Alex Quinn's Japan Journal
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8/21/2005, Baseball game in OsakaAkemi was given a pair of free baseball tickets. We're not really big baseball fans, but we gave it a go.
Anyway, the game was the Orlix Blue Waves of Osaka versus a team from Yokohama. Not being big baseball fans, we arrived late. We discovered the entire general admission area was full. Standing room only. But, we got really lucky. We bumped into the president of the Blue Waves fan club. He had a few seats reserved for friends with coats. He let us sit down. Not only that, but he brought us free beer, ice cream, cheering implements - the works. He really treated us well, I guess because I'm a foreigner from a famous baseball city and it was my first game in Japan. (Recall that Seattle is famous in Japan for the Seattle Mariners which currently employ Ichiro Suzuki, a Japanese player.) I was amazed at how enthusiastic the Japanese fans were. They really get into the act. And, the stadium was really nice. Here are some pictures.
Now, here is the most amusing part of it. They have these rubber things, like long balloons, like the ones clowns use to make balloon animals. There's a little piece of plastic in the mouth of the thing. You blow it up. Then, you let it go at a designated time. It flies around and makes noise. It's really fun. As I recall, everybody lets them go at the end of the 7th inning. It's a ritual for fans of this team.
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