If you have never been to a Japanese baseball game, you should go.  And you'll be in for the adventure of a lifetime!  My first visit was at Koshien Stadium, home to the Hanshin Tigers.  The stadium is halfway between Osaka and Kobe, so both cities cheer them on.  Hanshin specifically refers to the Osaka-Kobe region.  The day I was there, the Hiroshima Carp was the visiting team.

One thing I noticed was the absence of foreigners at the ball game.  It's not because baseball is unknown to foreigners (duh!) but rather that most have come to all the way to Japan to see something Japanese, rather than a ball game which you can see at home.  Besides, the game was rather expensive.  3000 yen for unreserved seats.

The cheer at the Hanshin Tigers game is incredible.  It makes US games seem so lifeless.  Not only is the audience relentlessly banging away on these plastic bats, they have conductors at the foot of each section directing the cheer!  The Japanese word for cheer is oen which literally means support.

You will hear "Katobase" said a lot.  This is a cry to encourage a player to hit a hom run.

Around the 6th inning, another tradition is to release balloons (fuusen) into the air all at once.  Here is the stadium before, and after these baloons are released:

Release the Balloons!

Most Japanese teams have a few American players.  On the Tigers you have Hansen and Powell.
The star player is Shinjyo (#5).

 

You will see their names actually spelled out in English as "To Lucky" and "Lucky", that's because they chose the English words which sound closest to their Japanese names.  Tora of course means Tiger.

On site at Koshien Stadium	Osaka - DiaMor Umeda underground shopping mall.

You can visit the Official Hanshin Tigers web-site at  www.hanshin.co.jp/tigers From here you can find team stats, game schedules and a list of all the Hanshin Tiger souvenirs and apparel available.  However be warned - the site is mostly in Japanese and you will need proper fonts and a Japanese reader to view the pages.  Also, some knowledge of Japanese is helpful :-)  I can only teach you the very  basics!

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