Baseball in Japan

So, I'm actually a bit behind right now... Dad came to visit last week, and now he wants me to do a massive update and tell all about our fun and exciting adventures, so he doesn't have to.  But before that, I want to tell you about the fun exciting-ness that is Japanese baseball.

(Also, I think there's rain moving over the mountains toward me right now.  It looks kind of cool.)

So this whole thing started way back in Dec/Jan, when  I was talking with one of the awesome coworkers, who happens to be a baseball player.  He was extolling the virtues of the local baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers (not unlike most people who live in the area... apparently it's a REALLY huge thing), asked if I had been to a game yet, which I clearly hadn't, since I didn't get here until well after the season ended last year, we should should go see a game this spring, and it kind of went from there.

Incidentally, since most of the coworkers that I hang out with quite this spring, we had to go to an early game, in March, before the regular season began.  Not that that's a bad thing.  It just was.  And the tickets were cheaper.

(Man, that rain cloud is really moving.  It looks really cool.)

So the day of the game started out really nice-bright and sunshine-y, if a bit chilly.  I get to the game, meet w/ the cool peeps who are sharing the day with me, we find our seats, and the game gets started.

I suppose now would be the best time to make some comparisons between baseball here and at home.

First, I literally missed the beginning of the game.  I thought they were still warming up and so forth, when all of  a sudden everyone's cheering and there's a guy on base.  ok then.

I guess at home they have the anthem and someone throws the opening pitch and whatever, so you really can tell when the game starts (btw, haven't actually been to a game at home since I was... 13?)  Also, it was all in Japanese, so I couldn't tell anyway.

Um, the stadium was small, but that was cool, cause everyone more or less had good seats.

Also, they had tiger mascots, but they looks like mice.  Just sayin'

Stadium food in Japan: entirely too healthy.  Curry and rice?  Seriously?  On the other hand, there were girls roaming the stands with giant kegs on their backs, from which they poured beer if you wanted it.  Their poor backs.  I hope they all got back rubs afterwards.

I've heard before that an actual game of baseball in Japan is more boring than a game at home.  I know nothing about it, and even if I did, I was too busy watching the cheering section to pay much attention to what the players were doing.

Oh, didn't I mention the cheering section?  It was totally HS football all over again.  No full out band, but several (loud) brass players and percussionists, the masses of fans yelling out all the cheers together, even conductors to lead them.  Whenever the Tigers were batting, they spent pretty much the entire time cheering. (There was also a small contingent cheering for the visiting team when they were up).  We got noise makers so we could join in too.  :)

Cheering section.  Not the empty seats in front.  The wall of people further away.

 (The rain is getting closer.  I might have to turn on a light soon, it's so dark)

It was fun, but eventually it got a bit chilly and rainy, so we didn't stay for the whole thing.

THE END (sort of )

(Wow, just sat through a whole minute of rolling thunder.  I haven't heard decent thunder since I left home.  sweeeet)

(And here comes the rain!!!)

At one point we all blew up these special balloons and then released them.  They made a cool noise.

Giant balloon

(I hope this rain really starts to green things up.  I am sick to death of the weather/flora being exactly the same for the past FOUR months!  Good grief!  And even before that!  I mean sure, some trees turned colors and lost their leaves, but as I look out the window at the mountain, it's pretty much 50/50 from leaves/no leaves.  And it seems like NOTHING is growing.  The trees that lost their leaves don't have new ones yet, the (few) patches of grass around aren't getting green, there's no dirt, so you can't get a good sniff of nice, wet, spring dirt.  The only bit of spring that I've seen is the plum (apricot?) blossoms at Osaka castle, and that was more like *poof* there's magically blossoms, even though it still doesn't feel like spring.  Well, maybe a little bit.  And it's 70 at home!)

(I dunno.  It seems like the Japanese put a lot of emphasis on things like seeing cherry blossoms as an indicator of the change of seasons.  I mean, they're nice and all, but maybe they're so important because there's no other way to tell?  Like I said, many of the indicators of spring just aren't happening, so if you can't walk outside and smell growing things, you have to look and see if there's blossoms yet?  Maybe it's because the temperature is so similar year round, so it takes longer to recognize that it's spring, cause spring's only 20 degrees higher than winter?  It's a strange place.  Maybe also if I didn't live in the city...)

(For those of you who haven't heard yet, Japan is really proud of its "4 seasons."  No, seriously, go read the tourism websites. "Japan has four distinct seasons."   Riiiiiight)