Heading back to Tokyo was an eye-opener. This leg of the trip was sadly coming to an end.Wanting to stretch it out a little more we tried to make a stop in Hakone to get a closer look at Mt.Fuji. An unfavourable train schedule made it a little tricky to pull off so we continued on. Instead, we continued on to what would turn out to be a great day of baseball, babies, and men in diapers. Any dejection from the potential detour was washed away when we saw that the Tokyo Giants were playing that night. Seeing a baseball game in Japan was high on my list of things to do and seeing the Giants, Japan’s most popular team, made it that much better.
We left the game in the 9th inning in an effort to beat the 55,000+ crowd. The Giants had tied it up at 2-2 with the Hiroshima Carps. It was hard to leave the game as it was very good.
We made our way to Shibuya to find something to eat and ended up at a place sharing a large table with a group of locals. We ordered a feast. It was a nice last super. A brief game of quarters broke out but thankfully not enough to make me run off into the Tokyo night.
Another failed attempt at going to the fish market followed. 5:00 am was not appealing to any of us, especially to smell fish after a night of drinking. Instead, we headed to the oddest Japanese tradition I am sure to ever experience…sumo wrestlers making babies cry. No joke. Giant, fat, men in diapers (men in diapers!) yelling and shaking newborns until they cry. It has been a tradition in Japan for over 400 years (that is a long history of men in diapers!) and is said to bring good health to the baby and laughter to the audience. There are even referees to judge which baby cries the loudest and longest. At some points the refs joined in, dawning scary masks and shouting a not scary at all chant which sounded like “Nuggie, nuggie, nuggie!” This was amazingly bizarre and great to see.
Being able to check off baseball and men in diapers/sumo wrestlers (sort of) was very satisfying. I was a little less sad to be leaving this strange and amazing place. We strolled the Senso-ji temple one last time before heading back to our hostel to collect our bags. It was odd that our Japan trip started and ended at the same spot. We had come full circle.
We finished off a bottle of plum wine on our train ride to the airport. The wine would help with the night flight to Honolulu. Perhaps sensing our sadness of leaving Japan Alison said: “Anyone want to go to Hawaii tomorrow?” Yes, yes I do.
Insane about the baseball game! Never would have thought about going to a game in Japan until reading this. Thanks!
No problem! You should go if you are in the country, not just Tokyo!
Those babies look soooo cute!
They were! Almost as cute as the wrestlers 😉
That baseball game sounds crazy. I have heard that the fans are nuts in Japan.
So nuts. It was one of the best sporting event experiences I have ever had.
This article is very informative about Tokyo. It tells about what you can expect
when you get there.
and what is unexpected!