hawks ichiban!!!

we went to the baseball yesterday, our first experience of this game ever and it was awesome! fukuoka softbank hawks are our team and we couldnt have been prouder, they took out the nippon ham fighters 7-4.

foam hand

we both wish we had gone earlier so that couldve seen more than one game. we visited the merchandise store before we went in. abish bought a cap (sarah had bought one a few months earlier in preperation) and sarah bought a foam hand, mini baseball bats to clap with and a wristband, no.18 Nagisa Arakaki (reason she chose that no? he was the cutest of course!) no shame in being fully kitted out here!

us infront of the dome in our gear

the fans are amazing, not a dull moment through the entire game, so many different chants and routines neither of us got the hang of it, but up on our feet, we tried our best :D. its great, they have people coming up and down the stairs the whole game you can grab a drink whenever you want without having to miss any of the action.

hawks fielding

great pic showing the hawk fans chanting

abish enjoying the atmosphere

left to right.... adam (the black cap) jess, junko and naomi

right to left.... jess, hannah and sarah having a great time

guy helping to keep the crowd in good spirits, they had many people playing drums, trumpets and instructing the crowd

after the hawks won everyone in the crowd let off balloons, well everyone except hannah and sarah who didnt know this particular ritual and felt very left out.... then they let off fireworks... (the dome was enclosed so they were able to turn off all the lights to make it dark)

celebration fireworks

roof opening after fireworks were let off

after we were walking back from the game we spotted an indoor baseball place, seeing as we were all hyped up over the game, we thought we'd be awesome batters so we went to knock a few balls around. hmm seemed more like the balls knocked us around but it was so much fun would really love to do it again.

oh geez here we go... thinks shes Nobuhiko Matsunaka

abish joins in.... hes got a bit of Hiroshi Shibahara action going on, all good fun

we would recommend to anyone visting japan... you should definately go to a baseball game while your here.

GO THE HAWKS!