Japanese Baseball
The most exciting, cheerful, heart-stopping sports event we’ve been to. We are HOOKED!
We’ve both been to many different sporting events in Australia but we’ve never attended an event with such an amazing atmosphere!
We had the pleasure of watching the Hiroshima Carps vs the Tokyo Yakult Swallows at Meiji Jingu Stadium. LET’S GO SWALLOWS!!!!!
Each team had their own brass band and each player had their own chant and theme music! Almost everyone had these mini hollow bats to beat along to the theme music with… Including myself!! I was a very impressed with how I managed to catch on. I was very excited to be able to join in and contribute to my new team!
Food was a much better standard than we are used to and cheaper than the over-priced food we are served here. You can grab drinks from the food stall areas BUT why would you when every two minutes you have at least three enthusiastic young women pass by each with their own giant drink keg happy to serve you a fresh cold brew!? Drink keg options are: Beers, Whiskey highballs, Lemon Sours and sweeter fruit flavoured alcohols! They even carry around little snacks that match the drinks. Also available are cups of water and soft drinks.
During a break midway through people swiftly moved through the stadium collecting everyone’s rubbish!
We had the chance to watch the Swallows hit an astonishing home run! The crowd went WILD! Up popped mini umbrellas from everywhere and another choreographed celebration ensued. I have never been so delighted by dancing umbrellas in my life!
Unfortunately, the Carps were just too good for the Swallows and the game was over. We had so much fun that we didn’t realise that they had played for over 3 hours!
Tom and I are now hooked and we’ve been streaming live Baseball games at home and trying to learn the rules. We have never been to a game that had such great team spirit and respect for all the players and opposite team supporters. It was very inspiring to watch.
Adorable mini cheerleaders
Regular season games are held from late March to October. Our seats cost approximately $60 each with cheaper or better seats available. Try to book your tickets a month or two in advance so they don’t sell out. You’ll notice that some games have fireworks and some have special events being held that night marked out in the booking process.
If you know what team you want to watch it is easiest to purchase your tickets from their direct website.
My supporters merchandise haul