Tokyo Hotels
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The Greatest Thing In The World
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Take a journey with me... free from all your troubles... to a magical place I like to call: The Greatest Thing In The World. Even now, I wonder if it was all just a dream scene from one of those terrible Hollywood movies - but I have irrefutable photo evidence!
I'll admit I was a sceptic as I was handed a ticket to the baseball - Swallows VS Giants. I thought "Swallows?? What sort of a name is that?!". Nevertheless, the Japanese are more than slightly baseball mad so it seemed like a great 'cultural experience' for me to have.
Hmmm, do they play baseball in the rain? Doesn't matter, because Tokyo Dome is completely covered! The efficiency at the entry gates was brilliant, although I'm pretty sure my bag wasn't checked very thoroughly (they are all scared of me apparently - maybe I need a shave). We made our way to our seats, which surprisingly were no smaller than Subiaco Oval, and I began to take in the atmosphere.
I chose to barrack for the Giants, and then learned that they were the home team as well as the top team in the league. Good choice. The Sparrows were also from Tokyo, but just when you thought their name couldn't get any worse it turns out they are the "Yakult Swallows" - that's right, the health drink. Each team is supposed to be allocated half of the stadium's seats, but the weak Swallows supporters didn't make the effort so there were plenty of their seats infiltrated by Giants supporters (including my seat!).
The pre-game entertainment was pretty standard, with a combination of hot dancing girls, whacky mascots and a bit of blimp action setting the scene. It was once the game started that I realised something was different... but what was it?
THE GREATEST BIT
I see an extremely cute girl in a flouro uniform walking to the front of our row. She turns to the crowd, smile beaming, then offers a low bow. Is this part of the entertainment? What's going on here? At this stage the baseball plays second fiddle as I sit there, fixated on this girl, in a state of total disbelief. She raises her right hand in a sort of half-wave, then calls out something (inaudible over the chanting crowd). She takes a few paces forward and repeats. A man in the crowd waves back to her, so she approaches him and reaches for something around her waist... I start tingling - getting a feeling that I'm about to witness something amazing. YES! She reaches again, this time retrieving a cup from its holster. Finally, all is revealed - she is a gorgeous beer wench, sent by the Tokyo Dome Gods. Can this get any better? I gaze around, only to discover that "Yes", it can get better. They are everywhere. All as pretty as the last, and offering 5 different beers right to your seat. Beer's not your thing? There are also girls with soft drinks, juices, teas, hot dogs, snacks etc.
I wait for the Kirin Beer girl to come by (it sounds like my name but is also a good beer [Oh, plus she was hot]), and I call her over. We're talking about a maximum 5 minute wait, much much less if you're not picky about which beer you want. When she starts pouring it from her little tap I fall in love. When I taste it is full strength beer I nearly pass out.
To be honest I'm not sure my heart can take much more of this. I've only been in Japan a few days and already I've fallen in love 8 or 9 hundred times...
Anyway, it just so happens that the Giants hit a Grand Slam (home run with bases loaded) while she is pouring my beer. I barely notice. They lead for the rest of the game and end up winning by 3 runs. The Japanese crowd were probably the highlight for me. I've never seen such an organised, civilised sporting crowd. If your team is batting then you're allowed to chant, play your trumpets and drums etc. If you're fielding, you basically keep it quiet until you get someone out. They basically take turns all night. You never boo the opposition. Every batter for the Giants had his own theme music - it was brilliant (have a look at the videos attached to this entry).
As I explained to Shiho at the time, the same setup in Oz would be likely to result in pitch invasions, massive crowd brawls, destruction of property, mugging of the drinks girls etc etc etc. Japan is great - pity they don't play cricket...
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| 12. | The Greatest Thing In The World - Tokyo, Japan May 07, 2006 (  9 ) |
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