Tonight, we went to see the most popular baseball team in the Osaka area, Hanshin Tigers, take on the Hiroshima Carp at Kyocera Dome Osaka. It was a good game for us to go to because (a) usually Hanshin plays their games in Nishinomiya, halfway between Osaka and Kobe, and far away from where we live; and (b) it's very very hot and humid in Osaka in August, so an indoor baseball game is good. Here, a Hanshin batter in white takes on the Hiroshima pitcher. By the way, Tigers lost 4-3.
Every baseball team in Japan has an official cheering section called an ōendan in Japanese, and the Hanshin Tigers are no different. Here you can see the ōendan waving large flags. An ōendan also features a horn section and a drum section, which play simple songs and cheers that everyone can - and does - sing along to. It's more festive than a baseball game back in the U.S., but all of the songs have the same beat to it (Dat... dat... dat-dat-dat...).
One of the Tigers mascots, LUCKY, working the crowd.
A shot of the dome. If you look carefully, you can see fans holding long colored balloons. In the middle of the 7th, instead of singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" like they do in the U.S., Hanshin Tigers fans blow up these long balloons (which they buy before the game with their own money!), sing a little cheer, then everyone releases the balloons at once. The balloons fly up as the air goes out of them. The funny thing is that after this, several workers come out on the field and quickly pick up the thousands of used balloons off of the field with their hands! It must stink to have that job.
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