I Suck at Video Games

Finding Jingu Stadium, where the Tokyo Yakult Swallows were playing the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, was easy enough. I just got off of the train station and followed the row of food vendors toward the bright lights in the distance. I still had no clue how to go about getting tickets, but I was about to get a great deal of help.

“Are you going to the Swallows game?” asked a British child who could clearly see I was seeming a bit confused. I replied that I was, and he and his brother told me — both decked out in their full Swallows gear — that they were also going. I asked about tickets. They said I could sit close up, but the cheapest seats are the Swallows Free Seating. Free tickets! Nice.

OK, no. The ticket was 1500 yen. But what the Swallows Free Seating refers to is sitting in the bleachers. The bleachers in Japan are not like ordinary bleachers. They are organized cheering sections led by a rotating group of trumpet-playing, conducting, joke-screaming men in special jerseys. Perhaps they are volunteers, perhaps not. The same guys travel to home and away games.

Eventually, the father of the boys showed up, and I got all sorts of lessons in how to act in Japanese baseball. The kids are very popular at the stadium; the old Japanese men in business suits seem to get a real kick out of the small British kids in Swallows jerseys who know all the songs and cheers. I was originally going to buy a Swallows hat, so Duncan — the younger of the two boys — showed me to the souvenir stand. A hat was 4200 yen. More than $40 for a hat! Ay carramba! I passed on the hat as this is about the price of two nights in the hostel or 5-6 meals here. It’s not like I need another hat.

Then the boys’ father, Johnny, slipped away to the concession stand for a bit, and when he returned he brought me beer and Swallows clappers! Nice! It turns out the mum (not present) is a British diplomat living in Tokyo. How neat!

As for the game, it wasn’t very close. The Swallows won 13-3. And of course every time the Swallows score a run (ok not every time — one of the runs scored on a based-loaded hit-by-pitch and it would be considered an insult to sing based on a mistake), the cheering section leads this song and dance:

As you can see, there were not a lot of people at this game. The Swallows are guaranteed to miss the playoffs, and are the less popular team in Tokyo as it is. The Yomiuri Giants, who play indoors at the Tokyo Dome, are a lot more popular. Their games are generally pretty crowded. It’s like the Cubs and the White Sox in Chicago: one team is clearly more popular than the other. Of course, neither one in Chicago would ever have a crowd this sparse. I imagine the free seating is ridiculously crazy when full.

Oh, because the Swallows scored 8 of their runs in one inning, this one cheerleader had to be leading cheers for 30-40 minutes. They rotate after every inning, but they never change while batting because this could change the team’s luck. So if you have a big inning, you’re stuck there. Watch this guy lead what I think is a peculiar cheer. I let it run twice so you could name that tune: