Yakult Swallows vs. Yomiuri Giants game

Last night, we went to see a Japanese professional baseball game at the Tokyo Dome (near Suidobashi station on the Chuo line). It was my first live yakyuu game. Yakyuu is the name the Japanese have given for the sport of baseball. Normally, the Japanese don't give a Japanese name to a foreign word, but they make exceptions for things they love. Baseball definitely fits into that category.

At first glance, the dome seems to be dwarfed by all the other things going on in the nearby vicinity. There is the large outdoor amusement park right beside it where you can ride rollercoasters, a ferris wheel, merry-go-round and a whole of other rides as well. Not a Tokyo Disneyland or a Canada's Wonderland type of playground, but not bad for the centre of Tokyo.

Upon entering the dome, we got our ticket stubs back and a baseball collectible card in its own shiny foil wrapper. Apparently we didn't arrive early enough to be one of the first 10000 people to get a free orange towel (orange and black being the colours of the Giants home team). Some members in our group actually did arrive arrive early enough and wasted no time in showing off their newly acquired bright orange souvenir.

Almost immediately, I took in my surroundings. I looked around at the concession stands and onto the field, up into the upper seats and across the way onto their version of a jumbo tron. The biggest thing that jumped out at me was that the stadium just seemed ... well.... small by North American standards. Another lady from Arizona commented on the size as well. It did feel particulary small ... like a mini SkyDome (Yes, I do realize that the name of the venue has changed but it's been the SkyDome to me for over 20 years and always will be; you're a knob Rogers!). And then I notice the dome. The ceiling looks like an enlarged circus tent in turtle dome shape. Really, not kidding about this one. Apparently, the domed ceiling is almost always closed because otherwise the high humidity would make it hard to play. And more unbearable for the patrons. We were there for about 4 hours in total and even with the air con on, it was hot.

We had great seats on the first level, row 27. About 2 sections to the right was the foul line marker. And beyond the foul line marker, there seemed to about 4 entire sections devoted to Giants fans. I think you had to audition to get into those seats because everyone there seemed to know all the chants and hand movements that went with them. They also had 2 different Giants flags, each about 10 rows high and 20 seats deep. I have videos of them chanting and pictures from throughout the night. Those I will have to upload later.

The game started off rocky. But even before the game started, we foreigners got a dose of just how serious the fans were. My husband was standing in the pathway in front of our seats as we were lucky enough to get seats at the front of our section, meaning no bars to hold us back from getting up easily. Seems harmless enough since the game hadn't started and the only thing happening on the pitch was that the bright orange Giants mascots (all 5 of them) were dancing with a bunch of kids and cheerleaders (yes, 5 mascots and cheerleaders for a major league ball game). Nobody watches those proceedings. I mean that's like going to a concert and going nuts for the warm-up band. Everyone saves their energy for the headliner band. I had thought all the cheering and dogged attention to the field only happened once the game started, but not so. Apparently, the audience, and especially the kids in the audience love the pre-game dancing, cheering, games, and other audience participation activities. Our group got told twice that they (the patrons behind us) could not see, so could we kindly sit back down? It sounds like they were asking us to sit down, but really, it wasn't a request.

But back to the rocky game. The Giants gave up 3 runs in the top of the first inning due to a really costly throwing error. This caused some consternation on the pitch and the coaching team had to come out and discuss it. Apparently, they decided to turn a blind eye to the error because the game kept going with no obvious changes on the outfield line-up. We got to the bottom of the 5th before the Swallows managed to earn another run. At that point, I was getting restless in my seat.

I had planned to buy some souvenir of the game, just to add to my collection of souvenir from experiences had and places visited, but I never did see the souvenir vendor girl come around again after she passed us by in the first inning. I'll have to write more on these walking vendors that walk around in the seating area. For now, let me just say that they were all girls. In shorts. Or mini cheerleading-like skirts. So at the top of of the 5th inning, I decided to get up out of my seat and go for a walk. I wanted to see what the rest of the dome was like on the inside and I wanted to find the souvenir shop. I walk around on the 2nd level a bit, but found that I had to go down to the first level to buy anything other than food or drink. The first level also contained the smokers area. When I passed by, it was full. And smoky.

I found the souvenir stand after about a one minute walk. They sold tones of stuff. I picked up a catalogue so that I pre-choose from the dizzying array of Giants memorabilia for the "next time". I say "next time" because I'm not a big baseball fan, MLB or J league or otherwise, but I will go to that odd live game with a few friends. It seems that this will be my last game for a long while. After humming and hawing over Hello Kitty - Giants paraphernalia (You can't escape the grasp of Kitty-chan here in professional sports games in Japan; she's everywhere!), jerseys, kimonos, stationary, jewelry (I could have got a Giants watch!), a variety of towels and t-shirts, I finally decided that I would get a long thing towel. It was orange. 35mm x 75mm. Embroidered with 24 Takahashi.

Do I know who this player is? No. When I returned to my seat waving my newly purchased bright orange Giants souvenir, it caused some talk within my group. Wow! Nice towel, did you manage to snag a free one after all? No, I paid good money for this one - it's embroidered, see? Takahashi? Is he your favourite player? Is he the best person on the team? No and don't know. Was that all they had in the way of orange towels? No, they had a choice of about 7 differnet players' names to choose from. I chose this one because I know 2 people with the family name of Takahashi. Probably completely unrelated to the player, but there was no other way to pick. Also, on the practical side, I wanted something that I could use again, and you can always do with a towel at hand in the dog days of summer here in Tokyo. At the rate the Giants were playing, I honestly didn't think I would get the chance to use the towel. The fans swing it over their heads when their team scores a run. Kind of like you see in hockey games back hame. But those towels are always free. Being scoreless at the time of purchase, I wasn't going to hold my breath for the chance to use the towel at this particular game.

The Giants would do me proud. Within 2 minutes of returning to my seat with my new orange towel, the giants scored 2 runs. I was busy showing off my new towel, that I actually didn't witness the hit and the 2 runs batted in. My husband turns to me and says, "The towel! Use the towel! We scored a run!". I looked up from my personal show-and-tell and saw that the Giants fans had indeed come alive and that the blur of orange all around me meant that I was missing my opportunity to swing my towel. I stood up immediately and swung my towel. It felt great.

Later that evening, I would get to swing my towel another 6 or 7 times. The Giants ended up winning 12 to 4. After I bought my lucky towel, the Giants came alive. Everyone is convinced that my lucky towel did the trick to turn the tide on the Giants luck.

So, at the end of the day, the Giants gained a new fan. While I probably still won't like watching yakyuu on tv, I will watch and read about all the Giants' games in the future. And I'm taking my lucky towel with me on all the hot days, wherever I go.