Flat Stanley in Tokyo: Trains and Baseball

Now we are in Tokyo. Tokyo is the capital of Japan just like Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States.

More than 36 million people live in Tokyo. Do you know how many people live in Washington, D.C.? The answer is 4 million.

To see the difference, let's pretend one of you is all the people who live in Washington, D.C. Now let's pretend that nine of you are all the people who live in Tokyo. That's a big difference!

Riding a train to Tokyo was easy and fun. Trains are a good way to get around in Japan. Grownups ride trains to go to work and children of all ages go to school by train. One man I saw on the train was going fishing.

Most of the train stations in and around Tokyo have signs in English. When the signs are not in English, friendly Japanese people usually offer to help you get to where you want to go. Most Japanese students study English in junior high school and many of them like to practice speaking English with American and British visitors.

Friendly Japanese people on train platform

If no one is around to help us, we just hop on a train and go where it takes us. Japan is such a safe country that we never worry about getting lost. It is fun to go exploring in a safe country like Japan!

No one talks on their cell phone while riding a train in Japan. Manners are always important but especially so in countries like Japan and cities like Tokyo where millions of people must share such a small amount of space.

I saw lots of people taking naps on the train. Other people were reading books or knitting or playing silent electronic games or texting on their cell phones. I had a book to read (Nate the Great and the Hungry Book Club) but decided to look out the window instead. We arrived in Tokyo just thirty minutes after we left Yokohama.

Ryan's friends took me to an afternoon baseball game. The Yomiuri Giants were playing the Hanshin Tigers at the Tokyo Dome.  I saw a ferris wheel and a roller coaster next to the Tokyo Dome but I didn't get a chance to ride them. 

“Besuboru” (BEH-SU-BOH-RU) is very popular in Japan, where it has been played for more than one hundred years.  The real Japanese name is yakyu (YAH-KEE-YOU), which combines the Japanese letters for “fielding” and “ball.” The first professional baseball team was formed by a man named Hiroshi Hiraoka when he returned to Japan after studying in the United States.  Hiraoka and his co-workers founded the Shimbashi Athletic Club in Tokyo in 1878. The first high school baseball team, Ichiko, started playing in 1886.

Little League baseball

Just like in the United States, people of all ages play baseball in Japan, from little league to the major league Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB.

Many Japanese major leaguers have played for U.S. baseball teams. The most famous are Hideo Nomo (Dodgers), Ichiro Suzuki (Mariners), and Hideki Matsui (Yankees). There are 12 major league teams in Japan, divided into two leagues – Central and Pacific – and they play a “Japan Series” just like the U.S. “World Series” to crown a champion each year.

The most famous team in Japan is the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. They are like the New York Yankees in American baseball.  Their main rival is the Osaka Hanshin Tigers. The Tigers are like the Boston Red Sox in our country.  Whenever the Giants play the Tigers in Japan, it is like the Yankees against the Red Sox in the U.S. Each team has very devoted fans.

Tigers' cheering section at Tokyo Dome

Baseball fans in Japan really get into the game. Their cheering sections take up the whole bleacher sections.  They are led by a cheer conductor who wears white gloves and stands in the middle of the section next to their band.  They all stand and sing or chant the entire time their team is up to bat.  Then they sit quietly while the other team’s batters are up.

The fans especially like to dress up in outfits like the uniforms that their favorite team wears.
 

Hello Kitty souvenirs

The Tokyo Dome is a great place to watch a baseball game. The fans are fun. The souvenirs are really cool. And the food is yummy!

What fun things will we do tomorrow?  I can hardly wait to find out.

Beer Tastes Better at Baseball Games

We saw the Yokohama Bay Stars trounce the Honshin Tigers tonight. I usually travel to the Tokyo Dome to scratch my baseball itch but could not resist the chance to check out Yokohama Stadium when the Seventh Fleet proposed a group outing.

Getting to Yokohama Stadium from Yokosuka is easy.  You can either ride the Keikyu train to Yokohama and switch to a JR train that will take you to Kannai station or you can hop off the Keikyu train in Kamiooka and take the subway to Kannai.  The stadium is right across the street from the JR end of Kannai station.  If you exit the station at the subway end, you could end up walking two or three blocks.  A little exercise won't kill you. 

Ninjas?  No, those are Power Rangers celebrating a run.

We sat in the upper deck above first base. Walking up two flights of stairs to reach our seats, we found restrooms conveniently situated on the landing. I've missed a lot of innings over the years while waiting in long lines outside of ballpark restrooms, so I appreciated the architect's thoughtfulness in carving out facilities just for us Section 8 fans.

There's the Sapporo Beer Girl!  We'll take two, kudasai!

Just like at the Tokyo Dome, cute young girls scampered up and down the aisles offering four kinds of beer, whiskey, and chu-hi. The Tokyo Dome beer girls carry their beer in little keg backpacks but the ones in Yokohama poured beer from cans. We sampled Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin, and Yebisu beer. My favorite, Yebisu, cost 50 yen more than the others but I consider it seventy cents well spent.

I'm going to try to visit more ballparks this summer and next spring. For research purposes, of course.