One thing I like to do while traveling is check out a local sporting event. I’m not a big spor
One thing I like to do while traveling is check out a local sporting event. I’m not a big sports fan in the US, but when I’m abroad it’s a nice way to get exposed to a different facet of their culture. Baseball is huge in Japan, so I made a point of seeing a game while I’m here: the Yakult Swallows versus the Chunichi Dragons. It was a fun experience, mainly because the fans were really great. They were all really excited and screaming complex chants the whole time. I re-enacted one of the chants, which you can listen to here. A lot of the chants were really long, and involved complicated arm movements that the fans did in the unison. Other times they would repeatedly scream the batter’s name at the top of their lungs (which is my personal favorite chant at any game). One funny thing I noticed is that a lot of the fans were in still wearing their business suits. Some of them even put jerseys on over their suits. The Japanese love to drink, and that’s of course true at the games as well. There were girls with mini kegs walking around wearing sexy baseball uniforms. Instead of putting the baseball cap on their heads, most of them just pinned it to their hair which I thought was kind of funny. So here’s how you fit in at a Japanese baseball game: 1. Wear a suit. 2. Scream the batter’s name at the top of your lungs over and over again. Unless the home team isn’t at bat—then you scream the pitcher’s name. 3. Drink. The game was pretty fun, and went into extra innings. Japanese baseball is played a little differently than in the states: the focus isn’t on home runs, so much as it is on singles. In fact there weren’t any home runs in the game, and only one fly ball that made it out into the deep outfield. Incidentally, if your mom played Japanese baseball, she’d definitely be on the Swallows. Just sayin… Blog about Japan? Share your blog with more Japan enthusiasts. via on -- source link
#japanese#tokusatsu#totoro