Japanese baseball
 

Can anyone comment on the different teams? I have the choice of seeing the Fukuoka Hawks at the Yahoo stadium in Fukuoka or perhaps a game in Kobe or Nishinomiya.

Is there any team that is particularly "special/unique" like the NY Yankees, Harlem Globetrotters (yes, I realize they play basketball) etc.

I gather the Tigers are... any others?

The Giants would probably be the closest thing to the Yankees in Japan.

Nishinomiya (Koshien Stadium) is probably the most famous baseball venue in Japan, as it's where the high school championships are played each year. The Tigers fans are also riotously intense, which can make their home games fun to watch.

I know that the Hanshin Tigers were the hard luck team for a while. Their fans have very odd customs, such as jumping into a body of water when the team does well. They had the "Colonel Sanders curse" when a statue of the Colonel was tossed into the Dotenbori canal during the last time they made it to the playoffs. Then they were cursed for many years. They just dug him out earlier this year, so there was high hopes for this season.

The Yomuri Giants...yeah like the Yankees sorta. There's the Dragons that look like the Dodgers. I'll pull for the jints in that case...

I saw a Fukuoka Hawks game at the Yahoo staduim. My cousin got tickets for me in the outfield where all the nuts congregate. It was an noisy, ear pounding, can't wait to do it again experience. I don't remember who we played all I remember is the drum, (three rows back) and the trumpet thing (also three rows back) and everybody around me non stop thumping.

It was nothing like any ball game I've enjoyed in the MLB.

Tried to go to a Hanshin Tigers game last year but all the games were sold out. I think of the Tigers like the Red Sox while the Giants are like the Yanks. Giants win penants more often but Tigers are always close.

The Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants are both part of the Central League. While the Hawks are in the Pacific League. Pacific League has the DH but the Central does not.

If I had a choice, I would choose the Tigers game only because it is the more popular team than the Hawks. Don't know however how the ticket availablity is these days....

Hanshin Tigers at Koshien -- the best choice by a long, long way IMHO. As mentioned, the fans have a similar passion for their team as do Red Sox fans. It is really fun game experience.

If you can only go to one Japanese baseball game, by all means go to a Tigers game at Koshien. But, they are on the road for like 3 weeks straight in August, because of the national high school baseball tournament.
http://japanesebaseball.com/teams/sc...=HAN&Year=2009

Tours of Tokyo Dome?
 

Since it looks like the Japan Series will likely be kicking off in Nagoya, and not Tokyo, during my trip next week, I was hoping to take a tour of Tokyo Dome.

The Lonely Planet says it's possible to get tours of the Dome, but I can't seem to find any information either on the Tokyo Dome website, or the Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum's website.

Anyone here done the tour and/or have info?

Thanks :)

I appears that Tokyo Dome has ended tours for the rest of the year. The website I linked to deals specifically with school trips, but if they stopped them for schools, I don't think they have general public tours going either. The old link to the tours doesn't work anymore; the Tokyo CCI has info on the English side of their website, but it dates around 2006.

You can always try and call/e-mail them though. You never know...

The best cheering fans have to be the Marines fans.....not the usual "ganbatte" tunes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE4XliCQcMk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on9UH...eature=related

Nippon Ham are impressive too. They have some funny Hokkaido pride cheers. Unfortunately, I could only find this, which isn't quite as cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kXXa3xGqLg

Calcifer and I attended a Yokohama Bay Stars game last month (they were playing the Yomiuri Giants) and ended up sitting in the outfield with the home team cheering section; it was an amazingly fun evening and I would encourage any baseball fan to attend a game, if you can.

We did stop by the Tokyo Dome to visit the large gift shop there and made the mistake of going on a day when the Giants were playing. The shop is great and has items from all of the teams, but it was PACKED.

If you want to see a game in Tokyo, Yakult Swallows home games are generally a cheaper and less hectic option than Giants home games -- though if you get tickets when they are playing Hanshin, all the crazy Hanshin fans still show up. The Swallows play in Jingu Stadium, which is an outdoor field near Omotesando (Gaienmae Station on Ginza Line).

I love Hanshin fans!