After using our home in Numazu as our base for the first few days, it was time to venture beyond our small coastal city!

Hanshin Tigers game in Osaka was the stop on our trip outside Numazu! 

Travelling around Japan is expensive! When I first started to plan our trip I was horrified by the costs, there seemed to be no cheap way to get anywhere. Domestic flights are expensive (although discount airlines are starting to pop-up), the shinkansen (bullet train) costs an arm and a leg, and even a quick road trip costs a fortune due to highway tolls and fuel prices. But I was determined to find another way.

Seisihun 18 Kippu (Youth 18 Ticket) 

The mission was to get from Numazu to Kyoto, which is almost exactly the same distance from London to Chester (my home city in the UK), for as little money as possible. To give you a little comparison, a return ticket, purchased on the day, from London Euston to Chester usually costs me £49.  Numazu to Kyoto by Shinkansen costs roughly 22 000 Yen (£142) return!! Those who come to Japan on a tourist visa can get a 7 or 14 day rail pass for the Shinkansen, but as you can imagine these cost hundreds and are not available to those on a working visa or a working holiday visa.

After a bit of a search I came across the Seishun 18 Kippu (youth 18 ticket), and what a find it was. The name is quite misleading. Whilst JR markets this ticket to poor university students and young adults, everybody and anybody can purchase and use it.

The ticket costs 11 500 Yen (£71) and is sold three times a year (so check before you travel to see if its available as dates change every year). Luckily the summer ticket was on sale the day before we departed! It is one ticket, but is serves as an individual ticket for 5 days (the days don’t have to be consecutive). So you can travel as far as you like in one day all for the princely sum of 2 300 Yen (£15). Furthermore, the ticket can be used by more than one person. Instead of only you using the ticket for 5 days, you could use it one day but with five people – this is exactly what we did.  The catch…you can only use local JR trains (so it is slow).

On the 29th July, after realising that our clock was 10 minutes slow, we made a mad and sweaty dash to the station, making it just in time for out 5AM train (thankfully, I had purchased our ticket the night before). We hopped on the train and embarked on our 6 hour journey, Numazu- Hamamatsu – Toyohashi – Ogaki –Maibara – Kyoto.  Thanks to Japanese precision the journey went without a hitch and we even managed to catch some zzzs. We arrived just before Midday in Kyoto, pleasantly surprised with how the journey had gone.

I had made the decision to stay in one hostel based in Kyoto and use it as our base for a week of travelling. We stayed at the piece hostel just a short 2 minute walk from Kyoto’s main station. I have to say it was the best hostel I have ever stayed in! In fact, it was more like a hotel; the facilities were amazing, friendly staff, free breakfast and most importantly extremely comfy semi-double beds. We stayed in a shared dorm for only 2 300 Yen (£13.50) per night. I honestly would pay double that to stay again!

After a quick pit-stop in the hostel we jumped on the train to Osaka, as we had booked tickets to see a baseball game. Our youth train ticket was still valid until midnight that day so it saved us even more money. I have since worked out that the youth ticket saved us roughly £80 EACH that day.

    

Me in Osaka castle gardens

We had a few hours to kill before the game, so we enjoyed some delicious ramen and jumped on the subway to see Osaka castle. Originally the castle was a display of power; it is a famous landmark, popular sightseeing spot, and the symbol of Osaka. It is a grand sight that can be matched by no other castle in Japan. We also met a Japanese man that taught us some origami and gave me a hand painted book mark!

James and I crossing the bridge to the castle

Bang bang! What was that? Oh it’s just Mary making a gun with her fingers and pointing them at a 

random passers-by to see his reaction! Obviously his reaction was one of utter bemusement!  Why? The Osaka Bang of course! According to the Osaka bang video (I tried to add the video to my blog but failed, I am technically inept) the people in Osaka know how to have a good time. If you make a gun with your fingers and point it at them their reactions are meant to be priceless. If you don't believe me fllow this link and check it out:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WknMhk9J_EE

But after Marys first and failed attempt I started to doubt this theory. Did this stop the boys? Oh No! Tom then pretends to pull out a machine gun on the subway system. Oh Dear! After many attempts (mainly from Tom) and significant embarrassment I can confirm that this does not work.

Tom, Mary and I ready for the game

After a few hours exploring Osaka it was time for chanting, chanting and more chanting. When most people think of baseball they think of America. However, I can assure you now that Japanese baseball games are extremely popular and very entertaining.  We went to watch the Hanshin Tigers vs Yakult Swallows. I had been told by many of my students that the Hanshin Tigers baseball club has Japans most passionate sporting supporters.

Arriving at the stadium, I immediately got the feeling that this was serious business. Hanshin fans are like no others. Lining the path to the entrance were back-to-back street vendors selling merchandise, in addition to two official Tigers shops. Fans wondered around in a sea of white, yellow and black, wearing Hashin Tigers towels around their heads to combat the high summer heat. Foreigners get a lot of attention at these games, and throughout Japan, because…we are foreign. This attention was certainly accentuated by the fact that we decided to go wearing Tiger oneises. Oh Yes! Primark onesies made it all the way from the UK (thanks to Tom) so we could stand out even more! It is all fun, especially if you need to grab the beer ladies attention. We were also given a free T-shirt each, which was a nice little souvenir (and a good PJ top).

We had the cheapest tickets, 1900 Yen (£12), so we were seated in the outfield on the Tigers side. We finally made it to our seats after many high fives as we climbed the stairs through the crowds. From start to finish I was lost. None of us really had any idea what was going on. However, the atmosphere was electric and it was impossible not to enjoy it.

James and I in the stadium 

Japanese baseball games have people whose job it is to lead the crowd in cheering, and a drummer to keep the crowd together, they are essentially conductors. Every player has their own chant. About 90% of the stadium was Hashin Tigers supporters, so when Tigers were up the whole stadium erupted with the voices of over forty thousand fans chanting things I couldn’t understand and batting their plastic bats. I did join in with one line it went something like “oooh ooooh oooooh HASHIN TIGERS! HURRAY HURRAY HURRAY HURRAY!” The rest we improvised and added our own lyrics too.  

It is forbidden to do the Mexican wave, I am not sure why, so please enlighten me if you know. However, a famous fan tradition is to release tens of thousands of rather dodgy looking balloons into the air immediately following the seventh inning stretch and the singing of the Tigers fight song. Now, we didn’t know about this tradition, but we were passed some balloons by the crowds so we could join in. Everyone released the balloons at the same time making a very high pitch squeal. 

Blowing up the balloons 

Releasing the balloons

Following the game we joined the queue for the subway. Again Japanese precision shone through, yes it was crowded but we were swiftly put on a subway bound for Kyoto with no problems what so ever. More of a problem was the fact that it looked like Tom was going to pass out from the heat. As Tom started to turn an interesting shade of grey, three ladies surrounding him in the queue decided to start fanning him to prevent him for keeling over amongst thousands of lairy Tigers fans.  

It was a fantastic day and I would highly recommend going to a Japanese baseball game. Dress up and get involved!

My next post will be about exploring Kyoto! I am slowly but surely catching up on my blog posts.  

Marion