Well, sorta. I’m out here in Tokyo to watch the MLB opener against the Boston Red Sox. Natch, the A’s blew the lead in the bottom half of the game.
Here’s how the tickets looked like.
And here’s a very confused clerk at the New Otani Hotel who I asked to hold the tickets.
They’re not THAT precious…!
Here’s the World Series trophy. It seems the the Red Sox take it everywhere they go. For many Japanese fans, this is the first time that they will see the actual trophy in person.
The point of coming out here was to experience the Japanese twist on baseball. This began the opening ceremony with Awaodori dancers. They danced to an beat that was piped throughout Tokyo Dome and I swear that there were members of Edokko-Ren present!
Down where our seats were, there were dancers in the aisles!
Both national anthems were sung, first the Star Spangled Banner by some jazz vocalists than 君が代 was sung by a Japanese opera singer. Since she was singing toward center field, all I could get was her back. But her voice gave me goose bumps!!
Speaking of seats, ahem, our seats were just to the right of home plate, 7 rows back from the dugout! Talk about the benefits of commitment!!
The view was sooo incredible here. In sooo many ways!
Despite this technically being a home game for the A’s, the crowd was pro-Red Sox and the only people cheering for the A’s seemed to be the 50 or so people in our section. Go figure. Of course, you can figure out why since Matsuzaka Daisuke (松坂 大輔) was the starting pitcher for the Red Sox.
An obviously pro Red Sox crowd
There’s more to come, this entry may be updated later.
Bye!
Musings of a Food and Travel Addict