I’m not particularly a sports guy (and by “not particularly” I mean “not at all”), but if I were going to get into sports, I’d be watching baseball. It’s the only sport I can watch all the way through without getting completely bored.
So when I realized I could watch a baseball game here in Japan, I figured sure, why not.
The game I went to was actually a pre-season game, which suited me just fine (bonus: it was a bit cheaper and, I’m assuming, a bit less busy).
The stadium was far from packed, but it was still quite crowded. That much was clear as soon as I got off the subway and realized that everyone on the train was going to the game as well.
We all marched off to the stadium, which is about a ten minute walk from the station.
Eventually, we got there.
Thankfully, most people seemed to have their tickets already — there basically wasn’t any line at the box office (is it called a box office at a baseball game? I’m going to assume it’s called a box office). My ticket was decent enough, and it only cost 1800 yen (about 22 bucks Canadian).
The food options in the stadium were interesting. There were, of course, a handful of fast food chains (KFC, Subway, and the Japanese burger chain Mos Burger).
Everything else was a bit more unique.
This place, serving takoyaki (octopus balls) and okonomiyaki (savoury Japanese pancakes) was the most popular by far, so I figured I’d check it out. I got an order of takoyaki that turned out to be topped with egg salad.
It wasn’t the best takoyaki I’ve ever had, but for ballpark food it was actually pretty tasty — the balls had a nice crispy exterior, and the octopus inside was quite tender. Plus, the egg salad on top worked way better than I thought it would. It adds a nice creaminess that goes surprisingly well with the savoury octopus balls.
As for the game itself? It was fine. I took a short video to give you a taste of what it was like.
Aside from the fact that everything was in Japanese, it was basically identical to the experience of watching a baseball game back home. I will say, however, that the couple in front of me were eating slices of pizza with chopsticks, and don’t do that. I don’t want to be a closed-minded traveller, but you can’t eat pizza with chopsticks. That’s weird.
But remember when I said I could watch a game without getting bored? Yeah, not this one. I stayed until the end of the sixth inning, and nothing was happening — there was no scoring, and barely anyone even got on base. Plus, there was a bizarre amount of bunting. I looked this up and apparently bunting is a big part of baseball in Japan, so that’s odd.
I left at the end of the sixth inning, and of course when I got back to the Airbnb and looked up how the game ended, it turned out that all the action started as soon as I left. The final score was 4 to 2 for the other team. Oh well.
Location: 1 Hitsujigaoka, Toyohira-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 062-0045
How to find it: Just go to Fukuzumi station, and assuming it’s a game day, everyone will be going to the stadium. Follow the crowd.