My first (and likely only) 日本 baseball game

When I came to Japan in January 2020, one of my "bucket list" things to do was watch a professional baseball game. Unfortunately, COVID happened, and I had to put that idea on the back-burner.

Well, today I got to watch the Yakult Swallows play the Hanshin Tigers at Jingu Stadium in Tokyo. It was a great game, and I got to learn a lot about "baseball culture" differences.

-No peanuts or cracker jacks. Unlike in the U.S., all the snacks are easily cleaned up. This is for the convenience of the Japanese fans, who -- as a matter of culture -- clean up after themselves. They do this in movie theaters, too -- they bring their garbage with them to the exits, and throw everything away as they leave. -There's not much legroom. I'm only 5'6", and my feet were still hanging over the ledge to the next-lower row of seats.
-Beer ladies. They carry the kegs on their backs as they walk around and pour it into the cups on-order (still crazy prices, though -- $7 per cup)

-Katsu-don is the unofficial snack because katsu 勝つ means win. (It's an interesting play on words. カツ丼 becomes 勝つ丼 in a sports context.) -There are cheerleaders, and they do routines between innings.
-When there's a foul ball, an alarm sounds, and staff check to make sure no one got knocked out or something.

-Paraphernalia. No cheeseheads or foam fingers for the Swallows. They have umbrellas and little plastic bats to beat together during the chants. -At the end of the game, the home team lines up and bows to the fans. Lots of very respectful conduct, which mirrors the culture. The game itself was exciting. The home team (Swallows) were down 0-1 to the Tigers going into the 9th inning, but the Swallows rallied and -- on a sacrifice fly to right field -- scored the winning run for a walk-off win.
To view just the 9th, skip to the video's 3:43 mark.