Go Giants!!

The last blog I will write for my Tokyo trip will be about the baseball game we went to. Both Craig and I enjoy going to baseball games, so we headed to the Tokyo Dome to see our first Japanese Major League game! Even though we bought our tickets a few days in advance, it was almost sold out, and the only available seats were in the visitor’s section. So we took those. The Tokyo Dome is home to the Tokyo Giants, and the visitors were the Yakult Swallows, who are also from Tokyo. I of course, was rooting for the Giants.
At first, the stadium and atmosphere seemed quite similar to that in America, but there tuned out to be some interesting differences. Let me also say that at that time, the Giants were in 1st place in their division, and the Swallows were last. And a Swallow?! Come on. Perhaps if they were a more menacing bird like a hawk or eagle they would be more intimidating, but a swallow! I guess I shouldn’t talk though because pretty much all birds scare the crap out of me. So anywayS, the game starts with a first pitch thrown out by a young little league group. There are the mascots running around on the field, and girls with pony kegs strapped to their backs selling beer. So far pretty normal. There was a security guard asking the Giants fans to take off their hats, bandanas and such – a little odd. Then, 1st inning, the Giants hit a home run. Of course people in our section are cheering and clapping and a few stand up. Suddenly, 3 security guards come running down and tell everyone to sit down and be quiet. I was very surprised because the rest of the stadium was cheering loudly and jumping around. I realized that since we were technically in the “visitors” section, it must be considered rude or disrespectful to cheer for the opposing team in their own section. Or maybe they thought a huge fight might break out and fans would begin wildly beating each other over the head with inflatable mallets and oversized Hello Kitty dolls. So we clapped like we were dressed to the nines watching an opera, while the Swallows fans around us attempted to burst our eardrums by slapping pieces of plastic clappy-things together and shouting out their synchronized cheers. And when I say they were in sync, not just the words, but their gestures as well. They had a small band, consisting of trumpets, horns, and drums, along with 2 large flags they waved, and all wer being conducted in the front by a man with a whistle. But then the Giants fans broke out the banner. It was huge, covering at least 20 rows, and they unfurled it in about 10 sec. The Giants fans had their synchronized cheers as well, but we couldn’t understand them, just saw all the movements that each fan performed perfectly. The funny thing was when the Swallows finally did score a run, and all the fans in the section each opened up a small umbrella that looked like it was a give-away from one of their home games. Little do they know how much bad luck they brought upon themselves in that moment!
The stadium food was typically Japanese, like takoyaki, soba, ramen, okonomiyaki, and such. There were a few American foods like hotdogs and pizza, but as you can see in the picture, the “Kono Pizza” is a little different. We stopped at an “American baseball restaurant afterwards where the food was horrible, and the poor waiters danced little routines on the tables. They looked thrilled.
The game was lots of fun. I hope to attend another one soon nearby here in Osaka to see the Hanshin Tigers.