Japanese Baseball - Game 1

Or J. Ball as we like to call it. 

J. Ball is modeled after American Baseball - there are only a few small differences:

(1)  Tie games are allowed in Japan. 

(2)  There is a limit on the number of extra innings that can be played.

(3)  There are also small differences between the size of the baseballs used and the size of the baseball diamonds.  

There is also a major difference in the fans!  The Japanese are very serious baseball fans.  And polite.  Much more polite than American baseball fans.  They only cheer when their team is up to bat, they have cheers and chants that they use and the entire stadium joins, and they do not boo or taunt the opposing team when they are up to bat.

We went to our first game before J. left on deployment.  Our "home team" is the Yokohama DeNA Baystars.  We decided on the Baystars because Yokohama is the closest major city to us.  So, Baystar fans it was!

Yokohama Stadium

We had a small language barrier issue ... we bought standing room only seats thinking that those were the only tickets available.  Not actually the case.  They sell different types of tickets at each ticket window, so we made a note of that for our next J-Ball adventure!

I love this pitching sequence:

 #1

#2

#3

Fans

Chu-Hi Girl!

All of the beer and Chu-Hi girls wore these neon outfits ... makes them very easy to find!  They also had several girls assigned to each section so they came around fairly often.

Most of the fan had these bats that they hit together during the chants

Mr. B. + Asahi Girl

Mr. B. + J. + Asahi/Chu-Hi Girl

Me + J.

Me + the snacks Mr. B. brought back for me ... slivered almonds and dried fish.  YUM!

The chant leader ... he led the fans in all of their chants/cheers

I had to take a video of the chants/cheers that the fans do while their team is up to bat.  I just can't get over how coordinated they are - it's impressive!

After the ball game, we went to Bashamichi Taproom - a local brewery and American BBQ joint.  It was delicious and I highly recommend it to anyone in Yokohama who needs some American comfort food!