Baseball

I've always liked baseball for some reason and the Japanese absolutely love it so I thought it would be a good time to find a match on our holiday. I tried looking for some matches when we were to be in Tokyo but none were scheduled until I came across a poster in Osaka. We checked out the website and yep, baseball games for two weeks.

It was the Amateur League so we were able to get into the ball park for 1000 odd yen ($10) for 3 games. When we were in line to buy a ticket an old guy came up to us and gave us a free one, we thanked him a heap and went on our way. We entered the park and they were trying to ask us what team we were on and we had no idea so we just went to the right, found a tunnel and then a seat. We were then barracking for team TOSHIBA, I still don't know to this date what the friggin teams real name was because all they kept chanting was TOSHIBA and none of their merchandise had it either. Weird.

As we were watching the game the same guy who gave us the free ticket came past again and this time gave us a TOSHIBA team shirt so we began barracking for them. 30minutes later he came back again with another shirt for me. We paid him pack later with a pint of Asahi and some nuts. The Japanese are a too damn friendly :)

Beer at a baseball game is an important factor and these guys know how to do it. They have a bunch of people walking the stands with kegs on their back flogging a pint of beer for 700yen ($7). This made it way to easy to get drunk. Waaaaaay too easy.

Our team lost, and after all that cheering :( We stayed for the next game, Tokyo Gas vs Daiwa Gas and we were on the Tokyo Gas side. Their team mascots walk around handing out fans for you to help cheer the team on. An excellent way to get everyone on their side.

This time our team won. After all that booze and cheering it was worth it.

We somehow made our way back to Osaka and grabbed dinner, it was a great day relaxing watching the baseball and drinking beer.

Shaun