At the ol' ballgame...

This is from quite awhile back, but I'm thinkin I should really share these pics.

So we checked out a little pro baseball action with the Hanshin Tigers and Hiroshima Carp (yeah, that's carp) making a stop in our town. The action on the field was quite similar to what I'm used to but what was going on in the stands was worth pause. Not surprisingly the food was a little different. Nothing quite like a bento box at the ballgame with treats like fried noodles and fried octopus balls to make the night out complete. Popcorn was non-existent and the only hotdog to be found came on a stick sans bun. Perhaps the low-carb diet has hit stadiums across Japan.
Anyway slightly nutty food is to be expected. What was more interesting was the behaviour of the fans. We quickly realized that heckling is not standard practice as our 'swing batter batter swing batter' chants were met with several stink eyes. It's not that the fans were sitting on their hands or anything. It's just that the cheering was measured and mostly led by some kind of a conductor. Each team's fans took turns. It was disturbingly ordered.
As the seventh inning approached we began to notice people holding phallic shaped balloons. Many held them appropriately near their groin. As my friends and I are easily amused we thought this was just great and started taking some stealth photos.
Soon it seemed that everyone had a bulbous balloon poised.




We quickly discovered their use as the seventh inning stretch arrived. After a lengthy build-up of conductor led cheering the crowd climaxed by shooting their missles into the air. The sky was filled with thousands of minnows swimming their way skyward before loosing steam and falling back onto the field.




Who says baseball is boring?