While I have been to lots and lots of baseball games in my life, before this past October, I had never had a chance to see a playoff game in person. My livelong hope was to see my first playoff baseball game in Montreal to see my Expos chase a World Series title, but I was only 7 years old in 1981, and in 1994…. well, we all know how that ended. When I booked my plane tickets to Japan, I knew that I’d land in Tokyo about the same time as their baseball playoffs would be getting underway. I started watching their league standings on a weekly basis to track the likelihood I could catch a game while I was in the country. With a whole lot of good fortune, the Yomiuri (Tokyo) Giants finished first and that meant my stay in Tokyo would coincide with playoff games.

How to sum up my first playoff baseball game? Same sport, same rules, but an experience unlike anything I’ve seen before.

I was giddy walking up to the Tokyo Dome, difficult ticket to secure in hand.

Getting my experience kicked off on a great note, while waiting in line to enter the stadium, out came one of the mascots for the team. The Giants have a family of rabbits (the Giabbits) as their mascots. This is Grandpa Giabbits making a pre-game appearance.

I love the moments just after entering a new stadium… each new ballpark always brings me back to the first time I entered Olympic Stadium in Montreal with my dad. There’s a feeling I can’t describe terribly well – maybe a touch of wonder with a background hum of electricity and excitement – that feels just like seeing my Expos home park that first time. Speaking of those Expos, you know that I would be rocking my hat on foreign soil to represent my favourite team. To complete the look, I picked up a Yomiuri Giants t-shirt outside the stadium. A 6’2″ Canadian isn’t going to be able to blend in among 50,000 Japanese fans, but I wanted folks to know where my cheering alliance would be for the night.

I decided to have dinner at the game so I could see how different baseball snacking is on this side of the Pacific. It is completely different in a very good way. Aside from one hamburger stand, every other concession had snacks you’d never see at a North American ballpark.

In the spirit of “When in Rome”, I picked up a bento box as my meal while I took in batting practice. This was delicious, even if I don’t know exactly what I ate. I think there was some tofu things, a couple of pork dumplings, a chicken something or other and a really nice seasoned rice dish.

After polishing off my meal, I made my way around the stadium to explore. The Tokyo Dome bears a striking similarity to the old Metrodome in Minneapolis where the Twins played until 2010.

As I continued walking around the stadium, I came face to face with Chappy Giabbits, another of the family of rabbit mascots. I was thrilled that she took a moment away from a few children to say hi to a clearly out of place, but excited grown-up… I think she could tell she was making my day. Chappy will always hold a place in my heart as my first overseas mascot encounter.

This picture sums up something I came to love about Japan – how polite and respectful its people are. When you have a standing room ticket, you set up a small towel that indicates your space, and everyone respects that. If this were North America, there’d be shoving and aggressiveness to protect your view of the game throughout.

Watching bating practice from down the left field line, it became apparent that this pre-game ritual is more structured in Japan. Every batter was clearly working at and practicing specific tasks – hitting the ball to right field or lining hits back up the middle – as opposed to trying to put as many balls into the outfield stands as they could. After batting practice wrapped up, the Giants took the field for regimented infield drills of fielding ground balls and throwing to all bases in a high-speed fashion, something I’ve never seen in years and years of going to games.

Something else I had never seen was pregame festivities involving mascots and a dance team on the field grooving out to music. It was becoming clear that while this was a baseball game, I was in for something very different. And by “different”, I don’t mean inferior or bad.

I was in for a whole lot of fun over the next three hours.

The excitement of a playoff baseball game. A sold out stadium of 50,000 fans. The Giants playing host to the visiting Hanshin Tigers. Pre-game festivities complete, it was time for first pitch.

What pairs best with a baseball game? A cold, delicious beer, of course. In Japan, even the beer distribution is different. Rather than a leather-voiced, old guy carrying a case of beer cans up and down the stairs like you would see in the USA, at the Tokyo Dome, you have women carrying kegs of beer on their back and dressed in the colours of the various beer brands.

The baseball itself was like a circa 1986 Major League game for the style and feel of the game. There were steals, bunts, hit and run plays. Hitters tried to put the ball in play. Pitchers used all kinds of off-speed pitches. The game was played on super bouncy astro turf. I loved every bloody minute of it.

The atmosphere was electric and very similar to European soccer matches I’ve attended. The fans sang songs and chanted throughout the game, and were so polite, that the home fans allowed the fans of the visiting Hanshin Tigers to sing and chat while their team was up at bat. Those fans did not have a lot to cheer about during the course of the game, as their team was dominated by the Giants. Below, the Giants fans are on their feet celebrating a home run on their way to a 6-1 win and a commanding 2-0 Climax Series lead.

As a baseball nerd, this was an incredible experience. The baseball itself was high quality, and in many respects, much more entertaining than North American baseball is right now. The atmosphere was unlike anything I’ve experienced in a ballpark. This evening was a great microcosm of my overall time in Tokyo – on one hand completely foreign, and on the other hand, familiar, fun, and a view of how I wish things were back here on the other side of the Pacific.