Oh, Those Tigers...

A week and a half ago i had the pleasure of watching a Baseball game at Koshien Stadium, Home of the Hanshin Tigers. I also had the displeasure of watching them lose brutally 7-1 to their nemesis team, The Yomiuri Giants (part of a much larger losing streak, unfortunately). We had amazing seats, too! Fourth row right behind the third base line! So close we could hear the players talking when they came out to warm up before going to bat! Kansai area and Koshien especially are famous for the Tigers but even more famous for Tigers Fans. Known for "Tigers Mania", they are truly die-hard: despite Hanshin losing right from the start of the game, the fans stayed in the packed-full stadium right to the bitter end, chanting and cheering the whole time, showing excellent sportsmanship. After the game a couple members of our group were interviewed for a Japanese radio program and Nishimura-san (who got us the tickets) sang the Tigers theme song (though i didn`t understand any of the lyrics).