Let's go Buffaloes!

Last night we went to see Orix Buffaloes play the Baystars at baseball and although it's not exactly the major league it was still a good night out. The Buffaloes play down town at the Kyocera Dome and the place is pretty impressive - its like a smaller version of the Sky Dome in Toronto but without the sliding roof and Canadians. The Buffaloes won 4-1 mainly because the Baystars just looked like they had no idea how to bat - I think they hit the ball about 6 times in their nine innings. I've seen better baseball games to be honest, the most exciting thing was the Buffaloes catcher catching a ball whilst leaning into the opposition dug out. There weren't any home runs which was disappointing as it was Tom's first game but he seemed to enjoy it and sounds up for going again (although not with me, unfortunately!). The attendance was pretty poor as you can see in the picture, but I don't think the 6pm start really favours anyone that works. The Hanshin Tigers draw the huge crowds down the road. The ticket was 2400 yen (£12) for an unreserved seat in the upper tier and we had a pretty rad view of the game and were close enough to the two sets of supporters - who both had trumpets and drums and would sing songs for the different players when they stepped up to bat. The Buffaloes fans also stayed for half an hour after the game just singing songs and having a good time - which is unheard of in English sports for a standard league game. It was "Beer Night" so you could buy a beer for 200 yen (£1) which was pretty decent, but I wasn't a huge fan of the japanese food on sale and opted for frankfurters!

Afterwards we headed down to the club shop so I could buy a ball and some souvenirs and surprisingly they stock merch from all the teams in the league and then all the major league baseball teams too - even stocking merch from the Hanshin tigers who are their main rivals and similar in statue to Manchester United over here. Football on the whole is largely ignored it seems in every day life, but there is a fraction who follow the game and supposedly Gamba Osaka games are pretty lively.