#NerdsUnite: Around the world with @HeatherReusz
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Heather. She's a nerd who is currently living in Japan by way of Chicago. Yep, talk about a culture shock. She's here today to talk about her life, love (which she is currently balancing long distance) and all things nerd. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT HEATHER!!!</editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @HeatherReusz
This weekend I went to my first Japanese baseball game. I’m a big baseball fan so this was always on my bucket list. I’ve also heard that Japanese baseball games are very different, super fun, and basically a party so I really wanted to experience one.
I gathered a couple of friends and we headed to the closest stadium in Yokohama to see the local team: the Yokohama Baystars. They were playing the Sendai Eagles. Both teams, in all truthfulness, kind of suck. The Baystars are in last place in their league. The good part about that is the tickets were cheap for a professional game. We got some amazing seats in the front section on the first baseline mainly because we were hoping that we could catch a foul ball which didn’t end up happening though.
The party starts before you even enter the stadium. Here in Japan, you can actually bring outside food and drinks into the game. We ran to the nearest convenience store to get some beers. We got a couple of cans each. There was a catch though, which we were not aware of. You had to pour all of the beer from the cans into their provided stadium cups. We ended up having to carry three cups each into the game. We looked completely ridiculous compared to everyone else but we did what we had to. I think we were just hoarding the beer in fear of ridiculous stadium prices. Prices actually weren’t that bad in the stadium. They had to compete with the outside food so things were pretty reasonable.
We got there a little bit early to scout out food, souvenirs, and to see the pre-game shows. The mascot of the Baystars is a hamster, I think, named Starman. He has this adorable white star on his face. I ended up buying these cute little hamster ears with a mini Baystars baseball cap attached. Gotta love Japan.
The pre-game show was typically the same. There was a mascot race and a kids throwing contest. After the contest things got a little interesting. The kids were ushered off the field and music started blaring over the speakers. Out came a large group of cheerleaders. We were laughing so hard. None of us had ever seen cheerleaders at a baseball game before. They danced around for a little while and then lead everyone in singing the Baystars theme song. I didn’t find this strange coming from Chicago where the Cubs have their own theme song but my friends thought it was hysterical. After the theme song, the first pitch was thrown. Now, it did throw me a little that we didn’t sing the national anthem before the game started but I guess that the Japanese are not quite as outwardly patriotic as the Americans. Was still a bit strange though.
Then things got a bit stranger. As soon as the game started, all of the fans were constantly cheering and singing songs. Each player had their own chant and their own song. It was so awesome! Everyone knew all of the songs and cheers. We quickly caught on to the majority of them as they were partially in English using expressions like “Let’s go”, “win”, “get a hit”, “strikeout”, etc. The atmosphere was electrifying. Everyone was up, moving, singing, chatting, or shouting. It was borderline distracting. I definitely feel like I missed half of the actual game because I was so absorbed in crowd watching. Because the fans are so dedicated to their teams, they actually seat people by team. There were separate ticket stands and everything. It was pretty cool to see the separation of colors and all of the flags and signs people made to wave at the other fans across the stadium.
The game itself was pretty good. It went by pretty quickly with all of the excitement. For most of the game, the Baystars were losing 2-1. Then in the 8th inning, the Baystars pulled out this fantastic five run rally. Everyone was beyond excited! We ended up winning 6-2. It was a BLAST!