Baseball in Japan

We were very lucky to be able to go to a major league baseball game in Japan between the Tokyo Swallows and the Tokyo Giants.  We has asked our bus driver if he knew how we could get tickets which thrilled him no end.  As it turned out, he was a great Tokyo Giants fan so he arranged to have all of us who wanted to go sit on that side of the stadium.  That was new for all of us who are used to the US system - you buy seats depending on how close to the field, whether it's on the first base line or behind home plate and so on.  In Japan, it's the team one is rooting for that matters.

So here are photos that I will try to explain as well as try to convey the delight that being at that game gave us.   The first two photos were taken in the refreshment area of the stadium.  Notice the curry cup advertised in the second photo?

Here's the view from our seats on the Giants' side.  

The warm up:

This is one of several lovely young "beer girls".  They carry the beer in a keg on their backs; I hate to think what they feel like after their first few days!

The pitch  . . .  by this time, the Giants fans were all on their feet, and they stand for their team every inning as do the other team's fans.  Fans for the Giants have a different song for each player which they sing every time the player comes up to bat.   Many of the fans on both sides wear jerseys with the name of their favorite player (as you can see in the picture above).  Each team has a its own "band"; the Swallows fans even had dances they did for their team.

A hit!

The Giants won, and our driver was very happy with that, but he was also proud that he had made it possible for us to have a very special time.  I think his wife was also proud and happy for him.