Day 152: Take me out to the ballpark!

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I've never been to a baseball game before, in fact, I don't think I've even seen a part of a baseball game on TV. It's not exactly a big time sport in Australia, so I've never really paid much attention to it. Until now that is.
Baseball is the national sport of Japan. Japanese people go completely mad for it, and even if they don't follow it closely everyone has a team. Upon arriving in Japan I asked Sanae who she supports, her answer was the Yomiuri Giants, so of course I at once became a supporter of the famed Tokyo Dome orange and white team. (Note: I may choose wildly on a limb, but once chosen I am inherently faithful)

So tonight I finally got to see my team play. We had great tickets, right next to the orange seats where the most faithful of the supporters sit, and by listening carefully while under the influence of warm budweiser, I was able to chant along with them about 20 minutes into the game. The japanese have got great chants, they're original, interesting (in my favourite one you get to go "whooooooooooooa" halfway through, do a triple clap, then a double clap, then a single clap, say the players name four times and then go into another clapping routine) and whatsmore they don't give up 2 minutes into it and watch impatiently, they just clap and chant the whole way through without tiring.

I picked my favourite player early on, Kame, which is incidentally also the japanese word for Turtle. He's not the most famous of the players, or the most popular but i liked him early on when he ran head first into a wall and bounced back up smiling and waving at the crowd. What a sweetheart.

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