Ganbare!

Tonight, I attended my first Chunichi Dragons game - Japanese professional baseball - at the Nagoya Dome. It was pretty much what you'd expect from a baseball game - thirty thousand people in Dragons jerseys, a deep-voiced announcer, astroturf - with a few notable exceptions. We had cheerleaders in gold knee-high boots dancing between innings. Most of the announcements were made in English before they were translated into Japanese (can you imagine if announcers at Fenway or your home ballpark spoke in the language you studied for a couple of years in high school?), and the Dragons, unlike any American team, have an ouendan.

The ouendan is one of the elements for which Japanese baseball is famous. Literally "cheer group", the ouendan is like an extremely serious fan club - they wear special happi coats or Dragons jerseys, stake out an entire section of seats just above center field, and wave an enormous Dragons flag. Moreoever, ouendan leaders direct the group (and thus the entire crowd) in cheers - and I'm not talking "Go Dragons!" or even the Japanese equivalent: "Ganbare Dragons!" There is an individual cheer, song, chant, or some combination of the three for each player in the Dragons' lineup, sung every time he gets up to bat.

One of my favorites - for American Tyrone Woods - begins:

Homu-ran kattobase Tairon! Refuto-he, raito-he! (sung)

Translates to something like: "Slam a homerun, Tyrone! To the left! To the right!" While singing, fans twirl their plastic bat clappers in slow circles above their heads, then point them left and right at the appropriate moments.

For the player whose shirt I am now wearing, #6 Ibata (shortstop), the crowd actually begins with a wordless tune, almost somber, but sung lustily, infectious. And this occurs every single time a Dragons player gets up to bat. Needless to say, the atmosphere in the Dome was always charged, the fans screaming in unison at every hit, gasping at missed plays, groaning in sympathy or yelling encouragement.

And the best part - we won! Things got dicey in the top of the ninth, but the Dragons pulled out a 2-1 win over the Yokohama Bay Stars. Ganbare Dragons!


Tomorrow I leave for Nagano for four days with my friend Natalie, for hiking in the mountains, hot springs bathing, and a couple of famous temples (hopefully also a walk around the 1998 Olympic facilities). I'll be back Tuesday night.

Why the sudden vacation? Saturday through Monday are a string of consecutive holidays in Japan (Constitution Day, Greenery Day, Children's Day) called Golden Week. (Add this past Tuesday, Showa Day, to the mix, and it's just about a week). Supposedly the most beautiful week of the entire year in Japan, it's also the heaviest travel period outside of the Bon festival in August.

Will return with pictures!