But, we always bought food before we entered the stadium. I'm not sure if we were allowed to do this because we were kaijin (foreigners) and they didn't know how to tell us not to bring in food or if they let everyone do it. I had to make sure to bring in pistachios! It's tradition to eat them while watching a game!
The second game I went to was the Fighters versus the Rakuten Eagles. It's pretty amazing how zealous the fans are for their teams! Each side has their own chants and flags that they use during the breaks in the game. Also, Japan doesn't have a seventh inning stretch like the American ball games, but there is a break before the top of the sixth that has cheerleaders flooding the stadium and dancing on the field.
Hope everyone else is having a good summer! I'll be sure to keep updating as I find more summer fun things to do!
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