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Writer's pictureBryan Johnson

Having a Ball in Fukuoka: Our First Japanese Baseball Game!

On Saturday, May 21, Katie and I were joined by Meg, Stego, Chubes, Kaiti, and their two daughters, Hadley and Elliot, to the Softbank Hawks baseball game in Fukuoka. At 8:30 AM, the eight of us jumped on the free blue bus from main base to Fukuoka; man, we abuse that free bus!


After taking a short subway ride to downtown Fukuoka, we went to Bills where we grabbed some lunch. I got banana ricotta pancakes and bacon, both of which were very good, but Katie's spicy sesame chicken sandwich was definitely the winner. I had some food FOMO (fear of missing out) after I tasted her sandwich, but thankfully I have an awesome wife who let me have a few bites so I could be satisfied! After leaving the restaurant and before jumping on a bus to the stadium, Kaiti and Chubes wanted to go to Baked, where they sell really good cheese tarts! Kaiti grabbed a box of assorted flavors, and was kind enough to offer us one of the plain cheese tarts, which was absolutely amazing!



After our lunch and dessert, we made it to the PayPay Dome in northwest Fukuoka, home of the Softbank Hawks! The Softbank Hawks play in the Japanese equivalent of the MLB, Nippon Professional Baseball. Apparently, they're a perennial powerhouse, winning the Japan Series (equivalent to American World Series) seven times since 2010 (2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and again in 2020).


I was very excited about this game because this was my first professional baseball game since Taufik, Steven and I went to Game 4 of the World Series back in 2019! Katie and I were rocking some Nationals jerseys just to show our spirit!


Before we got into the stadium, none of us knew what to expect. We had no clue where our seats were located, because Stego and Meg (Mego for short), bought the tickets at an entirely Japanese kiosk in one of our local 7-Elevens. We were very happy that Stego bought all our tickets at once, so we could sit together; thankfully Katie and I didn't have to figure out the kiosk! We were super excited to get inside and see what Japanese pro baseball was all about!



We got inside and our seats were awesome! We were about five rows up, near the first base foul pole! Before we grabbed our seats, Katie and I grabbed two chu hais each, two lemon and two melon flavors (the lemon was definitely the winner). We really represented America well while two-fisting alcohol on our walk down to tour seats!


We immediately recognized that the dome was closed, so I was relieved to know I wouldn't fry. The vibe in the stadium is also very different from an American ballpark; there's no standing while the pitcher has the ball until the ball is no longer in play, no one heckles the opposing team, and cheering is very, very tame! Lots of quiet clapping and whispering- nothing like the chaos of American baseball! It was different, but still a really cool experience, something I definitely want to do again!


It may sound silly, but Katie was dumbfounded at the scoreboard- everything was (shockingly) in Japanese! At least numbers are the same in every language. It was also funny to hear the songs the hitters chose as their walkup songs- some early 2000 hits hit close to home and were sung aloud by our entire group!



During the seventh-inning-stretch, instead of singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," they shot off these confetti poppers. Leave it to the Japanese to attach all of the confetti to the popper via a string to minimize the amount of clean-up! No mess and a hit with the Castillo girls!



Man, that was an awesome experience! After the game, Kaiti, Chubes, and their girls headed back to the train station to head home, while Katie, Stego, Meg, and I headed to find dinner in Fukuoka. We landed on a Ramen restaurant where you order on a touch screen, get your meal tickets and head to the counter where you fill out a preference card for your Ramen.


Once you fill out the card, you put it and your meal tickets in the window, where a server will grab it and bring you your food a few minutes later. Each little window has its own water station, so we were able to get as many refills as we wanted without bothering the Japanese wait staff. This restaurant was super cool and the Ramen was some of the best we've had in Japan!



We took a taxi from the baseball stadium to the Ramen restaurant, and the sign above was on the headrest. We assume golf+taxi+beer (maybe food too?) = 3,000 yen? Not too shabby of a deal for roughly $25! We had enough drinks at the baseball game, and we weren't in the right shape for a golf game, so we stuck with our Ramen plan!


After dinner, Katie and I headed back to the Haiki train station where we bought tickets for the express train back to Sasebo. We got back into town around 9:30 pm, walked back to base, got in our car, and made the journey back over to Hario. It was quite a long day, but it was an awesome time! Katie and I have decided we will definitely be going back to a baseball game very soon!



Thanks for reading! Hope you continue going on these journeys with us!


Yours,


Bryan

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