Sunday was a FUNDAY this week! We headed up to Tokyo with a group of friends for some amazing brunch at the New Sanno Hotel (military hotel) and of course mimosas!!! After the delicious brunch and finishing off every last drop of champagne at the hotel we headed to Harajuku to see some of the Japanese youth fashion choices, although there weren't too many out and about on Sunday as it was rainy and kind of dreary. Then over to the Meiji Shrine one of my favorites and then to a Japanese baseball game! whoop whoop!!! We went to Jingu Stadium, home of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, built in 1926 and holds about 38,000 fans (although only about 9,000 last night)... only a little bit bigger than Fenway Park (Happy 100th Birthday Fenway)!!! No green monster though...
The swallows have been around since the 1950's, however they didn't become the Yakult Swallows until 2006! Yakult is the name of the Japanese corporation that owns the team- a company that makes a probiotic milk-like drink. The team's mascot is a black and white swallow with a red face and also has a female counterpart which is meant to be the "little sister." The game we went to was against the Yomiuri Giants. *** Fun Fact Alert: Hideki Matsui formerly of the New York Yankees (gag!?!?) started his baseball career playing for the Yokiuri Giants here in Japan. Now... A LOT of things are very different at a Japanese baseball game than when you are at a Boston Red Sox game or any other lesser MLB team... First off, when you buy your ticket you tell them what team you are there for because they put all the fans for each team on opposite sides... This would be a BRILLIANT idea at a Red Sox vs. Yankees game... much less fighting this way! It would never ever happen in the U.S. but it is for sure a nice idea. So we sat on the Swallows side and all the Giants fans were on the other side... this is much more fun when everyone is cheering for their team!
One other thing that was different were the cheerleaders... that's right, cheerleaders at a baseball game! Unfortunately we did have a rainy evening so there wasn't very many people there, but the ones that were there were definitely loyal fans! Since it was raining everyone had their clear umbrellas UP, but at least you could see through them to see the game! hahaha! We got seats out in right field and were smack in the middle of a bunch of Swallow fans! We made some new friends and learned some of the cheers... they yell "go go Swallows" in English which made it pretty easy! Most of the fans use those clapping sticks so they don't actually clap... Some fans even bring instruments and play songs that everyone sings along to. There was a bunch of guys with trumpets and this was totally normal... kinda different! The swallows fans also have a song/dance where they sing a bunch of stuff in Japanese and then flap their arms just like wings... I liked this one and took part eagerly!!! GO GO Swallows!!!!! Also, when the Swallows scored everyone lifted their umbrellas up and down while doing a cheer... it was sort of out of a scene from Mary Poppins... so awesome looking behind us and seeing all the fans lifting their umbrellas in unison.
Although there was peanuts, popcorn, and lots of beer... there were also BIG difference in food choices! This was the first time I ever had noodles and ate with chopsticks at a baseball game! Damian had a rice/meat bowl which looked pretty good too. Some of our friends had the more common baseball snack foods... french fries and caramel corn! The beer girls walk around with these mini-keg backpacks and cups- pretty funny and ingenious! As you can see from the picture- I had an obstructed view because of all the umbrellas... and because of the plastic bag the man in front of me was wearing on his head... but whatever it takes to stay dry! Around the 2nd inning it started to rain harder... I was surprised the game wasn't called.. then we saw a HUGE puddle forming around 2nd base... still the game went on. We were all getting soaked and still had quite a long train ride home so we left around the 5th. It was really fun and we even got to see a homerun hit by the Swallows player Wladimir Balentien who played in the MLB Minor Leagues for 4 years before being called up for the Seattle Mariners in 2008, but didn't really cut it so he signed with the Yakult Swallows in 2010 for 65 million Yen for a year (roughly 800,000 depending on the exchange rate)... The Swallows did end up winning last night (even though we left early) and it was thanks to a game winning RBI by Lastings Milledge who also played for many different teams in the MLB before signing with the Swallows in 2011... too funny!
We go to baseball games in the U.S. and see players like Daisuke Matsuzaka (Dice-K) and Hideki Matsui playing for our home teams and then we come to Japan and see players from our country playing for Tokyo's home teams... so weird! All in all a great day had by everyone! A very long day to boot... 12 hours from the time we left in the AM for brunch until we got home on the train... that makes for a rough Monday morning! Damian worked all day, and I am subbing tomorrow at the school. I will try not to take so long for the next blogs :) Thanks for your patience and support.
Japanese Word of the Day:
Yakyu (yaw-kew): Baseball
Although there was peanuts, popcorn, and lots of beer... there were also BIG difference in food choices! This was the first time I ever had noodles and ate with chopsticks at a baseball game! Damian had a rice/meat bowl which looked pretty good too. Some of our friends had the more common baseball snack foods... french fries and caramel corn! The beer girls walk around with these mini-keg backpacks and cups- pretty funny and ingenious! As you can see from the picture- I had an obstructed view because of all the umbrellas... and because of the plastic bag the man in front of me was wearing on his head... but whatever it takes to stay dry! Around the 2nd inning it started to rain harder... I was surprised the game wasn't called.. then we saw a HUGE puddle forming around 2nd base... still the game went on. We were all getting soaked and still had quite a long train ride home so we left around the 5th. It was really fun and we even got to see a homerun hit by the Swallows player Wladimir Balentien who played in the MLB Minor Leagues for 4 years before being called up for the Seattle Mariners in 2008, but didn't really cut it so he signed with the Yakult Swallows in 2010 for 65 million Yen for a year (roughly 800,000 depending on the exchange rate)... The Swallows did end up winning last night (even though we left early) and it was thanks to a game winning RBI by Lastings Milledge who also played for many different teams in the MLB before signing with the Swallows in 2011... too funny!
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