Well, I went to Sapporo for the second time this Monday to see the Nippon Ham Fighters play. I was still a little sick, so I didn't go to baseball practice in the morning like I had originally planned. Takuya had to go to practice, though, so he couldn't come with us to the game. So, my host parents and I set off for the city and finally arrived at the Sapporo Dome about two hours before gametime.

I had only seen one baseball game played inside of a dome before in my life (in Montreal's Olympic Stadium), and it was by far the worst place in the world to play baseball. It was loud, ugly, and fake-feeling, and it also felt really claustrophobic. So, my expectations for the Sapporo Dome were quite low.


I was pleasantly surprised. The dome was built only a few years ago, so everything, from the seats to the scoreboard to the turf, was state of the art. The ceiling was nice and high, so I didn't get the feeling that I was watching a baseball game being played inside of a garage like I had in Montreal. Also, it was IMMACULATELY clean...I could have eaten my hot dog off of the ground.


The best part about the stadium, though, was the fans. Japanese baseball fans are really into organized cheering; the fans of the home team sit in the left-field side of the outfield seats and the visting team's fans sit in the right-field side, and when their favorite team is batting the according fans wave huge banners, blast songs from trumpets, bang on drums and sing organized cheers (which I couldn't understand, but were still fun to listen to). It felt like I was at a World Cup game...it had that kind of atmosphere. Obviously, the Fighters' fans heavily outnumbered the visiting Orix Buffaloes' fans, so every bottom-half of an inning was especially a treat.

If you are a Mets fan (and I know at least a few of my readers are), you may remember a Japanese player named Tsuyoshi Shinjo. He came to the MLB for a little while, but it didn't take long for him to return to his native Japan. Mets fans may remember that he was a bit of a showman, wearing flashy clothes outside of the stadium and always going the extra mile to please fans. Well, in Japan he is an absolute superstar...many fans (especially those of the female variety) love his big, bright smile and his funky batting stance. Ever since he came back to Japan he has played for the Fighters, so it was fun to see him play and watch the fans' reactions. Apparently, Shinjo is even too cool for Japanese kanji characters, which is how people write their names in Japan. On the scoreboard, Shinjo's batting position was marked in big capital letters: "SHINJO" (you can see it in the picture below; look on the left side under the number 8).
You can also tell from the scoreboard that the Fighters ended up losing the game, 5-1. They didn't really have a chance after the Buffaloes put up those four runs in the fifth inning, but even until the last out the Fighters fans were cheering with all of their might. Even though they lost, I still had a great time at the game. It was really cool and interesting to see such a familiar sport played in a foreign setting; everything felt familiar, but different...just like how the rest of life in Japan feels to me. I really enjoyed seeing the differences of how the Japanese play baseball--they put a lot more emphasis on bunting and stealing, which is quite different from American play--and of course I tried a Japanese hot dog! (pretty much the same as you'd find in most American ballparks, but to my surprise it was quite spicy!) Keeping with my ballpark tradition, I bought a Fighters hat as a souvenir, a nice addition to my hat collection.

I'm going to bring my picture to school tomorrow because I realize that I haven't really taken any pictures of the actual schoolgrounds yet. Look for those and pictures of baseball practice in my next post!