Baseball

Graham and I went to our first baseball game, here in Tokyo. We met up with a group from the Embassy and went together. We walked to the stadium, which was a 10-15 minute walk from home, so not to far at all. You can bring in your own food to the stadium, so there were many vendors just before the stadium selling different food.  We opted not to buy this food, as we wanted to see what was at the stadium.

Upon arriving at the stadium, we were glad to have Grahams coworkers with us, as we would have had no idea where to go. There were many different gates, and we couldn't read our tickets that well, as they were in Japanese writing. We grabbed a couple of beers and went to our seats. This was a good day to come, as they had half priced beer, usually the beers are 700 yen (roughly $7.00 CAN), and this day they were 350 yen (roughly $3.50 CAN). The dinner we got there was AMAZING, I was shocked. Coming from Edmonton, which was rated one of the worst and most unsanitary stadiums to get food at, we were presently surprised to get such great food at a stadium. I will post pictures soon. I had tempura like pork, prawn and potato (all three were battered in something), with a very good sauce, which reminded me of an East Indian type curry. Graham had a tempura like pork with rice, which he really enjoyed also. Oh yes, and we also tried an Octopus ball, that Grahams co-worker had ordered, that was good also!

The game was amazing! I am not usually a huge fan of watching baseball. I have been to a game in Seattle, and although I like to watching any sport live, baseball isn't on of my favorites, as I find it kind of dull (sorry). Here however, it is very entertaining! When your team is up bat, the fans stand up, play instruments, and chant and sign, this was very interesting and entertaining to watch. When the other team is up, the other side of the stadium chants and signs. Each set of fans sits in different sides of the stadium, which is also different from Canada. My thought was, what if your going with a friend that likes the other team, does that mean you can't sit together? Also, when your team makes a good hit, or makes a run batted in, you stand up and cheer, and pump your umbrella up and down with your hand, LOL. Grahams coworkers were nice enough to have given us a Tokyo Sparrows Umbrella before the game. The umbrella "dance" is a cheer of the Tokyo Sparrows, whom we were watching, each team has a different thing that they do. One of Grahams co-workers is a Fan of the Osaka Tigers, and their thing is to use balloons, and at some point in the game, I'm not sure when, they let their balloons go. There were beer girls walking around, with beer kegs on their back, serving beer, which was interesting to see, I had never seen beer served like that at a game before. There were also fireworks, music and much more.

At one point, we got introduced to Patrick, we had no idea who he was, but I think he is a big deal to the Tokyo residence as there was a line up to see him. He was the announcer of the game. All in all it was a great date, and we will go back for sure!!!!

During our date night Brooke stayed home with Kelly, our sitter, and had a great night. Kelly again told us how amazed she was by her, and said they had a lot of fun. They red several books, ran around the house, had cheerios, played with toys and just had a great time.

Until next time!! Again pictures to come! still waiting for a router for our internet to make it easier to upload them.