Go go Tigers! ゴーゴータイガース！！

Last Wednesday, I took the day off work to go and watch my very first baseball game with Megu, Kei and co. in Matsuyama! It was Hyogo's Hanshin Tigers versus the Hiroshima Carps! Can you work out who we were supporting?

Megu, me and Kei!

Like it'd be if we were spectating school sports, being part of the audience wasn't a simple matter of watching wordlessly. Nope, every different player and situation (a nice hit, a bad hit, a home run... anything) demands its own personalised chant, which of course everybody knows and is able to yell out, word perfect, at a second's notice. That is, everybody but me, who is able only to pick up the odd occasional word.... still, what I lacked in precision, I made up for in sheer obnoxious volume.

Halfway through the game, it was time to show our support beyond chanting in the form of a mass balloon display! Simultaneously, everyone in the audience whipped out their pre-purchased Hanshin Tigers balloons, blew them up and sent them spiralling into the night sky. It was quite the sight to see!

Ready, set...

Go!

We may have walked out of the stadium defeated, but that didn't really matter to me... it was my first baseball game and I had a blast!