As many of you may know, I'm not the world's biggest sports fan. I usually leave the room when the AFL comes onto the TV, pay no attention to the latest tennis celebrity and only watch the football (you know which type!) every four years. And baseball? Does such a sport even exist outside of faint rumours from American soaps and movies?
How, then, did I find myself waking up at 6:30 am on a Saturday morning to attend a baseball game in the middle of Tokyo?

The reason behind this apparent lunacy of mine is that this was no ordinary game of baseball - it was the 早慶戦　Sou-Kei Sen, or the bi-annual Waseda University vs. Keio University baseball game. To put it simply, Waseda University (for the forgetful among you, that's where I am studying now) and Keio are long-time rivals. How long? Try over a hundred years - the first game was apparently played in 1903. How could I miss out on such a historic event as this?

The game was due to start at 1pm, but in order to secure ourselves some decent seats and to properly enjoy the pre-match celebrations, we all met up at a station near the Jingu Stadium at the wonderful time of 8am. There, we were met by members of WIC (Waseda International Circle), basically a group of friendly Japanese students who organise events and things for us international students. After hanging around for a while, we moved slowly to the stadium, eventually getting in at 10am or so.

Why we were required to get in so early became apparent shortly after we had sat down - there were to be many pre-match events to keep us occupied. You know, cheerleaders, singing university songs, giving respect to the other university, raising the flag, raising our fists, cheering for the other university....wait, what?

To begin with, let me explain a little about the cheerleaders. Of course there were the obligatory short-skirted and pom-pommed female kind, but they were only secondary to the male cheerleaders, who seemed to be running the show. These guys were dressed in a traditional Japanese black school uniform (just think of what you've seen in manga or anime) with a Waseda armband. Their 'cheerleading' seemed to consist of leading the singing, shouting at the tops of their voices and performing strange arm-movements and dances. Rather odd, but you get used to it after a while.

What I did not really get used to was the nature of the rivalry between the universities. For something that has been going on for over one hundred years, I would have expected it to have been crazy: rabid fans hurling insults at each other, brass bands competing with each other to fill the stadium with noise and cheerleading squads attempting to outdo each other in the splendor of their routines. However, I could not have been more wrong.
Of course, I should have expected this, being in Japan where tradition and respect is still, well, respected. Instead of shouting rabidly at the other side of the stadium, we each took our turns at singing our university anthems (all three verses, which made me realise just how laid back us Aussies are - when was the last time you sang the second verse of Advance Australia Fair?), removing our hats/Waseda flags/etc as Keio did so. We each gave a cheer for each other before the game. We even exchanged cheerleaders! That's right, a detachment of Keio University cheerleaders was sent over to our stage before the game, at the same time as we sent ours to them, to perform a small routine - and no-one thought anything of it! Amazing.(N.B. I thought Waseda's cheerleaders had the better routine in the end, but those of Keio were somewhat prettier overall. ;) )

Another aspect of the proceedings that interested me was how, as one of my American friends put it, they were so reminiscent of 1930s Germany. We had the military-style brass band, we had the numerous patriotic songs, we had the cheerleaders in Prussian-style uniform - we even had the fist raising! It was an amazing experience, and something that was so different to what I ever could have imagined.

The game itself was quite interesting as well, as far as sports go. If I have the chance, I would like to go to see a game in the U.S. sometime, just to compare things. I'm sure that would be another enlightening experience!
The result, though, was not something to be too happy about:

Oh, yes, I should mention one other thing: October 31st was also significant for another reason: it was Halloween! Having never celebrated this custom before, my Australian friend Dave and I decided we may as well make the most of having two important events on the one day:

We wore those costumes for the whole day. I don't know if it was because we were foreigners, because we were Pikachu, or because we were two Pikachu's together, but we attracted attention wherever we went. Quite unusually for Japanese, people were outright staring at us, and there were constant cries of 'Pikachu da!' (It's Pikachu!) as we travelled between our dorm and the stadium. All of this was very entertaining to Dave and I, who had worn sunglasses to a) disguise ourselves and b) hide our tired eyes (had been out to a birthday party the night before). Perhaps the most memorable thing that happened was when a group of high-school girls, who I had overheard talking about us for quite a while, coming up to us, giggling, and asking if they could pull our Pika-tails (don't take that out of context, please :P).

All in all, it was a day memories are made out of - so much fun!

P.S. To those of you who are interested, I have also secured myself tickets to the Tohoshinki concert movie (this weekend) and 4th Official Fanclub Event (end of January) - the latter of which will have the guys themselves there. My goals are being achieved! ^_____^