Jono and I finally experienced a part of the Japanese culture...a baseball game. We saw the Hanshin Tigers play the Lions at Koshien Stadium, Kobe.
The stadium was massive, holding 55,000 people (no wonder the train was packed on the way home!). The game went for 3 and a half hours, but it went really quickly. The crowd were right into cheering for their team when they came up to bat. They had different chants and clapping actions using clapping sticks to go with them. I was enjoying doing it with my fists and then a lady sitting near us gave me her clapping sticks and said "present". I was so excited! I watched and followed the cheer leaders and hit my sticks together like crazy! I was probably a funny sight. 
Dotted around the perimeter of the field were some "cheer leaders". These cheerleaders were not wearing belts as skirts, have their hair in pigtails or holding pom poms. There were men and women leading the crowd into the various chants and kept the crowd in sync. Many people were dressed up to support their team. They held signs, t-shirts and flags in the air and the clapping sticks were everywhere. Boy did they make a great sound! One lady was even in a full body tiger costume, now that's commitment!
The game moved at lightning speed, almost as fast as the pitchers threw the balls. The fastest ball of the night was clocked at 146km/h! That's amazing! There's no way I would want to be at the receiving end of those balls! This was my first time to watch a whole baseball game so I was watching and learning. I liked the way they played until 3 were out and then it was "side away". When a new pitcher was brought into the game, they were delivered to the pitching spot via a baseball car! It was really cute. They even reverse parked it after it's trip! They love their reverse parking here in Japan! I was really looking forward to having a hot dog for tea, but there were none to be had. Instead Jono had a ton katsu sandwich and I had curry and rice! Not your typical baseball cuisine, but we are in Japan after all! There was a psycho of an old man sitting near us who would get up and stomp on the seats when the other team was getting runs or when the Tigers made errors! We just looked at him and thought, what the?
From time to time the pitch needed levelling out. Out came men in yellow coats with big rakes as well as tractors to make the ground pretty again!
At the end of the 6th innings everyone (including us) blew up some long balloons and held them in the air. After some chanting and lifting them into the air everyone let go and the thousands of balloons filled the air with wiggling lines of colour. It was so cool. At the end of the 8th innings it happened again because the Tigers won. Everyone was so happy! We bought a souvenir towel (looks like a bar towel) with Williams on it. He is an Aussie, so who else would we support? Jono bought himself a t-shirt. Wearing the towel like a scarf and hanging my clapping sticks around my neck, I looked like a seasonal supporter. It was great fun. And even better that the Tigers won, 6-3. 