Baseball done in Japan

This past week has been very frustrating and exhausting for me.  I haven't been sleeping well since coming to Japan.  But it was really bad this past week.  I only slept 4 out of 7 days.  On the nights that I didn't sleep I usually found some time to nap in the morning or afternoon for up to an hour.  But this Friday night I didn't sleep at all.  I was really grumpy because of this.

That Saturday I had plans to go to a Rakuten Eagles game.  This was something that Aaron and I had planned months in advance.  Aaron especially was looking forward to it because it was an event planned by his coworkers at MeySen.  I rarely get to see him and his MeySen coworkers/friends together.  And I also was looking forward to this because I love baseball, and I had never seen a Japanese baseball game before.

Well, I was super grumpy that morning from not sleeping.  But I met Aaron that morning and we, along with his MeySen coworkers, took a bus to the ballpark.  Fortunately it took some time for the bus to arrive, so I was able to take a short nap on the way (about 15 minutes?).  When we got there, I felt better from that short nap.  I didn't have such a headache anymore.

Our seats were located in left field.  I'd never been seated in the outfield at a baseball game before, so it was a new experience for me.  The players seemed so far away.  But it was still fun.  Aaron and I were surprised at how small the ballpark was.  I wouldn't even call it a stadium!  It was smaller than even UH's baseball field.  And UH is a small college.  And definitely much smaller than a Major League baseball field.

The view from LF.

EVERYONE was wearing Rakuten Eagles gear.  They all had hats, t-shirts, jerseys, and ponchos.  We were the only ones not decked out in Rakuten Eagles paraphernalia.  (Except, of course, the other team's fans.  Which were seated in Right Field all wearing blue.  They were extremely loud and organized.)  It was also a rainy day that day.  Luckily, Aaron brought an umbrella.  Most of the MeySen staff hadn't brought anything.  We were surprised when EVERYONE pulled out their Rakuten Eagles red raincoats on.  EVERYONE had one!  Some of the other MeySen staff ended up buying their own ponchos as well.  The rain did not stop the ball game.  At one point, it was raining kinda hard.  But the game still went on.  Eventually the rain stopped.

We were hungry, so walked around the very small park checking out different vendors. I'm used to the idea that baseball is an America classic and an American tradition. So I'm used to having hot dogs, popcorn, peanuts, cotton candy at baseball games. But instead we found vendors selling sushi, beef bowls, yakitori, takoyaki (octopus balls), and other Japanese foods. Can you imagine waiting raw fish on a hot summer day?  Yuck!  But it wasn't a hot summer day. It was a cloudy, rainy day. 

Some stuff were sold from trucks. The above photo is a vendor selling frappacino-like drinks (all the flavorings and whipped cream minus the coffee) from a pink VW bus. 

American traditions such as the seventh inning singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" were also absent. Instead they were replaced with cheerleaders (yes, at a baseball game) who just waved their pompoms and jumped up and down. And there was singing in unison. I was surprised when I saw everyone blowing up very peculiar shaped balloons. Very oddly shaped. I really can't believe no one thinks this (other than internationals). After lots of cheesy singing and jumping cheerleaders everyone released the balloons at once. The result looked pretty cool. 

Usually I think of baseball as an American tradition but it was cool to see how Japanese people do it. It made it new and kinda exciting. It was also cool to have that first experience with Aaron. I'd like to do it again but hopefully when it's not raining.