9/10 - Baseball at Tokyo Dome

Almost right after we came to Japan, I was invited by another JLSPer to go watch a baseball game with the others. I'm really grateful to have such initiative-taking coursemates, without them I would probably not have been able to experience as many things as I've done now. I'm not a very big sports fan, I mean, I'm not even big on watching sports on TV and let's not even mention sports games! But this was one thing I've always wanted to try; watching a game (of something, anything! As long as it's not hockey...) live on a big stage getting pumped up with everyone, feeling the rush of adrenaline through your veins and getting carried away by the atmosphere.

... Okay, so it wasn't that exciting, but it was still relatively fun! Baseball can almost be said to be Japan's national sport, there's way more people interested in it than, say, Sumo, which says a lot.

Anyway, I had forgotten about the invitation until a couple of days before the match would take place, and it came as a nice surprise as something to look forward to after our first "major" test (which went fine by the way, I was one point away from getting a perfect score!).

So after spending some slooooow time at school, we headed to a burger chain called Freshness Burger (oh, Japan and English...). Now here comes a phenomenon I want to write about, number plates in fast food chains! Take a look:
Usually a customer gets a small tray with their drink on and a number plate beforehand while they wait for their food to get ready. In Sweden, you would, most of the time, just stand by the counter and wait until you get your food and then feel really nervous about the long line forming behind you. The Japanese are so organized that they even hand out number plates at fast food places. I think they play a pretty big role in how everything goes so smoothly in the lines, it's so convenient. As expected from the country of benriness! Oh and by the way, they have a different view on sizes here i seems. That cup of latte (why the hell did I order latte anyway, I don't even usually drink it @_@;;;) was supposed to be medium size, but after asking everyone else, we all agreed that it would be considered a small cup in every other country. Do Japanese eat and drink less than everybody else? How about the guys, at least? I mean, appetite-wise, they generally eat more than girls, right? (Arrr feminists don't jump on me!) How do people manage? And why do I feel silly for feeling proud about being able to eat a lot? :D
The interior of the place. Please note that silly guys are not part a part of the set. Oh, and see how the store's all geared up for Halloween? Look at this!
Almost every store I walk into has some Halloween-ish decoration going on. I didn't think it would be this big of a deal in Japan, but I guess it's just another way of making money.

So after having our burgers (so small! I miss the burgers from the street grill in Högdalen, eat one for me Yosh and Kajfa!) we headed for the subway and we happened to walk past this building:

So flat.

The game was held at Tokyo Dome, one of the major arenas for sports and concerts in Japan. I've seen so many live performances from there (downloaded, of course, hehe!) that it felt slightly surrealistic seeing it in person. As usual, nothing looks very grand in pictures, but I assure you it was huge!


We had seats on the second floor (they only have two "floors" in the Dome so sitting on the second floor means that you're pretty high up) and to get there, we had to stand and wait in quite a long line. Tokyo is full of lines. I think I must've spent some significant percent of my stay here just standing in line for something.

Once the queue started moving it didn't take long until you got inside. They had a handbag check just right before but they seriously don't check it very thoroghly, so you could've easily brought something dangerous inside, if you're that kind of a person!

Look at the stairway on the third picture. There was this group of people doing some boxing training there. Strange place to practice your punches at. Oh, and if I remember correctly, most of the salarymen turned their heads away when I took this picture. They're so shy, as if they didn't want to leave any proof of having gone to a game of baseball! I'd understand if you were to take a picture in Akiba and otakus would turn their heads away, but here? Hm.

Let's move on to the game itself! As mentioned in a previous entry, we went to see the game between the Tokyo Giants and the Yokohama Baystars. Since we're all hip and cool Tokyo-citizens, there was no second thought on who to root for! We seemed to share this sentiment with most of the people who went to the game, which comes as no surprise seeing that the Dome is Tokyo's home arena. I didn't take a lot of pictures during the game (almost none at all) as it turned out to be quite uneventful.

The Giants in white and the Yokohama-ers in blue. See the huge adboards? One of the JLSPers told me that if a homerun hits one of these boards, the sponsoring company has to pay approximately one million yen extra to the venue or something like that. The reason for this is that if a ball hits your ad, you'll get more screen time on TV which indirectly makes it a commercial spot.

As you can see on the pictures, the seats were all half empty except for the Giants side. Despite the fans' energetic cheering (they had a theme "song" for every batter! Talk about ambitious), the Giants lost pretty badly. Yokohama Baystars took the lead in the first couple of sets and the Giants never caught up to them. If I remember correctly (it's been more than a week now) we lost 5-8 to Yokohama. All in all, the game lasted for almost four hours but I never really felt bored. I don't have any particular interest in baseball and if I had been born Japanese, I probably wouldn't make the effort to go watch a baseball game live, but as a tourist, I think this made a nice experience and I'm glad I got to taste this side of the diverse Japanese culture as well!

Something I noticed during the game was the girls walking around selling drinks. Every time they rotated spots with eachother they would bow first and then announce the price. Bow! You can't mistake this action for anything else other than Japanese. Some of the girls bowed pretty half-heartedly but this just shows how orderly and how respectful people are to each other in this country. Also, even though people seemed to get drunk it never got chaotic. Everyone sits nicely on their chairs cheering for their team, although some of them a talk bit louder than others, so I found myself quite surprised of the fact that when it was time to leave, there was trash lying about on the seats. In any other country I wouldn't give it a second thought, but this is Japan! Made me think that the Japanese might have things in common with us Europeans and Westerners. :D

But then again... It wasn't really that dirty. Haha!

So after the game, we went up to this sky scraper:

Taken before the game

to see if we could get in for free to check out the view from the top floor. It's a hotel, so we didn't expect much but we actually made it to the top! Some of us didn't make it further than that, though. To fully enjoy the view, you had to enter the bar and order a drink or two, a couple us went home. We still got to ride the glass elevator, so view, we got! I only took a video so I don't have any pictures to post.

And that concludes Thursday the 9th of October! We got home by twelve and had to wake up six hours later to prepare for our second school field trip - a bus tour to the beautiful Hakone! I had to do some other preparations that night so I didn't get more than 4-5 hours of sleep. ~_~ Speaking of sleep, I haven't gotten much while being here. I average on six hours a night on weekdays, but I try to catch up on weekends. I really love sleeping but there's so much to do so I always end up going to bed by 0100~0200. It has a bad influence on my health I think... Oh well, won't be keeping up with it for so long, less than two months to go until I return to Sweden! Which brings me to my next point: I think I've entered the homesick period. I long to go to IKEA to have some meatballs and Chinatown even though it's not really related to home. I miss the spacious areas in Sweden and I'm dead tired of feeling like I'm in the way of everyone and the fact that it's ALWAYS SO CROWDED everywhere. It's on nights like these, when I have time to reflect on my situation, that the homesickness hits me the hardest. Right in this very moment, I really really REALLY feel like I want to go home, I miss the weather, my family, my friends' company, my parents' food... just being in Sweden! Despite these feelings, it doesn't mean I hate it here, I absolutely don't. I think I like Tokyo and I don't mind being here. I think homesickness can coexist with these feelings.

Oh, if only Doraemon's Dokodemo Door existed for real. ;w;