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Tuesday, May 11, 2004
besuboru
oh so fun! k&a and i went to a kintetsu buffaloes game at osaka dome last night... i considered this game my warm-up for a hanshin game... ZETTAI ikimasu!!!! we got the cheapest tix (1400 each), which got us 2nd level seats in the OEN section!!! wooohooooooooo!!!! AAAND it was Salaryman Night!! what more could one ask for? we could have sat closer since no one was really checking tickets, and we didn`t even have seat/section numbers on our tickets (??), but the OEN were behind the outfield, so we opted to stay in our right field seats. Was it just me or did the field seem a lot smaller?? or maybe we were just closer? anyways. The Buffaloes` OEN were great! they were all decked out in red, and almost everyone had plastic bats as clappers. The leaders were wearing long red happi coats with Osaka somethingsomething on the back, while the BASS DRUMMER and TRUMPETERS were wearing shorter ones. it was like having that guy who was always at the old Cleveland Indians stadium, whomping away at his bass drum in the nosebleeds, only a thousand times better. We realized 3 chants in that clapping along with the rally cries would be pretty painful on our hands, and I found myself wishing we had picked up a pair of the clappers. But since I was trying to restrain myself from unnecessary spending (and I would want a hanshin set anyway hee), I didn`t get any. The OEN were so coordinated and organized, it was fantastic. During the home half of every inning, we would get to cycle through two or three chants, depending on what was happening. One chant looked really fun as one part of it requires the twirling of the clappers, before yelling out a players` name. The player whose name fit chants the best? “I-SO-BE!” At the end of the inning, the current OEN leader (they rotate) bows to the section, and everyone applauds a job well done. so sweet =)
Even the Orix had a small OEN section, complete with a bass drum. And Tani was playing!! wooooooooo! At one point during the game, when he was up to bat, one of the Super Fans in front of us yelled out something along the lines of, c`mon Tani your wife always tries her best, so you`d better GAMBARE! (Tani`s wife is judoka extraordinaire Tamura Ryoko).
In the seventh inning, instead of the seventh-inning stretch, the home fans started blowing up these huge red balloons, and when the jumbotron flashed “LUCKY SEVEN!!!” everyone released their balloons simultaneously, making the atmosphere seem a lot more crazy and fun, especially since it felt like the Buffaloes were on the verge of a rally in the bottom of the seventh. They managed to score one run in the seventh (i think), and then bottom of the eighth, the OEN leader said some magic words and all of a sudden we noticed people were fidgeting around with their Buffaloes towels. I think in place of rally caps (thanks Mr. Baseball!), they have rally towels, and a little dance too! Aw, it looked like so much fun. Even the cute kids sitting in front of us were dancing along =) (oh my gosh i went crazy/stalkerish taking so many covert pics of those kids and of the most adorable little girl in oversized jeans across the aisle...eeee... i went Lisa* on those kids).
The Buffaloes ended up tying by the ninth, 3-3, and we left after the tenth. Later when Kathy and I were watching (or rather I was watching, and she was making nerdiful journal entries... ahahahha, don`t kill me) sports highlights, the game ended in the tie. weird. Baseball is great! I can`t wait to cheer with the Hanshin fans! Tanoshimi!!!!
*Lisa=cool and funny South African ALT friend of Matt...but has an unnatural and (frightening?) tendency to only take pictures of painfully adorable Japanese children and (sushi) cats
oh so fun! k&a and i went to a kintetsu buffaloes game at osaka dome last night... i considered this game my warm-up for a hanshin game... ZETTAI ikimasu!!!! we got the cheapest tix (1400 each), which got us 2nd level seats in the OEN section!!! wooohooooooooo!!!! AAAND it was Salaryman Night!! what more could one ask for? we could have sat closer since no one was really checking tickets, and we didn`t even have seat/section numbers on our tickets (??), but the OEN were behind the outfield, so we opted to stay in our right field seats. Was it just me or did the field seem a lot smaller?? or maybe we were just closer? anyways. The Buffaloes` OEN were great! they were all decked out in red, and almost everyone had plastic bats as clappers. The leaders were wearing long red happi coats with Osaka somethingsomething on the back, while the BASS DRUMMER and TRUMPETERS were wearing shorter ones. it was like having that guy who was always at the old Cleveland Indians stadium, whomping away at his bass drum in the nosebleeds, only a thousand times better. We realized 3 chants in that clapping along with the rally cries would be pretty painful on our hands, and I found myself wishing we had picked up a pair of the clappers. But since I was trying to restrain myself from unnecessary spending (and I would want a hanshin set anyway hee), I didn`t get any. The OEN were so coordinated and organized, it was fantastic. During the home half of every inning, we would get to cycle through two or three chants, depending on what was happening. One chant looked really fun as one part of it requires the twirling of the clappers, before yelling out a players` name. The player whose name fit chants the best? “I-SO-BE!” At the end of the inning, the current OEN leader (they rotate) bows to the section, and everyone applauds a job well done. so sweet =)
Even the Orix had a small OEN section, complete with a bass drum. And Tani was playing!! wooooooooo! At one point during the game, when he was up to bat, one of the Super Fans in front of us yelled out something along the lines of, c`mon Tani your wife always tries her best, so you`d better GAMBARE! (Tani`s wife is judoka extraordinaire Tamura Ryoko).
In the seventh inning, instead of the seventh-inning stretch, the home fans started blowing up these huge red balloons, and when the jumbotron flashed “LUCKY SEVEN!!!” everyone released their balloons simultaneously, making the atmosphere seem a lot more crazy and fun, especially since it felt like the Buffaloes were on the verge of a rally in the bottom of the seventh. They managed to score one run in the seventh (i think), and then bottom of the eighth, the OEN leader said some magic words and all of a sudden we noticed people were fidgeting around with their Buffaloes towels. I think in place of rally caps (thanks Mr. Baseball!), they have rally towels, and a little dance too! Aw, it looked like so much fun. Even the cute kids sitting in front of us were dancing along =) (oh my gosh i went crazy/stalkerish taking so many covert pics of those kids and of the most adorable little girl in oversized jeans across the aisle...eeee... i went Lisa* on those kids).
The Buffaloes ended up tying by the ninth, 3-3, and we left after the tenth. Later when Kathy and I were watching (or rather I was watching, and she was making nerdiful journal entries... ahahahha, don`t kill me) sports highlights, the game ended in the tie. weird. Baseball is great! I can`t wait to cheer with the Hanshin fans! Tanoshimi!!!!
*Lisa=cool and funny South African ALT friend of Matt...but has an unnatural and (frightening?) tendency to only take pictures of painfully adorable Japanese children and (sushi) cats
// posted by naomi @ 12:44 a.m. 
