Kitschy Kishi!

Last Sunday for the first time in two years, I made it to a Rakuten Eagles game. We were given a Gaikokujin (foreigner) discount and only had to pay 1000 yen for entry. I think I spent seven times that amount on beer though.

Here I am posing with one of the pitchers, Takayuki Kishi. I wouldn't mind getting a kitschy Kishi BobbleHead though I doubt whether I'd be able to find room for it.

Here are a few shots of the most important part of the game:

The second most important part of the game are the gals who pour our beer for us. Is it my imagination or are their beer kegs smaller than before? Perhaps there were too many herniated beer baristas.

Another important factor is the fans that one meets; these ones were current students at Seiwa University.

Another very important aspect of the game is the money shot when several thousand balloons get shot off into the heavens during the 7th Inning Stretch.

   

Okay, I'd like to apologize for that video. It starts off fine with fans chanting and then it switches to slo-mo for the duration. Skip ahead to about the 6 minute mark and you can see the explosion of balloons.

I'd like to revise my previous most important component of the game. That would be the friends that one gets to hang around with all day.

One of these people is my pal, Edward. The other is Zelous Wheeler. Can you tell the difference?

The only difference is that the over-zealous Zelous has his own song.



I seem to be forgetting one aspect of the game. Cheerleaders--Check. Beer-Gals--Check. Chatting up cute fans--Check. Shooting off balloons--Check. Good friends/ Good times--Check.
Ooh, right. there was a baseball game going on as well. I was hoping to snap a picture of Wheeler wheeling his way around the bases. Here are a few attempts.

  

  

Thanks to Wheeler and his home run (and other players helped too), we went from a 4-0 deficit to a 5-4 win!