'Oh, Take me out to the ball game...'

Tokyo Yakult Swallows Vs Tokyo Yomogori (I think that is right) Giants.

This was to be held at the Jingu Stadium, the oldest in the Japanese game apparently. To be honest we just sang the Pingu theme tune a lot…this would not be the weirdest fan activity of that night by a long shot…

The way Japanese Baseball is structured is odd. It is played everywhere, much like Rugby Union but never really had a proper league until recent times. This league contains two divisions which only contain six teams in each. It’s kind of odd that a nation of about 160million people, obsessed by Baseball, only have twelve teams to support. High School Baseball realistically fills this gap but when you consider that six of those twelve teams are from the Tokyo area, who the hell are some people actually supporting? You wouldn’t put one Football team in London and expect that to fulfil all its inhabitants. Bizarrely however this appears to be what the Japanese system does. In all of the Kansai area, that’s Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and god knows how many towns in-between, there is one team, the Hanshin Tigers. This system still somehow works. Kansai must have a population of at least 15million.

The J-League took the opposite approach when it was formed in 1992, there are currently 36 teams in two leagues. This approach is miles cooler because it means that seeing J-League is really easy as just about every town has a team, some even two or three.

Now, onto the game itself.

Tokyo Giants are the Man U of Japanese Baseball. It makes you proud to be a Swallows fan. Any team that is in some way pro-biotic must get your vote. As the announcer says constantly:

‘Go Go Swallows!’

We bought tickets for the outfield for the genius price of about a tenner. With are unexpected fiscal resources we decided to by hotdogs and coke for our Japanese whiskey. We aimed to be merry by about the 5th innings. Americans have told us that Baseball only works when you are pissed so we gave it a go.

Baseball is nine innings a side, when three men are out your innings is over, getting one man all the way around gives you a point. Simple really. You don’t properly watch it anyway, you more kind of sit near it.

The stadium was half Giants fans and was packed, maybe around 40k at a push. The noise was odd as it came from organised chanting. Not chanting like at Yokohama FC, with megaphones and stuff, more like chanting whenever the announcer calls for it.

Now for a taste of the bizarre…

At the end of the seventh innings, we were being stuffed by this point indecently, a little tune plays and everyone gets out pink or baby blue see-through plastic ‘swinging sixties’ style umbrellas and does a little dance with them. Sometime after this bizarre event me and Harry will be sitting in a ‘local’ restaurant in Osaka watching the Hanshin Tigers play those dastardly Giants. When we mentioned the Swallows to the bar man he held seven fingers up and mimed dancing with an umbrella. At least it isn’t only me and Harry who found this event ridiculous.

Indecently we were mauled a the Giants about 7-2,but hey, I saw the bottom of the ninth, beer was consumed from a keg on a girls back, we danced with a umbrella, what more do you want?