Japanese Baseball

I got out to a Japanese baseball game last night. It was a blowout win by the Ciba Lotte Marines over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Baseball in Japan is different, actually pretty much everything but the game itself is not the same.

Tidbits:

- Each side out the outfield stands is dedicated to one teams super fans, during the entire game when their team is up to bat, they stand up and sing special cheers for each batter, accompanied by a drum and a trumpet. The entire game, and keep in mind it was 12-1 at one point.

- There are a million tiny girls with mini keg and tap backpacks that roam the stands and sell beer. It was actually only 600 yen ($5) for a glass, not bad.

- You can bring in outside food.

- My outside food was a boat of Takoyaki, or as we would call it, fried octopus balls. They were quite good ballgame food actually.

- Everyone releases long balloons during the 7th inning stretch.

- There is an army of people who pick up all the balloons in about 1 minute, including the players. Also, no one, and I mean no one leaves trash in the stands. You are expected to pack all your trash in a plastic bag and bring it to the trash bins.

All in all a really fun experience. The singing of the super fans is really something else. Makes a Fenway crowd seem downright boring.