Japan, part 2--Baseball

When traveling abroad I always wonder if I should try new and unique things to the culture, or try food and activities that exist in the U.S. also so I can see the differences with a frame of reference.  On this trip, I’ve tried to do both.

Japanese food in Japan isn’t like Japanese food in the states.  Well, maybe sushi isn’t too different, but I don’t eat sushi anyway.  Mom and Dad live in the area of Tokyo called “Embassy Row” because there are like a dozen embassies right near their apartment and about 50 within a mile.  So there are all kinds of restaurants.  There’s a burger place next door, where I had a Brown Sugar Bacon Burger that was fantastic.  Today we went to an Indian place down the street where I had the best Indian food I’ve ever tasted.

Tonight I went to the Tokyo Dome to see a Yomiuri Giants game.  I have a lot of reference points to what baseball is like in the states.  Here the game was the same, but the fans were totally different.

The game was fantastic.  It was a pitchers’ duel, with both teams throwing strikes, playing solid defense, and giving up few hits.  The Tigers’ pitcher was perfect through four until he gave up a solo homer in the 5^th.  The Tigers tied it in the sixth and it stayed that way into extra innings.  There were no errors, only one walk, and nine hits total through nine innings.

The Giants’ pitcher, Utsumi, pitched into the tenth, and the Tigers’ may have also, but they took him out in the top of the tenth for a pinch-hitter.  So, two nine-inning one-run performances, and the starter for the Giants got the win when a pinch-hitter knocked a three-run homer in the 10^th to win it.  It was awesome, and you know how it is at baseball games when you’re just so happy when great stuff happens that you’re friends with everyone, even those behind you who don’t speak the same language.  High fives all around!

The crowd, though, was like no American sports crowd, except for the Hispanic section at soccer games.  The outfield seats were split into two sections, with all the Giants’ fans in right field and all the Tigers’ in left.  The rest of the stadium was mostly Giants’ fans, but the outfield was 50-50, color-coded, and totally coordinated.  Each section had a fan with a drum and a trumpet, and they played beats and tunes for every batter.  And when the Giants were up, the whole rest of the stadium seemed to know all the chants and songs.  So, during every at-bat, the fans are just singing and chanting the batters’ names with different tunes and rhythms.  I couldn’t understand a thing except for the names—and the passion, and of course the thrill when that homer jumped off the pinch-hitter’s bat to win the game.

And to keep the switch-hitting approach to my vacation, tomorrow I’m heading to Disneyland to see how that compares with Anaheim.