Every year the Softbank Hawks are kind enough to go on the road to various local stadiums around Kyushu, Kumamoto included. This year our hometown Hawks played the Rakuten Eagles at Fukisakidai, a stadium better known for Kumamoto’s top tier high school teams.

As you can see, we had rather nice seats in the outfield, all for a cool 2100 yen.

One important thing about the outfield at a Japanese baseball game is that is acts as the team’s cheering section. At the bottom of every inning we all stood, chanted, and sang songs for the individual players as they came up to bat.

Each inning brought a new cheer master, who, accompanied by large drums and brass instruments, lead the outfield in various chants and songs.

During the 7th inning stretch we released our balloons to support the home team.

However, in the end, we suffered a heart-breaking defeat. We’ll get them next year!