Go Dragons Go!!!
- Nagoya, Japan
- Apr 14, 2015
- 4 min read
“Surprise, surprise!”, Hajime-san announced last night. “I’ve got two tickets for the Chunichi Dragons tomorrow! You like baseball, right?” Oh dear, I thought. I’m not interested in sports at all. I got that familiar feeling I was getting used to by now: on the one hand I didn’t want to be rude and tell him I wasn’t really interested, but on the other hand, I didn’t want him to waste such an expensive ticket on me. I decided on carefully telling him I wasn’t that much into sports. “Nonsense”, he claimed. “We’ll go shopping first.” After that, he pretended not to understand me anymore. Well, maybe he was right. I was here to try new things, right? I’d never been in a stadium during a game before. So hey, if baseball is what the Japanese love, then it’s baseball I’m gonna see!
As promised, we first spent the afternoon shopping in the Aeon mall next to the Nagoya Dome, the stadium where it would all take place. Turns out we were not the only ones going shopping before the game started: the place was crowded with the white and blue outfits of the Chunichi Dragon-supporters (Nagoya’s team) and the yellow and black outfits of the Hanshin Tiger-supporters (Osaka's team). Hajime-san made it a game to yell things about the Tiger-supporters to me in English – at first I was a bit shocked that he was showing such non-Japanese behaviour, but later on it just made me laugh. I was surprised that the Tiger fans didn’t respond at all. Hajime-san wouldn’t believe that in Europe, this could have resulted in a nasty fight. For the better, I guess!
When we entered the Nagoya Dome, I was surprised how smooth everything went. They scanned our tickets, and we were in. No security, no checking of the bags, no gates, nothing! There weren’t even any queues. We could just walk in. I was so happy to see that at least somewhere in the world, it was still possible! What also surprised me was that all the food stalls, as opposed to the good old West, sold things like noodles, rice and all sorts of healthy things instead of hot dogs, burgers and fries. The most unhealthy thing I saw was popcorn. I love Japan.
Now the Nagoya Dome is a really big and impressive building on the outside, but walking inside, it seemed even bigger. It took ages until we found the right area, and when we sat down, I was overwhelmed by the massiveness of the dome itself. All the spectators were so excited, cheering, dancing, making noise – at once I understood why people did this for fun. I think it’s not really about the sports. It’s all about the atmosphere. The excitement was so very contagious: before I knew it I was cheering along, and I didn’t even know why! Across the dome, the song of the Tigers could be heard. That resulted in loud chanting and clapping from our side, the Dragon side. Although the rivalry was impossible to miss, it was all in a light and fun way. I was really enjoying this. Time for the match itself!
Cheerleaders. They actually had cheerleaders! Singing, dancing cheerleaders with short skirts and pink pom-poms. And mascots! Okay, this was really cool after all. I didn’t understand anything of the game, but I started picking up quickly. In the breaks, the crowd went nuts, guided by the koala bear mascot on the big screen. The atmosphere was amazing. The game took pretty long: when the end was nearing, Hajime-san he said he wanted to leave, because it was getting late and it could still take a while. I wanted to see it through until the end, but eventually he insisted on leaving. It looked like the Dragons were losing anyway. But just when we got up to leave… a home run. The Dragons had won! The crowd went berserk and even Hajime-san was cheering. He called me a lucky mascot: apparently, the Dragons had lost several times in a row now, and now I had come to see them, they had won. I laughed and enjoyed the view of all the supporters leaving the Nagoya Dome nice and peacefully. The Dragon fans were cheerful and energetic; the Tiger fans were a little bummed, but even they were smiling and chattering. Oh, if only I could take this feeling home. Supporters from both sides leaving the stadium shoulder to shoulder… Amazing.
I got a shirt from Oshima as a souvenir – Oshima being the player that had hit the home run. Hajime-san was happy I enjoyed the game and even presented me with a small Chunichi Dragon towel to remember this evening by. As much as I hadn’t expected it, I will definitely remember this evening for a long time. For someone who doesn’t like sports at all, this was an amazing experience. I definitely don’t regret going!
Comments