Meiji Jingu StadiumOne of the best experiences a foreigner can get in Japan is that of a good old fashioned American baseball game. The strange part is that the actual game of baseball is irrelevant. Knowing this, I headed out to Meiji Jingu Stadium, which is located in the Ginza district of Tokyo, home to one of the worst teams in J-ball, the Yakult Swallows. Don't get me wrong, they have a cute mascot who can break dance, but when it comes to anything non-mascot related, they suck.
Sucking is a good thing for us foreigners because it means a much cheaper ticket price then going to watch, say, the Giants or the Seibu Lions. I was able to get in line and somehow order a cheap seat in the cheering section for the Swallows for about $15 USD. After realizing the Japanese characters on my ticket wouldn't change into English no matter how hard I stared at them, I knew I was pretty much fucked. I managed to flag down one of the stadium ushers who awkwardly showed me to my seat.
I made a crack at the cute ticket lady to drive me personally around the stadium, and while she laughed, she got her revenge by placing me in the middle of the Hiroshima Carp's cheering section! I ended up getting a few beers and joined forces with the Carp and yelled "Konoyaro" (you bastard) at the umpire for bad calls against them. After awhile, every stupid broken Japanese phrase I would yell was approved by the fellow Carp fans and even one guy sitting next to me said, "I knew you were one of us!". Another interesting thing I noticed were the personalized chants for each individual player. Some had some pretty standard ones while others were very intricate and recognizable. The chanting was fun for the first few innings, but became annoying after hearing them so often (perhaps the point?).
In the end it was tons of fun and the level of passion for the game is much greater than it is here in the US. Yelling broken obscenities at foreigners in their own country has never been this amusing. I think I might have had sex with one of the hotdog girls too, I'm not sure, possibly not. But that's just how awesome it can be to sneak into events that aren't meant for tourists. Whether you love/hate baseball, put this up there on your list of things to do in Japan. NOW.
In the end it was tons of fun and the level of passion for the game is much greater than it is here in the US. Yelling broken obscenities at foreigners in their own country has never been this amusing. I think I might have had sex with one of the hotdog girls too, I'm not sure, possibly not. But that's just how awesome it can be to sneak into events that aren't meant for tourists. Whether you love/hate baseball, put this up there on your list of things to do in Japan. NOW.
The kawaii mascot of the Swallows getting all crunk on us
Hiroshima drives in 4 runs
The chants of "banzai" are said 3 times after every run scores
Kanpai!
Random unpopular J-pop group. Everyone was asking "Dare desuka?" (who's that?). They all died horribly after the show.
Sadly many guys were wearing the pink.
No hotdogs here, just udon (soup) and yakitori (chicken or beef on a stick). um, PASS.
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